Why We Procrastinate — And How We Can Stop

wbur:

For many people, procrastination is a strong urge that can derail even the simplest tasks. It’s tempting to put off writing a paper or paying bills or taking care of something important and instead check Facebook or turn on the television.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks with Carleton University psychology professor Tim Pychyl (@procrastwitate) about why procrastination is such a common problem, and how we can stop doing it.

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“Well there’s lot of kinds of delay, and procrastination is one form of delay. It’s an irrational form of delay because it’s a voluntary delay of an intended act, even though we figure — all things considered, the world’s not perfect — we figure we’ll probably be worse off for it, so it’s a self-defeating delay. There’s really no upside to it. … We can all remember a time we procrastinated and it paid off, and we hang onto that like gold because we wanna use that to fuel the self-deception that really is at the heart of procrastination. So, yes, procrastination can pay, but it’s usually harmful.”

Read the whole story: wbur