Expert Tips for Addressing Procrastination | CBT Skills

This episode was pre recorded as part of a live continuing education webinar on demand. CEUs are still available for this presentation through all CEUs register@allce.com counselortoolbox. Welcome to today's presentation on addressing procrastination. We're going to identify and learn how to address some of the most common causes of procrastination, including fear of failure and success, perfectionism, being overwhelmed, laziness or lack of motivation, you know, depending on what you want to call it. It's kind of the same thing. One's just a more pejorative term, boredom and aversion or uncertainty about where to start. And the reason I'm going over this is because a lot of our clients really struggle with procrastination. Whether it's procrastinating, working on their treatment plan, or procrastinating on other things in life, which causes them frustration because they don't feel like they're getting anywhere. There can be a lot of things they can feel stuck. And part of that stuckness can either cause procrastination or be be due to procrastination or kind of both. So we're going to look at that because a lot of us, for whatever reason, procrastinate. And we're going to look at some ways to hopefully try to intervene. We'll identify techniques to overcome procrastination, including eliminating more rewarding options, doing 15 and applying what they call Parkinson's law small steps, providing rewards, shortening the daily to do list, leveraging peak energy times, being accountable, premacking the boring, and I like the premack principles. So we'll spend some time there. Pay attention to your temperament. You know, I gotta mention temperament, increase adversity, tolerance and gratitude. You know, sometimes you just gotta do things that you don't like. And finding and eliminating procrastination rewards. So we'll go over each one of those. So fear of failure and success. We're going to start at the beginning. What are some issues that clients may present with applying to college or for a job or going to counseling? Some people may procrastinate getting started on any of these because failure can be threatening. So if I apply, if I put myself out there for this particular, you know, thing, whatever it is, and I don't get it, what does that say about me? What does it mean about me? So we want to look at again, failure as a challenge, as a learning opportunity instead of a negative statement about oneself. Society often frames failure in a negative light. So we want to again look at how Is the person interpreting the failure, so to speak? If they are interpreting it positively, then score. Keep going. If they're interpreting it in a way that makes them feel anxious, that's probably going to prompt procrastination. Many young people, and not all of them, have been so shielded from failure that they don't have the skills to tolerate it. And I call this one and done. They may try something once again, and if they fail, they're like, oh, heck no, ain't gonna do that again. And they may move on to something else. So instead of learning from it, they have this really strong aversion because they experience the failure. They don't have the tools to cope with it. They don't have the supports to cope with it because none of their friends know how to cope with it. And so they don't want to do it anymore. And it's just like, okay, that's too aversive. So we want to look at how can we help people make failure less aversive or the potential for failure? I mean, playing softball, playing T ball, whatever it is that you do, going on a diet, applying for a job, everything we do, we have the ability to succeed and the ability to fail. I have people look at some of the times in the past when they've tried to do things and they've succeeded, but also times when they failed but not given up. So what's the difference when they persevere versus when the times when they're kind of one and done. And we talk about, why is this so aversive that you just don't even want to try a second time? Success can also be threatening. And a lot of clients think we're crazy when we say there's a fear of success. But success can be threatening because it raises the bar. It makes people expect more of you. If you succeed at getting this job, then you know people are going to expect you to be able to maintain it. If you succeed at getting into college, people are going to expect you to not flunk out. If you apply and you fail at getting into college, then people aren't going to expect you to necessarily. Well, obviously if you didn't get in, you can't even try to stay in. So success raises the bar. Success in treatment is also terrifying because people may feel like, okay, well, if I start feeling better and then it doesn't work, or if I have this period of remission, I don't know that I can handle crashing back down here again. I don't know if I can handle a relapse so looking at what fears are people having about taking on whatever this task is, are they more afraid of failing or more afraid of succeeding? And sometimes people will self sabotage if they're afraid, not necessarily just procrastinating. So we want to look at what are your behaviors doing? Are they sabotaging you? Are they helping you procrastinate? And in what way are these functional? In what ways are these behaviors that you're doing right now procrastination or self sabotage protecting you? Interventions. Explore what failure means and find quotes from successful people about failure. And I encourage people to, you know, put them on their walls, put them where they can see them regularly. I love Dr. Seuss's quote, and it's not really pertaining to failure, but it's one of my favorites. Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter. One of my favorites. My stepsister had it posted on her bathroom wall, and I just remember reading that whenever I would see it. So anyhow, have people put those quotes out where they're tangible, not just on their phone or on some piece of paper they've got squirreled away. Avoid overgeneralization and personalization about failure. Have them go over those challenging questions. What contributed to the failure? Or in the past, what contributed to the failure and how can you prevent it so you succeed this time? And don't take it too personally. You know, sometimes things just fail. Sometimes you try. And it's not because you didn't try your hardest. It's not because you didn't do all the right things. It's because it failed. In counseling, we look at this as something of a systemic failure, if you will, because we, we don't understand all of the reasons that people get depressed, that people have generalized anxiety or social anxiety. So we can't, with 100% certainty create a treatment plan that fits every single person. Sometimes it's a little bit of creative tailoring, if you will, to meet the individual needs, but that's not because they're failing. They're not a failure. It's because as you, you know, humans, we just don't understand all of those things yet. So we're going to make some educated guesses. And I want people to really understand that it's not a personal attack if they don't get a job. You know, maybe they really flubbed the interview. But there are also a lot of other reasons. So identify three potential other reasons besides you that you might have failed. Maintain a cheering squad. So even if you're succeeding if you've got that fear of success, you still need that cheering squad behind you going, you can keep doing this. You got it. But you know what? If you fail, it's okay. My daughter is getting ready to take her first CLEP exam, which is a test you take in order to get college credits. And she's kind of freaked out right now. And, you know, I was telling her the other day that go in, take the test. This is the first test of this type you've ever taken. You pass, wonderful. If you don't, you learn how to study for it for the next time. And obviously I stack the deck and I'm having her take her psychology clip first because I have every confidence in the world that she'll pass that one. But helping her not personalize it. It's a test like she's never taken before. It's a college level test. She's a freshman in high school. And helping her see that there are other factors playing in here. Remember past successes. You know, sometimes you succeed and you continue to succeed. Just because you succeed, don't expect the other shoe to drop. Just because you get a job you love, don't expect to be laid off. Use the challenging questions to explore your fears in each situation. Remember, is this based on fact or emotion? What are the facts for and against my belief? And what are the other factors in the situation that are contributing to this? So you get a broader examination and identify all of the other things in your life that make it work, worth living. Remember back to kielbasa and the hardiness theory, the commitment to the things in your life that make it worth living. So even if you fail at this one thing, you know, it happens. Even if you succeed and then you relapse or fall backwards or whatever it is, okay, you know, that's unpleasant. But what are the other things in your life that make it work, worth living? So that you know, you are not defined exclusively by this one thing right here, Perfectionism. Some people will be very perfectionistic. You see this on homework and work projects. They keep working until it's absolutely perfect. Or some people are very perfectionistic about their appearance. Now, thinking about the clients that we work with and the impact that perfectionism has, you know, on their self esteem, on their time management, two biggies. What are we looking at here? If a person turns in an assignment to their teacher and they don't get an A, they get an A or heaven forbid, a B, they feel like complete failures because they didn't get an A. You know, we want to Talk about, well, what does that mean? Why is it so important to get the A to be perfect? And looking at the fact of life that most of us are very imperfect and expecting perfection sets us up for stress and anxiety and disappointment. And where did these people, where did our clients learn these messages from that you have to be perfect? If they grew up in a dysfunctional family that emphasized perfectionism and putting on this facade for the outside world, that could be part of where it comes from. But we can help explore where this comes from. Perfectionism often accompanies fear of failure. So if I don't get perfect, then it's not good at all, which means I'm not good at all is oftentimes the line of thinking we go through. So perfectionists often either never get started or never finish a task so it can never be evaluated. We all know people who will start a project and they'll keep working on it and keep working on it and keep working on it. And you're like, you got to turn it in at some point. Perfectionism takes an inordinate amount of time and people end up feeling overwhelmed. They're spending so much time trying to get things perfect. And we talk about diminishing returns at a certain point. You know, if you get an A or an A, it really in most cases is not going to make a difference in your gpa if you get a promotion. You know, if you get a promotion, it's a pass fail sort of thing. It's not something that necessarily you need to be perfect for when you get your evaluations from your boss. And I always used to tell my employees before we would do it, I never give straight fives because that's not realistic. Saying that you're perfect at everything isn't realistic. I know I'm not perfect at everything. So just expect, you know, we're going to go through this and there's going to be, you know, something other than a five that comes up. I warn them ahead of time because they may have not, may not have experienced that before. And I want them to understand it's just I'm being realistic. Perfectionists are never satisfied and oftentimes maintain self anger for any imperfections which just whittles away at that self esteem. They tell themselves they're stupid, they're worthless, they're not good enough, or they shouldn't have failed at that. You know, where can I start with how the psychological impacts that has perfectionists as a result of all that self hate and need for being perfect in order to Self approve may also have low self esteem and base their worth on what they do instead of who they are. So if they base their worth on what they do, and the only thing that is good enough is perfection and we know that we're not going to be perfect all the time, then you can see where this person is going to have a hard time with self esteem and self acceptance interventions. Learn about the principle of diminishing returns after you work. At a certain point, you're going to have to put in three hours worth of work in order to inch up just a little bit more. The first bit is good. You know, when you start taking a class, if you take a pretest, you probably get, you know, 40 or 50 or something, you know, because you don't know the material. So you read through the text and the first bit of studying you do, you know, going through the class, you're probably going to go up to an 80, 85% in order to get higher than that. It takes a whole lot more time to get the nitty gritty, to get the minutiae, to get all of the questions, you know, know all of the material so you can get all of the questions on the test, right? The question is, what's the benefit? You know, when you finish, you know, whatever it is you get your grade or you get your promotion or your evaluation, how much does it affect your ability to have a rich and meaningful life, to have an average of a B or a B plus or an average of a 4 out of 5 on your evaluations versus an A average or a 5 out of 5? People have to make that decision for themselves. But looking at, in terms of how much energy it takes and how much energy it steals away from other aspects of their life, how important is it to get from that 4 to that 5 or that B to that A versus studying for another topic or, you know, spending time with their kids or whatever? It is so encouraging people to really look at their time, explore where their need to be perfect comes from. What does it mean if you're not perfect? Where did you learn that you're only lovable if you're perfect? And do you believe this? And do you hold your friends to this? So those are three different questions. I probably should have separated them on the PowerPoint. But where did you learn this? And then think about it? Because a lot of times people haven't stopped to think and just have them think about, where did you learn this? And do you believe it? They may look at it and go, you know what? No I don't believe that I'm only lovable if I'm perfect. I believe that I'm lovable, period. And you're like, well, score. Let's let go of that unhelpful thought. Do you hold your friends to this? Because like I've said before, a lot of times people hold themselves to a much higher standard and a much harsher standard than they hold their friends to. So do you expect your friends and your children to be perfect in order to be lovable, or do you expect them to make mistakes and love them anyway? Or because of who they are and their imperfections? Encourage people to enhance their self esteem so they're not looking for external validation. They're not looking for other people to go, you know what? You're perfect. I want to be like you. They can look in the mirror and go, you know what? I'm imperfect, but I'm lovable anyway. Help them differentiate who they are from what they do. And that's a semantic difference, but it's a big difference because who you are is more entrenched in your values and how you treat people and what you personally bring versus to a situation or to a relationship versus the actions that you take or what you do. Being overwhelmed causes people to procrastinate. If you've got a huge project or too much else going on, you may just, oh my gosh, I can't juggle one more ball. Large projects can be daunting. So sometimes you have 17 little projects going on. You know, like there's always a honey do list at our house, always. And there's always like 17 things on there. So you know, those are lots of little things that need to be done. But then there are large projects like rewiring the house or something that can also be completely daunting. So you've got to figure out how to break it down into manageable segments. Poor time management can also contribute to people feeling overwhelmed. So helping people evaluate how do you spend your time? What are your time sucks, you know, do you lose a lot of time to social media? Do you lose a lot of time to watching TV or at the gym? And how can you manage your time a little bit more effectively for large projects, break things down into manageable sub projects. With my dissertation, you know, I would do work on a chapter at a time because looking at the whole dissertation, I was like, oh my gosh, I don't even know. So we started on chapter two, which was the lit review, and you know, I worked through that, got that one Finished. Then we went on to three, which was methodology. I could do the chunks. Looking at the big thing was just overwhelming. Spring cleaning can be the same way. If you think I've got to do all of spring cleaning this weekend, oh my gosh, I would never want to do that. I do a room each weekend. So the kitchen one weekend and the garage the next weekend. And that's a little bit less overwhelming for me. Recovery is the same way. You know, when people have been depressed for a really long time or dealing with anxiety or addiction, there's a lot that's probably gone haywire. Their life, from their relationships to their hobbies, to their self care. All right, you're not going to tackle everything. Rome wasn't built in a day. So what are you going to work on first? And let's break it into chunks, which is the treatment plan. If there's too much else going on and people can't find the time to get started, they need to evaluate their time management. And I say eliminate, prioritize, delegate, combine and plan. And sometimes I put in simplify. So make that whole list of to do's, then go through and mark off anything you can, prioritize what's left. So these are the things that have to be done in order of priority. Now I'm going to go through and delegate as many things as I can to my kids or my neighbors or whomever. Then I'm going with whatever's left that I still have to handle. I'm going to try to combine them. So maybe going to the grocery store and stopping by the drive dry cleaner on the way home, instead of going to the grocery store and going home and then going back out to the dry cleaner, you know, saves time. It's on the way. Just get it done. You know, sometimes you can combine things and make it a little bit easier and simplify. You know, we've talked about this before. Sometimes it's just too difficult to get everything done. I mean sometimes I'll admit, you know, I don't have time or don't desire to do six loads of laundry. So I will put my towels and sheets in with my colors. And some of you are probably cringing right now. I know my mother would be. But you know, I simplify. I just kind of. They're all colors, gonna throw them in together and get that load of laundry done. And then plan, you know, you figure out which tasks you have or combinations of tasks and then plan how you're going to get them done. And it is what it is. There's only so many hours in the day clear clutter. And I have in italics in that area because you can. I call it organization binging. If I start saying, well, I can get started on this as soon as this room is organized, I can spend an entire weekend organizing a room. I don't know about you, but I can. So my desk needs to be clear of clutter before I get started. So nothing is in my peripheral or immediate vision. That may mean taking everything off my desk and putting it in a box to handle later, but at least it's not there distracting me at that point in time. Because we don't want to procrastinate by doing some other task. Be mindful and have a laser focus. Keep bringing yourself back to. Is what I'm doing right now helping me move forward on this task, or is it just a distraction, laziness, or low motivation? Homework, house cleaning, doing the bills, going to the gym. There's a lot of things that we may procrastinate because we just either don't really have the energy or don't have the motivation or both. You know, that's okay. Sometimes it happens. Motivation is your get up and go. And if it done got up and went, you know, it's hard to do. And some of you are thinking back to Schoolhouse Rock when the little guy's talking about nutrition and he says, when my get up and go has got up and went, I hanker for a hunk of cheese. Yeah, you're all going to have to Google Schoolhouse Rock now if you're too young to remember that. Anyhow, low motivation or procrastination is impacted by rewards for procrastinating, competing activities. I like television. It turns my brain to mush. I know this, but I can get sucked into a television show. I can get sucked into going to the gym because that's more fun than, you know, doing yard work or something. So there are other things out there that are calling my name, going, you'd rather do this, wouldn't you? And it's more rewarding. And there may be no consequences or accountability. If I don't get the yard mode this week, who's gonna notice? The donkey's gonna complain? No. And our neighbors are really good, so it's not that big of a deal. I don't really have accountability, so it's not. Sometimes it makes it harder to get up and do what I need to do if I know there's really no punishment in there. And there may be punishments for starting, such as the activity's not rewarding. It's hot outside and you're like, oh my gosh, I don't want to start house cleaning or I don't want to work on my bills because that's always depressing or whatever the case or it can cause, whatever it is can cause distress. You may feel overwhelmed when you start doing your bills and going, got to borrow from Peter to pay Paul. Don't know how I'm going to make this work. It can be frustrating and exhausting. A lot of people feel that way when they do their taxes. So there are things that can punish you getting started and there are also things that can reward you not getting started. And we need to address both of those. We need to make it rewarding to get started and eliminate your procrastination rewards. Motivation can be increased by eliminating those more rewarding options. Just saying, no, I am not going to watch TV until I have this done or I am not going to eat until I have this done because that is another way I procrastinate. I don't know about you, but I am like, well let me just have something to eat real quick so my blood sugar gets up, I can rationalize anything and then I will get started on it. Break projects into smaller tasks with rewards. So you do it then give yourself kudos, a pat on the back, a break, one episode of a show, something that makes you go, okay, you know, that wasn't so bad, I can do that again. The Premack principle means combining the unpleasant activity with something pleasant. I watch TV while I fold laundry because I don't like folding laundry, hate putting it away even more. Don't like folding it, make it fun, gamify it, you know, I just said I don't like putting it away. Well, when my son was little, not so much anymore. He's 17 so he doesn't think it's so much fun. I would fold the laundry and everything and I would save the socks for last and then we would pair the socks and we set everybody's sock bin out on the floor and we would make it into a little game of basketball to see who could get the socks into the correct basket. And you know, whatever. He was three, it made him happy and when he was happy, I was happy. So we were good. Create consequences and sometimes they're self enforced for lack of task completion. So if you don't get this done, what's the consequence for you? Uncertainty about how to start. Sometimes you just get a project and you're like, I don't even know where to begin? You know, it could be spring cleaning, it could be recovery, it could be applying for college. That's one we just went through with my son. Sometimes the goal is too big, you know, recovery. Well, what in the world does that mean? Or poorly defined? I want to be happy. Okay, so how do I start being happy? Other times you may not have or be able to generalize the skills. My son's really good at doing Internet research, but he didn't even know where to begin to start doing research on finding a college and financial aid and all that kind of stuff because it's not something he'd ever had to do. He's like, I just don't even know what terms to Google. Okay, we got this. So break things down into specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time limited chunks. Hence your smart goals. Make sure that you can define if you want to be happy. Okay, so if you were happy, what's one thing that would be different and how can you measure it and is it achievable? Obviously don't want to set people up for failure. And what amount of time can you realistically achieve this goal in? Seek guidance on how to begin from people who've done it. Support groups are great. You know, what did you do to address your depression? We're talking about college, seeing a guidance counselor. You know, there are a lot of different ways to go and think of similar situations you've encountered when you just didn't even have a clue about where to begin. You know, what did you Google or how did you start going about it? Probably one of the two things that I just identified. Seeking guidance or going online and doing some research. But additional techniques do 15 and apply. Parkinson's law. Parkinson's law. This is a really cool law. It's the adage that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. And think about it. For a lot of us, that's true. Some stuff I can whip through, but a lot of times if it's something I'm not really into, I will. Lollygag Progress notes when I worked in community mental health were a perfect example. If I didn't have to have them done until Friday at close of business, usually wouldn't get started on most of them until Friday morning or Friday after lunch because I had all the time in the world to get it done. And so that task kind of expanded. So create time limits for task completion that will help you get them done on time or early. And try doing 15 to get you started. If you hate Doing it say alright, I'm going to do it for 15 minutes. If I'm still hating life, I can stop. Most of the time, you know, whatever it is for me once I get started, it's not a big deal, I can just knock it out. Shorten your daily to do list. Sometimes people procrastinate because they have too many competing priorities. And it's not because, you know, they don't care. It's not because they're necessarily, you know, bad time managers. They've just, well, yeah, I guess they are. They've said yes to too many things. Good time management skills will help free up some energy because all work and no play makes Jack a dull or unmotivated boy. It's important that people schedule in time for self care. As Covey would say, time to sharpen the saw, time to let their hair down and relax. So encourage people to list what needs to be done. Eliminate, delegate, prioritize, combine and Simplify and then plan on how these things are going to get done. A lot of times after I get all the way down through Combine and Simplify I I start marking some more stuff off. I'm like, you know what, that really actually doesn't have to be done, marking those things off. So remember, time management doesn't have to be super complicated. Leverage peak energy times Are you a morning person? I know I am. After 11:30 in the morning, hardcore concentration out the window. When is your thinking the clearest? For some people it's nine at night. For some people it's 9am when is your energy the highest? How can you arrange your day to sync with your rhythms? You know, if you tend to have a lull at two in the afternoon, which a lot of people do, what can you do during that time that doesn't require the concentration or energy that you're using the rest of the time? And know if you're better with short bursts of effort or sustained effort. I personally am better at sustained effort. You know, if I can get to the office by 6:30, I can put my head down and I can just keep on going through most of the day. If I take a lunch break, getting back after lunch and getting back started, I never seem to get the same kind of momentum as I did when I first started and I've always been that way. You know, I can work for 16 hours straight and get a ton done. Now the next day I'm completely exhausted. But I've just never been good at stop and start. Some people do a lot better if they chunk it and they work for 30 or 45 minutes and then take a 10 or 15 minute break. So encourage people to know what their preferences are and their needs. Be accountable to somebody. Have a battle buddy. Misery loves company and is inspired by competition. And so think about going to the gym. If I'm going to go to the gym and I'm going to have a hard workout, it's nice to have somebody to go with me. Especially if I'm going at the end of the day when my energy is low, I'm like, come on, we can do this together. If I got to do it, you do too. But I'm also inspired by competition. If somebody else is there, going to tend to compete a little bit more. Group therapy is one way to help clients be accountable. So if they have to come, it's really important to show up for group therapy because it's disruptive to the environment when people drop out or only sporadically attend. Online support groups are also helpful if people can't get to face to face support groups or if they're from a generation where they prefer online. But again, people start expecting you to show up and your friends. You can call up a friend and go, I want to start working out or I want to start eating healthier. Hey, let's cook a meal together once a week, or whatever it is. Share recipes. But it helps if you've got somebody else that's going to pick up every once in a while and go, hey, haven't heard from you or what are you doing? And my guilt meter gets going. So, you know, we've already talked about guilt, but whatever. It keeps me motivated. Make plans with someone else that are conditional on you meeting your goals. So you can't go out on Friday to a movie unless you have done whatever your goal is every single day that week or whatever it is because you don't want to let that person down. You don't want to have to call them Friday morning and go, you know what, you know, I really can't go. Have somebody regularly check your progress. So for us, for clinicians, homework that is reviewed is going to be done a whole lot more frequently, completely than homework that we only sporadically or we never review. We need to make sure that we help clients hold themselves accountable. Weight watchers, you know, that's the perfect example of being accountable. Going to a meeting, doing weigh ins. Because people tend to stick to a diet if they have public accountability. If it's at home dieting, you know, they can get up there and they can see that they didn't lose weight or they gained weight or whatever and they can just make an excuse for it. But also if they get up there and they see that they've lost weight, there's nobody to go, hey, awesome, great job. So accountability also provides a cheering squad and blood pressure or cholesterol, medication and treatment planning, that's another one which is always helpful if the doctor is checking in on you, even if it's just every six weeks, you know that you got to keep doing what you're supposed to be doing in order to maintain, maintain your progress and not get a lecture. Attend to your temperament. Extroverts may procrastinate things which are solitary and don't have an accountability or discussion element, such as doing an autobiography, independent homework or even housework. You know, there are some things that extroverts are just going to be like, you know what? No, for things that you can make into group activities like studying, study at the library or a coffee shop. Do housework for a visitor, you know, before they come, obviously. But I am a lot more motivated to do housework if I know somebody's coming over than, you know, if it's just for my own knowledge and have homework reviewed. So try to make it so the extrovert has another person that's going to kind of hold them accountable and make it worth their doing. Introverts may procrastinate things which are social mixers. For example, going to chamber of commerce mixers, oh my gosh, I would put those off. That's just, wow, really intimidating for me. And holiday shopping, I don't like being in big crowds. You know, when I go shopping, I try to go on off hours for groceries, let alone holiday shopping. So I will put that off or I get things done early. Like I do my holiday shopping in October so I don't have to fight the crowds. But if you've got to do something that you don't want to, that goes kind of against your temperament. Adding rewards and getting social support, you know, have somebody go with you so they can kind of cheer you on. Add rewards such as, you know, if I go do this Christmas shopping right now, then I can go out to dinner with my friend who's going with me tonight and I enjoy going out to dinner or whatever. Intuiters may procrastinate things which are too detail oriented because they're broad strokes people. And if you throw them a lot of details, they just look at it. I'm that way with taxes. I'm like, oh, with way too Many lines, you know, 17A subsection C. No. So adding rewards for getting started. Pre macking it, you know, put it, do it with something enjoyable. You know, for me, y' all know it's my coffee, helps me get through just about anything and chunk it, you know, you don't have to do your taxes or whatever it is in one sitting. Do a little bit, then take a break and get up and do something rewarding. Sensors, they're more detail oriented, may procrastinate doing things that are meta concepts. My husband is a very detail oriented guy so if I asked him to do a collage of what happy means, first he'd look at me and go, don't try to do that psycho stuff with me. And then he just kind of keep looking at me like I have no idea where to even begin. Another example would be finding a house. It's like, okay, you know we're going to move, you need to find a house. So go on Zillow and find the perfect house. I have no idea what that means. A sensor will want to know. You know when I was telling him, I'm like, I want to make sure that it's within 15 minutes of a grocery store, within 15 minutes of Walmart, within an hour of my job. That was when I was working in Nashville and it had to be in an unincorporated area so we could have our farm animals. Those were details so he could filter things down and start looking. He's like, okay, I got this. Perceivers always think there's plenty of time and tend to things, tend to get things done at the last minute. So perceivers really need to set deadlines. I didn't put judgers on here because they're very structure oriented and tend to have things done early. So they don't usually procrastinate as much from a temperament standpoint. But perceivers tend to need to set deadlines, increase adversity tolerance and gratitude. When you have to do something unpleasant, it helps to have distress tolerance skills to help you tolerate the unpleasantness. And again I will put out there, going to chamber mixers, public speaking, doing taxes, you know, whether one of those you probably look at and go yeah, not up my alley. But you know, sometimes we have to do any or all of those. So how can you tolerate it? What distress tolerance skills do you have that you can just go, okay, gonna take a deep breath and use my cognitive behavioral stuff. My improve the moment skills, whatever it is. And you need to have distress tolerance skills to quiet the negative internal critic and thoughts. The person that keeps telling you, well, if you do this, you're going to fail. You know, we need to push that guy down or that, that girl down in our head and go, uh, not going there right now. I'm grateful that I've got a job and, you know, this is a part of the job I don't like doing, but I'm going to go ahead and do it. And focusing on commitment to the things that are going well in your life that make it rich and meaningful. Commitment, control and challenge. Controlling the things that you can and not wasting energy on struggling with those things that are out of your control. Like having to do something, having to do a public speech. Well, if you have to do it for. Because your job said you had to do it, then you got to do it. So you can't really fight that right now. So how can you deal with it? What can you control? What's in your ability? And viewing this adversity, whatever it is, unpleasantness, as a challenge or a character builder, you know, how can you get through taxes without getting grumpy? How can you, you know, look at this public speaking engagement and accomplishing it as a character builder so you can look back and go, I did that. Find and eliminate procrastination rewards, including other more rewarding options. Face it, there's always things we'd rather be doing. Whether, depending on you, I'm sure you can list off two or three things you'd rather be doing right now than being at work or taking CEUs. You could, you know, be outside, walking, going hiking, painting, whatever you do, they're there. And we need to have those in our life. We need to have relaxation and recreation. Those relaxation and recreation is rewarding. So obviously it is probably. They're probably going to be there and kind of be waving their hand going, you want to do me instead of do the dishes, don't you? You want to do me instead of whatever it is. One of my. One of the places I worked, where I was, I was line staff, and then I was also a supervisor. One of the worst procrastination offenders, if you would, was socialization among the staff. And my staff was really close, which was awesome. And when I was part of the staff, you know, it was a great community to be a part of. But unfortunately, the desire to go over and sit in another therapist's office and even under the guise of getting consultation about a client would start that way, would end up finishing two hours later with something else. And then you would realize that your paperwork still hadn't Been done or this, that or the other. So it's important again to manage your time. Look at your most common time drains and your procrastination outlets. Eating. You know, do you tell yourself, let me just, you know, get lunch and then I'll get started on this and then let me just get a snack or you get back from lunch and you're like, okay, let me make some coffee and then I'll get started. Television. Big time suck for a lot of people organizing things. Like I said, I can get caught in an organizing frenzy and before I know it, four hours have gone by and I haven't started on my task yet because I took everything that was on my desk and I started filing and then I realized that something else needed to be done. Napping. Sometimes you just need a power nap before you get started. And that power nap turns into, you know, 45 minutes or an hour and then you get up and you feel groggy and you make coffee or whatever and you never get started. Social media. Social media is a huge time drain for a lot of employees, for a lot of people, because there are some rewarding aspects to it. If you know, theoretically. So you go on, you want to check in on how your friends are doing and yada yada yada, before you know it, you've lost two hours. So setting limits, for example, that you can't get on social media when you're at work, which is why a lot of agencies just block all of the social media. Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, all that kind of stuff. Other methods, you know, only allowing yourself on social media when you're at lunch or after 6pm or some arbitrary time and use things that you enjoy, your procrastination outlets that I call them as rewards for task completion. So if I, once I get this chapter written, for example, I can get on social media for 30 minutes or I can go outside and play with the dogs for 30 minutes. Those are things. So I don't feel like I'm being deprived. I don't feel like I have to give up something in order to do something I don't want to do. It's just prioritizing. I have to do this first. Kind of like when kids are little, you know, you can't have dessert until you eat your vegetables. I think we all have said that if you're a parent, it doesn't mean you don't get dessert. It just means you got to do this other thing first. Putting it together, identify three things you usually procrastinate on and I would encourage you to do this as a clinician, to practice it so it's easier to help clients implement it. But you can do this in group as well. You know, even do it while you're in group with your client so they can hear you walk through the process. Identify three things you usually procrastinate on for each. Identify the reasons you procrastinate. And this can be good again as a group activity. And it can also be good if you participate because it allows a little bit of appropriate self disclosure. You know, sometimes you put it out there that, you know, I'm afraid of rejection or I'm afraid of this in this particular situation. And then you talk about how you handle it and identify the other things that you end up doing instead, which are more rewarding. So, you know, we've already gone through a lot of those. Not going to belabor it. How will you eliminate those distractions or use them to your advantage? Use them as that little carrot out there going, as soon as I finish cleaning this one room, then I can go on a hike or I can get on the Internet for a little while or whatever it is that makes you happy. Make sure, especially for things you're procrastinating. And this is key when we talk about reward contingencies and behavior strain. If you remember from that lecture, if it's something you really don't want to do, make the tasks, the small chunks, pretty small and make sure there's a reward right afterwards. And yeah, you know, you may feel a little bit silly going, okay, I need to get myself a reward for this. But it helps a lot, making it less daunting if you give yourself that little bit of a reward. When I was working on my dissertation, I would write for two hours and then I would allow myself to turn off the computer for the day and I was able to do something else. But you want to make sure that you have those frequent rewards that are rewarding to you in order to keep you going that, you know, all right, you know, that wasn't so bad and I got a reward, so I'll do it again. You know, I can do it, whatever this is, for 45 minutes. And especially since I know I'll have a break at the end. If you're a chunker, you know, like I said, I'm the person who does better in long stretches. So it would be better for me to devote a day. Like when I was working on my qualifying exams or when I work on spring cleaning, I'll set aside a day and from 9am until 4 or 5, I. I will do whatever that task is, and then in the evening, I just veg. And that's rewarding for me, you know, hanging out, watching movies with the kids. So figuring out what it is that usually sucks your time. What you can use as rewards to encourage you to do these tasks. And if you need to break them into smaller, you know, more manageable chunks. I have 40 something BlackBerry bushes out in my garden right now, and I can't possibly weed and winterize those in one particular day. So I'm doing six at a time. I do six, and then, you know, I go do something else, and then the next day I do six. And that's not so overwhelming. And it doesn't make my carpal tunnel act up as bad either. So that's. That's cool too. My point is you don't have to chunk things and go back to them that same day. Sometimes it's, you know, do a little bit today, do a little bit tomorrow, and keep working until it gets done. Procrastination often indicates the effort seems to exceed the reward or that the risk is not worth the reward. Whatever I'm getting ready to do, it just ain't worth whatever the potential reward is at the end. A sense of disempowerment, you know, if you don't feel like you can control the situation. For example, going into a job interview or applying to college may feel very disempowering because you can't. You're just sending stuff off to a nameless, faceless person. Lack of clarity and direction. So encourage people to stop if they're procrastinating, Go. Why does the effort exceed the reward? Okay, if it does, then up the reward and maybe reduce the effort. Don't check that perfectionism and break it into smaller, more manageable goals that can be done, you know, one a day or something. If the risk or whatever you're doing is not worth the reward, or if it's just punishing to do it, like paying bills, it can take a lot to get started. So you want to say, what is it? And we can see this in our clients too. Sometimes we'll notice that they quit coming or they start being more sporadic and coming. And one of the questions I always ask the clients, you know, if I start to see that they're being a little bit sporadic, I'm like, you know, tell me what's going on. What are the benefits you're getting out of counseling right now? Do you feel like you're making progress? And if not, what do you need to see right now? What were you hoping you would have achieved by now? And look at, because every time they come into our office, they are being very vulnerable. They're taking a huge risk and there has to be a reward. I want to make sure that they walk out of my office or you know, at least by the next day. Sometimes it's a pretty powerful session. By the next day they can look back and go, you know what? That was worth it. I feel like a weight has been lifted or I feel like I've got more control over this particular situation. Interventions for procrastination revolve around increasing motivation, adding consequences for not doing something. And they can be self imposed and adding rewards for doing it. Make sure that there's a benefit that. And sometimes it has to be an immediate, tangible benefit, not just a, you know, eventually when we have company, the house will be clean. My grandmother always used to take a bath and put on her makeup before she would go to bed. And because just in case the firemen or the paramedics had to come during the night, she always wanted to make sure she was ready. And you know, it was one of those superstitious things, but it was something she always did. And so, you know, figuring out what can keep you doing something like doing the dishes. I always do the dishes before I go to sleep because heaven forbid somebody should drop in unannounced. I wouldn't want them to see, you know, a nasty kitchen. Improve self efficacy, that is the confidence that you can do it and the acceptance that you may not be perfect. Develop distress tolerance skills so you know, you can deal with the stuff that you're procrastinating, that there's just no way to make it a happy thing. And break tasks down into small manageable steps. You know, big tasks, house cleaning, you know, even planning a vacation. There's a lot to it. So maybe one weekend think about what destination and then the next weekend do your travel reservations or whatever it is. Most people get jazzed about going on vacation, so that's not a problem. But you see where I'm going. What other techniques or tips tools do you have that help your clients avoid procrastination? Or what are some themes that you see for reasons why they procrastinate, maybe that we didn't cover. If you enjoy this podcast, please like and subscribe either in your podcast player or on YouTube. You can attend and participate in our live webinars with Dr. Snipes by subscribing@Allce.com Counselortoolbox this episode has been brought to you in part by allce.com providing 24.7 multimedia Continuing education, education and pre certification training to counselors, therapists and nurses since 2006. Use coupon code counselortoolbox to get a 20% discount off your order this month.