back

by EndXA·7y ago·view on hn ↗
I partially agree with what you’re saying.

What I agree with: actively overcoming your procrastination has more to do with dealing with the obstacles that cause you to procrastinate in the first place. For example, if you’re procrastinating because of your anxiety, dealing with your anxiety is generally going to be a much more effective approach than trying to increase your self-control.

What I disagree with: self-control is without a doubt one of the psychological mechanisms that play a role in our procrastination. That doesn’t mean that we should focus on it when we’re trying to help people stop procrastinating, but it does mean that it's important to understand the role that it plays.

If you look at the research papers that this article mentions, this is something that the researchers themselves are saying. For instance, in the first paper, Sirois and Pychyl say that: “if we have a great deal of self-discipline and dutifulness, commonly associated with the Big Five trait of Conscientiousness… we may exert the self-control necessary to engage in the task in a timely manner despite the lack of immediate reward or the negative mood that the task elicits.”

As such, while I think it’s reasonable for the article to conclude that when it comes to dealing with procrastination, your focus shouldn’t necessarily be on your self-control, I believe that it’s misleading for the title to claim that procrastination has “nothing to do with self-control”, when self-control clearly does play a role in this process.

1 comments
"First study" is http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/91793/1/Compass%20Paper%20rev... ? Yep, looks like it.

I see what you are saying. That's in their literature review part.

Other people in this thread have recommended reading other stuff from Pychyl, which I plan to, to get a fuller picture of his framework.

While it has "something" to do with "self-control", the important point being made, including in that paper, is that "just trying harder" is not an effective strategy. I think that's what people think of when they think "it's a matter of self-control", and what the headline/article is meaning to disabuse (which Pychyl I believe would agree should be disabused).

You say "it does mean that it's important to understand the role [self-control] plays" in anxiety -- I'm not sure. I think the thrust here (of Pychyl's research reported in the article, and after skimming that paper) is that it is much more important to understand the role "attempt at emotional self-regulation" plays, in that procrastination is one.

That is, becoming comfortable with experiencing "negative mood" may be a useful direction; trying to increase one's "self-control" is unlikely to be.

At any rate, I don't think the article mischaracterized Pychyl's writing, although you can take issue with Pychyl's arguments or conclusions.