What kind of irrational beliefs contribute to procrastination

If a client comes to counseling because he or she is binge eating and procrastinating on tasks, then the counselor first has to determine the root cause of these actions, Eddins says. Perhaps food acts as stimulation and provides the client with a way to focus, so counselors might need to explore possible connections to ADHD. Maybe the client is rebelling against harsh judgment, or perhaps the root cause is related to the client experiencing depression and feeling unworthy.

For instance, if a client is procrastinating over writing an article, Cilley may have the client imagine sitting at his or her desk and staring at the blank computer screen. Where are we? What is around you? How are you feeling emotionally at the thought of writing this article?

As described by Cilley, the four core irrational beliefs of rational emotive behavior therapy REBT are:. Another common reason people procrastinate is a fear that they could fail, and they interpret failure to mean that something is inherently wrong with them, Cilley says. For example, imagine a client who comes to counseling because he procrastinates responding to work emails out of fear that he will answer it incorrectly and his co-workers will realize he is a failure.

What would it mean if you responded to the emails? What if you did respond incorrectly? What would that mean to you? One technique that Cilley uses with clients to challenge unhealthy thinking and break the vicious cycle is the circle exercise.

Next, Cilley has the client name six things that he or she does well. Next, Cilley circles one of the statements in the minus category and asks the client if this one negative statement erases the other six positive statements. This exercise challenges black-and-white thinking and helps clients separate their identities from their actions or the task they messed up on, such as sending an incorrect email, Cilley explains. Even after clients identify their irrational beliefs and create rational coping statements positive beliefs used to replace the negative and irrational ones , they still may not believe the rational ones.

Even though clients may not initially believe what they are saying, by the eighth or ninth time they repeat it, they are finally internalizing the beliefs, Cilley says. On the 10th time — when clients are starting to actually believe what they are saying — he records them repeating the rational beliefs.

Clients are then instructed to listen to this recording three times per day throughout the week as a way of talking themselves into doing whatever they have been procrastinating over, he says.

Cilley has also used role-play to help clients put stock in more rational thoughts. By doing this, the clients start to convince themselves. REBT and other short-term therapy techniques are not just effective but also efficient for clients who procrastinate, notes Baum, a rational emotive and cognitive behavior therapist and supervisor, as well as an associate fellow at the Albert Ellis Institute.

With procrastination, clients often want to see results quickly, she says. They want to finish the work project, clean their house or get to the gym next week, not next year. Often, people procrastinate to avoid discomfort, Eddins notes. This discomfort comes in many forms. The first step is helping clients become aware of the discomfort they are avoiding, Eddins says. She will first ask clients what they are feeling when thinking about the task they are avoiding.

Clients may not have a word for this discomfort, so she will ask them to identify what they are feeling physically, such as a tightness in their chests. Baum, a member of the New York Mental Health Counselors Association who specializes in helping creative professionals and entrepreneurs overcome procrastination, helps clients learn to cope with feelings of discomfort through imaginal exposure.

First, Baum teaches clients coping skills such as breathing exercises to use when they experience discomfort. She also helps them identify, challenge and replace irrational thoughts that contribute to emotional distress and self-defeating behaviors.

Then, she asks them to imagine walking through the scenario they have been avoiding. For example, a man procrastinates about going to the gym because he feels ashamed of being out of shape. To address this emotional problem, Baum would have the client imagine walking into the gym and getting on the treadmill as others stare at him. During this exercise, she would guide the client to breathe slowly to keep his body calm and have him practice rational thinking, such as accepting himself unconditionally regardless of the shape he is in or what others may think.

If all has gone to plan, you now have an emerging picture of the thoughts in your head at times of procrastination. This process is known as disputation — or disputing your irrational thoughts.

You can see this new table has two new columns. In the middle column we are going to have a crack at identifying how some of these thoughts might be irrational. In the far right column, we will construct some more rational versions of the thoughts. So below is what I came up with in terms of disputing some of the thoughts and offering alternative ones. Actually, that is probably not the case, but hey, you just learned a new skill! Take a moment to reflect on the fact you just learned a new way to access and challenge the content of your own mind.

You perhaps also learned that you have some funky and irrational thoughts — some of which might be sabotaging your efforts to complete the things you want in a timely fashion.

You might have identified with one or more of the procrastination types described, which is useful for naming your procrastination behaviour in the future e. Like any skill, the more you use it, the better you will get at it. There is nothing stopping you using this process with other parts of your life. One way to strengthen the impact of this process is to mentally rehearse and imagine ahead of time, situations in which you think it is likely you will procrastinate.

Use your thought records to imagine how you might initially be thinking, and then use the disputing process to imagine how you will talk to yourself to counter those thoughts. For example, if I know from my thought records that I commonly engage in worrier type procrastination, I can mentally rehearse how I will calm myself and respond to those anxious thoughts.

The proof of whether this process is helpful to you will be whether you find yourself procrastinating less. Armed with a more rational outlook, you may commence assignments in a more timely fashion. In this post, I have outlined a very specific process that is used in self-management programs for procrastination. This process involves identifying and challenging the types of beliefs and thoughts that contribute to procrastination and comes from Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy REBT.

It is not a simple matter to teach these techniques through just a blog, so let me know if it needs further explaining. Let me know how it went if you tried it out. In the next post, we are going to look at the other main part of self-management programs — time management and study techniques.

However we will return to some of these psychological tools in later posts. Want to comment on this article, or ask me a question about the health and well-being services available to you as a student?

I have been using these techniques for years but always find it so helpful to refresh and to remember that knowing about them and actually using them have two very different outcomes. Thank you from a recovering worrier. You must be logged in to post a comment. Search Student Health and Wellbeing Search for: search. Posted on August 21, August 21, by Gareth Furber.

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