Powering Through Procrastination

Join the University of Chester's Academic Skills Team for The Skills Pod. In this episode we chat about procrastination. We discuss what procrastination is, why we procrastinate, and what strategies we've developed to try and tackle it. This episode features Emma and Liz. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (Emma): Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of the Skills Pod. I'm Emma, and I'm one of the academic skills advisors at the University of Chester, and I'm joined by my colleague, Liz.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Hello. I'm also one of the academic skills advisors here at the University of Chester.

Speaker 1 (Emma): And today we are going to talk about powering through procrastination.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Nice alliteration there, "powering through procrastination." Should we talk about the title, or should we actually talk about procrastination? Let's talk about the title for a bit.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Okay, say more. Let's procrastinate. Oh, I see. You see what I did there. I guess, what is procrastination?

Speaker 2 (Liz): So, procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute or until, I guess, it's too late and your deadline has passed. Yeah, I think a lot of us can identify with doing that. Whether we do it consciously, unconsciously, or subconsciously, I think it's a part of the human psyche. Sometimes when we've got a deadline, it can force us to complete the task. And when we've got a deadline that's not now, soon, immediately, it doesn't feel urgent enough for us to get over the finish line and do the thing. So we kind of get distracted. And also, if something's difficult or if it requires a lot of work, then we kind of procrastinate because it just seems a bit overwhelming. Where do you start?

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah, absolutely. And I think the key point for this podcast is that we're obviously going to talk about strategies to do with procrastination and things like that. But often, I found that procrastination masks things, or it's anxiety by another name. And if you are struggling with anxiety and you are finding that it's making it so difficult that you can't study or go about your daily life, please do reach out to the wellbeing team and get some support with that. So often, I've found that procrastination is part of a wider mental health struggle, shall we say. And, you know, it's important that if you are procrastinating to the extent that you are not meeting deadlines consistently or things like that, then it's really important to ask for help.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, absolutely. It's very easy for people to just say, "Try this strategy" or "Do this thing." And as you say, it's often part of a wider issue or a complicated bundle of reasons. It's not just that you can't sit down and write your essay from start to finish, therefore you're procrastinating. It just doesn't seem to work like that. And life's got so many demands on us, so many pressures, and it can be easy for little things to all multiply and come together and seem to be one overwhelming problem. And that often, as you've said, needs a bit of unpicking and needs a bit of time spending on it. So do reach out for help and support.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah, absolutely. So procrastination, I think as you said at the start, everyone does it to varying degrees. I used to joke that the 'P' in my PhD stood for procrastination because I spent a lot of my PhD watching Netflix or other streaming channels. I spent a lot of time watching television.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yes.

Speaker 1 (Emma): But one of my friends said that often the kind of "procrastination fairies" were at work, and subconsciously, it's kind of your way of working through or processing things that you've read or researched. So yeah, I feel like I did watch a lot of TV during my PhD, but I still kind of had the motivation to do it. And I guess that's the thing; procrastinating is easy, as you said as well, when your deadline is miles away. It's easy to kind of think, "Oh, I've got bags of time. I don't need to worry about that now." But I think it's important that if you are a procrastinator, that you try and be kind to yourself. If you do find that you wanted to achieve something today, but actually you've watched, I don't know, what's the in TV show right now?

Speaker 2 (Liz): Don't ask me. My goodness. Don't ask me.

Speaker 1 (Emma): That it's important to be kind to yourself, because spending time making yourself feel guilty or reprimanding yourself is damaging to your mental health, but also isn't going to help you get back on track if you feel that you're a little bit behind in something because you've done something else rather than the thing that you wanted to do.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, absolutely. And there are hundreds of management books on procrastination and using time wisely and doing the thing rather than thinking about the thing. So it is a common human condition to spend some time not doing the thing, but thinking about it. And it's when it ends up becoming an issue or a problem. Let me ask you a question, Emma. Do you live in the ideal world?

Speaker 1 (Emma): No, because I don't have a million dogs.

Speaker 2 (Liz): See, none of us live in the ideal world. If we did live in the ideal world, we wouldn't procrastinate because we'd do what we need to do at a time that is useful, and we'd get on with things. But life gets in the way. So, knowing that nobody lives in the ideal world and knowing that it's part of the human condition, does what you were talking about. It enables us to be kind to ourselves and not do negative self-talk that potentially we're going to criticize ourselves for not having done it. We need to be gentle and kind and give ourselves ways to be able to do the thing we're putting off: small deadlines, chunking work, being able to break it down into things that are achievable that we can celebrate in a small way. You know, "If I do this reading, or if I am able to break down the question and give myself two or three starters for paragraphs or whatever it is, then I'm going to give myself half an hour to watch a TV programme." It's making it accessible so that you don't end up putting everything off and then just feeling guilty. And I could do that, sit there and just binge-watch things. And then it gets to the point where the TV asks me if I'm still conscious. "Are you really still watching this? It's been X number of hours." I'm like, "Yeah, okay, I'll get up and do something."

Speaker 1 (Emma): I turned that message off on my telly because I felt like it was shaming me. Like, "Are you still watching? Should you be? Do you not have something else you should be doing?" No. Leave me alone. I think that's really important as well in terms of your procrastination: breaking your tasks down. And so when you do kind of do something, and then you allow yourself that break, make sure that when you come back to it, you know what you're doing next. Because I think a lot of that procrastination can stem from not quite knowing where you're going or not having a goal. And that can, or worrying about the blank page in a way, like sitting down and not having anything, not knowing what to say. So it's easy, it's quite easy to avoid that. So if you are writing your assignment, for example, make sure that you finish knowing what your next point is going to be so that when you come back, you can jump right into it.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, that's really good. And write it down somewhere because we all say to ourselves, "Oh, I'll remember." And I know I don't. So don't put the pressure on yourself to remember. Write it down somewhere. So you just, "Oh, yeah, that's what I'm going to do." And then you can do it.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Future you will thank you.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah. And I'm all about being kind to future you or future me. But that must have been something really difficult with a PhD because it's such a long project. It's such a big project that spans years. And you're trying to maintain engagement. I mean, my concentration levels can't even sustain engagement for several months over a period of time. So having to be able to sustain it for years and keep doing the research and keep doing the thing. That's a lot.

Speaker 1 (Emma): I think I was very lucky that I was very, very interested in my topic and that interest didn't wane over the course of it. And also, I think what helped me as well to kind of keep on track was that I had funding for a set amount of years. So I had to finish, otherwise I would not be funded for it. And deadlines as well. So mini deadlines. So not just, "Oh, here's the 100,000 words of your PhD in three years from now." I set mini deadlines. And when I finished my PhD and my friends who were also finishing their PhDs were like editing all the time and constantly doing things to it. And my supervisor was just like, "Get a dog or go for a bike ride." And I was like, "But everyone else is like in this state of panic. Shouldn't I be there too?" And he's like, "Your meticulous deadlines throughout have meant that you have, you know, done everything that you've needed to do." Because I am... I love a deadline.

Speaker 2 (Liz): You're a planner. You're a planner.

Speaker 1 (Emma): I do. I love a plan. I love to-do lists. And I love moving stuff from one day's to-do list to the next day's to-do list to the next day when I don't get them done. So that I think is what helps me, is really breaking it down. Because yeah, saying "I've got 2000 words to write" is quite intimidating, or "I've got like a pile of 10 journal articles or whatever." If I can really break that down into its components, then I can trick myself into making progress, even though it might feel small, but I'm still moving towards it. So, yeah, I think that's my kind of method: to-do lists and breaking down the task. But that doesn't work for everybody.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, I find to-do lists really challenging because it stresses me out because it feels like it's somebody shouting at me about the things that I haven't done, and I don't feel in control of it. So I try to find different ways of doing things. I try to do the sort of "shut up and write" basis, which is kind of based on the Pomodoro technique. The Pomodoro technique is based around a tomato-shaped kitchen timer, and it's 25 minutes. I don't think 25 minutes works for me. So if you're the same, it's an arbitrary amount of time, isn't it? So using 20 minutes or 15 minutes or half an hour or whatever, but trying to set deadlines and trying to, instead of setting myself to-do lists, trying to give myself three objectives to achieve.

Speaker 1 (Emma): That's a good one. So by saying three objectives, it's less... I like that. It's less scary than "I have to do it or else." I don't know what the "or else" is, but.

Speaker 2 (Liz): I like that. It's like reframing it, isn't it? So rather than "must do," it's "I aim to do these things." Yeah, it's a bit... yeah, that sounds kinder. My objectives list.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Objectives. And if you keep it to sort of three at a time, then it's more likely that you'll achieve them. And if in the meantime you actually achieve all the things that weren't on the list, write them on the list and then cross them out because it does show that you are making progress. So, whether it's slightly different progress to what you intended, our energy levels dip and flow, and you might want to sit and read something, you sit down and it's just not making sense to you, or it's just not really, you know, coalescing into any kind of useful information. You're just staring at words and they're not turning into meaning, then stop and reframe it, you know?

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, absolutely. And I like that idea of putting stuff on your to-do or your objectives list to tick off. Because I actually, I think, even if it's not the avenue that you intended to progress down, you're still progressing.

Speaker 1 (Emma): And I do that. I'm like, I double tick things.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Double tick. Sense of achievement.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah. I scribble them out sometimes or draw, you know, "done, gone forever." So yes, I think it's really important to kind of make sure that you have a goal, that what you're doing, because that can help with that procrastination and also kind of framing it in a way that works for you. Coming back to the kind of "shut up and write" thing, I would set a timer for like 30 to 40 minutes when I was writing because that is the time that worked for me. I think, did you say Pomodoro was 25?

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah.

Speaker 1 (Emma): I think for me that's a bit too short because especially if I'm like writing creatively, getting into that flow of writing. But it genuinely has, I mean, I haven't done it for a while, but it has, when I have done it in the past, I ended up writing more than I would if I spent a day going, "Right, I'm going to write, you know, X amount of words today." I can write those words in like eight hours. Whereas if I set a timer, I can write those words in, you know, two 40-minute bursts or whatever. So that is actually a really good way to kind of, you know, put your distractions aside. But I think the key again is knowing what you're going to write about.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yes. Or what you're going, what your objective is, because otherwise it gets a bit directionless and the timer can be counterproductive in a way.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Definitely. If one thing you want to achieve in your first block of time, when your first block of time's over, look, you know, take a break, come back. Have you achieved it? Did it work? Do you need to do it again? Can you set another objective? Can you look at another point? Can you do something different? And this sounds really silly, but if you've got a timer, whatever type of thing you've got, if it feels a bit stressful to you, like I don't like it when it counts down and it counts to zero, it stresses me out. So I like it to count up to 20. So I do it in 20-minute increments and I get it to count up.

Speaker 2 (Liz): That's interesting.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah, we did it with students quite a few years ago and there were a few people who preferred it to count up like me, and most people preferred it to count down. So we had two different clocks going. And one side of the room was counting up and the other side was counting down. And just trying little things like that, it all helps.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, it is about kind of, I think it's about kind of spending a little bit of time with yourself and figuring out what works best for you. Because what works for you isn't going to work for somebody else, is it? So it is just kind of figuring out what makes you, what kind of encourages you to study, I guess, or do what you need to do. And also, I think knowing what you procrastinate with is the other thing. A lot of people say that their house is never cleaner than when they have a deadline. So if you know that is your kind of thing and you're falling into those habits, you know, what can you do to... Do you make sure the space that you're in is tidy and you don't leave that space? Or I'm reading a book on kind of different writers, fiction writers. Actually, it's not just fiction writers, that's a lie, but different writers sharing their experiences of writing. And some writers are saying that to avoid procrastination, they will go out to a different space. They'll go to a coffee shop or, you know, they'll go to the library because that's then their kind of office or they're at work, and that will help them kind of mitigate that need to procrastinate.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Well, I was going to share my favourite word. So my favourite word is velleity. V-E-L-L-E-I-T-Y. And it's a wish or inclination to do something that's not strong enough to lead to action. So you want to do it, but not enough to actually do it. It was a word of the day years ago, and it stuck with me because it just sounded like most of my life. I want to do it, but not enough to actually do it. And that's one of the things with procrastination. It's trying to work out what needs to be done, what you're doing something for, and why your inactions are stopping you progressing. You know, trying to work out, where we started out at the beginning, if there were other things going on, what the barriers are. You know, maybe you're not quite sure about what the question needs you to do, or you don't know where to start with doing the research, or you feel a bit overwhelmed, or there are four or five different assignments that are all due in within two weeks of each other and you're not quite sure where to start with them. So it's trying to unpick and develop strategies so that you can get that momentum going because that whole... I can't remember whose theory it is, but the whole theory of motion, of once something's in motion, it stays in motion. When you stop, it's quite difficult to get going again.

Speaker 2 (Liz): I was once told that motivation comes from doing. So that idea of, yeah, as you're saying, if you just sat watching telly and you think, "Oh, I need to do that assignment, but I don't want to," then actually it's the act of kind of, you know, maybe having the telly on in the background. I know like there's a big thing that I've seen on Instagram reels where it's all about having comfort shows and shows that you can just put on in the background. So you've still got that kind of, I don't know, sense of company or, you know, that kind of, they're there, you know, the Gilmore Girls are there or whatever. But you can actually, you know, you're not having to watch it because you know it so well, but you can actually still start doing the task that you need to do while still kind of, not necessarily splitting your focus, but I think the main thing is it's that company, it's that background noise, it's that kind of, you know, you're almost tricking yourself into kind of getting started. So yeah, that motivation comes from doing. So, you know, if you pick up your assignment brief and read through it, you know, throw some ideas down, that's you tricking yourself into kind of starting and then hopefully you'll feel that, you know, don't kind of focus on the end goal, focus on the process.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah. And that whole body doubling as well, that's sort of following on from what you were talking about. I quite often, if I'm trying to clean or tidy, I'll put something on YouTube that somebody who's cleaning or tidying and watch them while I'm doing it. And it's sort of on in the background and it makes me feel that there's somebody there with me. And a lot of the sort of "shut up and write" that we were talking about, or maybe having online meeting sessions, cafes and things with people where you're both working together, but you're probably working more or less silently. It's just you look up and you see somebody else there and they're working too. And it just gives you that companionship and allows you to feel that you're not alone because you're not, and then you can get on with the task. And sometimes we're in our own little individual silos and focused on our issues or what we need to do, we can't move forward. But if we're able to do it as a group, then all our energy eggs each other on and we can all start and not be staring at that blank screen.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, you know, do these writing cafes. And if you think that you study better with people, look at going to the library, booking a study room, taking some time to kind of study together and do those, you all set a timer for, I don't know, 20, whatever, 30, 40 minutes, and then you can have a chat and a coffee and chat about how it's going.

Speaker 1 (Emma): And cake.

Speaker 2 (Liz): And cake too. Yes. And I think the reward is also really important, isn't it, in getting you to kind of, getting you motivated. So, if that is a coffee, a cake, play with a pet, watch an episode of something, something that kind of calls you, something that feels good.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah, definitely. And it all kind of, it doesn't take much for a few of those sessions to actually give you quite a decent chunk of writing, quite a decent amount of research.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah. At the time it feels, "Oh, well, it's only that" or "it's only this," but they add up.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah. And it will make a difference.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, I think a lot of what I'm kind of feeling at the moment, discussing at the moment is this process rather than product. Like it's all about that process and everything adds up to that process. I think another thing with procrastination is if you know that you have a tendency to procrastinate, which we all do, it's to build in that wiggle room before a deadline to factor in time where you might procrastinate. Because, you know, as we've said, life happens, things change, your energy levels fluctuate, you might not achieve as much as you want to on any given day. So allowing yourself this wiggle room before your deadline, you know, look at when your deadline is, work backwards from your deadline, give yourself, "This is what the time I want to have my reading done. This is when I'm going to have my first draft done. This is when I'm going to edit." Allow yourself, you know, a few days, a week, whatever, to fall behind.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yeah. Because that gives you a safety net. So you're not putting extra pressure on yourself, which, you know, often sometimes can have the opposite effect. Some people work great under pressure. Some people find they procrastinate even more under pressure. So allowing yourself that wiggle room for life to happen is a really important thing to kind of look after future you and also help you succeed, I guess.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah, definitely. And don't forget, people can always use academic skills. You can book one-to-ones as mini deadlines for when you want to have written a paragraph by or when you want to have done a bit of discussion for an assignment by. And you just keep yourself accountable by having those little check-ins with us and then you can be like, "Okay, I've not done as much as I wanted to, but I can set some goals in this space with our department and then work out where you're going to go." It is easy to get overwhelmed and then just shut down. But trying to identify places where that's happening or why that's happening can help you to sort of step back from it a little bit. And look at us, we've recorded an episode on procrastination and we have not procrastinated.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yay! Go us! Now I think we deserve a reward.

Speaker 2 (Liz): We do. We deserve a reward. So key takeaways are: look after future you. Put in wiggle room.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yes.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Great. Try and break your tasks down.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Yes.

Speaker 2 (Liz): And motivation comes from doing. So if you know you take two minutes, open your notebook, make some notes, read your assignment brief, whatever, just something to get you going. And also lean on the people around you. Start a writing group, start a "shut up and write" group, a writing cafe, whatever, set a timer to count up or count down and just see what happens. Because often, as you said, you make a lot of progress in those kind of group sessions.

Speaker 1 (Emma): And just keep checking in with yourself. And if something's not working, then don't keep trying if it isn't working. Try something else.

Speaker 2 (Liz): Yeah. Definitely. Cool.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Brilliant.

Speaker 2 (Liz): There you have it. Hopefully, this is helpful. And if anyone has any strategies to come up with a golden strategy to avoid procrastination, let us know. Well, thank you for listening. I'm Emma.

Speaker 1 (Emma): And I'm Liz.

Speaker 2 (Liz): And we'll see you next time. But we won't see you because this is a podcast. Bye.

Speaker 1 (Emma): Bye.

(Outro Music/Information about University Services)

Speaker 2 (Liz): Hi there! If you're a University of Chester student, these are ways that you can access support from your academic skills team. You can access our Moodle pages via the green Training and Skills tab on Portal. On here, you'll find a wealth of information discussing a variety of different skills such as referencing, planning, and writing. You can send an extract of your work to our feed-forward email assistance service by emailing ask@chester.ac.uk. You can send us 750 words or three paragraphs per assignment, and an academic skills advisor will get back to you within three working days with generic and developmental feedback on aspects such as criticality, paragraph structure, and referencing. You can also use our one-to-one service. Here you will book on our system and meet with an advisor for around about 30 minutes, be that online or in person, depending on your preference, where the advisor will meet you and discuss any skills-related issues you have and also talk through the comments that they made on your work to help you progress in your academic studies. If you and a group of your course mates or friends are struggling with the same academic skill, then you can book an Ask Together session. And you can do this by emailing ask@chester.ac.uk with details of the skills that you want to talk about, how many people are in your group, and your availability. We can look to arrange a bespoke session with an academic skills advisor. Of course, you've got the Skills Pod. And if there are any topics that you'd like us to cover or suggestions, or even if you'd like to get involved with the Skills Pod, drop us an email at ask@chester.ac.uk. Ask. Supporting your success.