Cognitive causes of procrastination: Dr. David Burns

[Cron]

The most common reasons why people procrastinate

- from "Feeling Good", a book on using cognitive therapy to treat
depression by Dr. David Burns. Depression often leads to a self
perpetuating relatioship with procrastination. Below are notes on some
common irrational thinking patterns that encourage procrastination
and laziness. You don't have to be depressed to have these thinking
patterns



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Hopelessness
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You are frozen in the present moment, forgetting that things were
better at one time and not believing that they will be better in the
future. You feel your lack of motivation is unending and irreversible.



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Helplessness
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You are convinced that your moods are caused by something beyond your
control: fate, hormone cycles, disease, genetics, other people's
evaluation of you, etc.



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Overwhelming Yourself
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There are three ways you can overwhelm yourself into doing nothing.

1. You may magnify a task until it seems impossible to tackle.

2. You may assume you must do everything at once rather than breaking the task
into small manageable units to complete one at a time.

3. You may obsess about everything you have to do and haven't done until you
overwhelm into paralysis.

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Jumping to Conclusions
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You jump to the conclusion that action will not make you feel better because
you are in the habit of saying, "I can't" or "Yes, but...."



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Self-Labeling
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The more you procrastinate, the more you label yourself as
"a procrastinator' or as a "lazy person." When you think this is the "real
you," you automatically expect little or nothing from yourself.



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Undervaluing the Rewards
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You feel that the effort to complete the task (almost any task) would
not be worth the rewards. Your blue mood makes you feel that nothing
counts or is worthwhile. This torpedoes any sense of fulfillment or
reward.

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Perfectionism
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You will settle for nothing short of the best or the most magnificent
performance in anything you do. Thus, you defeat yourself with
inappropriate goals and standards. You will settle for nothing other than
perfection, so that is what you often get, nothing.

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Fear of Failure
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You think that making an effort and not succeeding would be a great personal
defeat so you refuse to try at all.

You may also evaluate your performance strictly on the outcome of an event,
rather than your personal effort during the process.

All you can control is your personal input to the process, not the outcome.
Once you concentrate on the process rather than the outcome, you can learn from
mistakes and attempt to correct them in the future. This keeps your
self-esteem off the emotional roller coaster of the outcome.


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Fear of Success
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You feel that any success is based on chance and you can not keep up that
success. When it comes out that you are really a "loser," the rejection
and pain will be worse because you did succeed.

You may also fear success because you anticipate that people will make even
greater demands on you after your success. Since you are convinced you must
and can't meet their expectations, success would put you in an impossible
situation. Therefore, you try to maintain control by avoiding any commitment
or involvement.


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Fear of Disapproval
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You imagine that if you try something new, any mistake will be met with strong
disapproval and criticism because the people you care about won't accept you
if you are human and imperfect. The risk of rejection seems so dangerous that
to protect yourself you adopt as low a profile as possible.
If you don't make any effort, you can't goof up!


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Coercion and Resentment
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You feel under intense pressure to perform -- generated from within and without.

This happens when you motivate yourself with moralistic "shoulds" and "oughts."

Then you feel obliged, tense, resentful and guilty. Each task becomes so
unpleasant that you can't face it. As you procrastinate, you label yourself
as "lazy" or "no-good." This further drains your energies.


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Low Frustration Tolerance
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You feel and act as if you were entitled to success, love, approval,
health, happiness, etc.

Instead of persisting patiently over a period of time, you go into a frenzied
state of panic or rage when life presents you with obstacles.

Your frustration results from your habit of comparing reality with an ideal in
your head. When the two don't match, you condemn reality.

It does not occur to you that it might be easier simply to change your
expectations than to bend and twist reality.

This frustration is frequently generated by "should" and "ought"
statements. While walking, you might complain, "For all the miles I've
walked, I ought to be much thinner by now."

Indeed? Why should you? Are you entitled to loose a pound for each mile you
walk? Why? Maybe the reality is that you will not loose a pound for each mile
you walk, regardless of the ideal in your head.

This internal talk just adds to your sense of futility and increases your urge
to do nothing.


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Guilt and Self-Blame
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When you are frozen in the conviction that you have let others down, you
naturally feel unmotivated to pursue your daily life.

[floramorada]

Okay, so what do I do if I find my thoughts falling under these? Namely, Hopelessness, Overwhelming Yourself, Self-Labeling, Perfectionism, Fear of Failure, Success, and Disapproval, Coercion and Resentment, and Guilt and Self-Blame. Oh, and I am depressed too.

I haven't lost hope, I'm still trying, but it's very slow going. I'm positive that changing or getting rid of these thought patterns will have a huge effect on my life.

[Cron]

Originally Posted by floramorada

Okay, so what do I do if I find my thoughts falling under these?

You analyze and dispute them. Those notes are from a book explaining Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. CBT has been clinically tested to be as effective as some medications for depression, insomnia and some other problems.

It is built on the idea that our emotions follow our thoughts and beliefs. Change the thoughts and your feelings will follow. Changing the thoughts usually entails just a lot of thinking on paper, looking at how you view things, picking out the irrational stuff, forming new rational thoughts and reviewing this process over and over again........with behavioral changes.....until it becomes part of you.

There are loads of psychologists who practice CBT if you find doing it on your own isn't getting you far.

[floramorada]

Thank you, Cron. That's something i've never tried before, and i've tried a lot.

The book is Feeling Good: the New Mood Therapy, correct? I believe my library has it - I'll check it out when the library reopens in January.

[Cron]

It is a good book, but 95% of it focuses on depression ( mild to medium ), not procrastination. I still recommend you get it as it is an excellent introductions to CBT. You will learn how to take care of yourself mentally, not just when you are depressed.

CBT is a form of REBT ( Rational Emotive Behavorial Therapy ) invented by Dr. Albert Ellis in the early 50s. I think it is much more effective and Ellis has a great book on procrastination. The problem he doesn't write so well.

If you read FEELING GOOD you will get the benefits I mentioned, plus you will be able to understand Alber Ellis' book called OVERCOMING PROCRASTINATION. It is very old so you might have to buy it used through amazon, but it is worth it. Be careful, there a TON of books on procrastination with the same title ( many of them also good ).

One of the reasons why CBT and REBT is so popular ( apart from it being effective and quick compared to other therapies ) is that it empowers people to be able to take care of themselves. However, a trained CBT/REBT mental health professional can do much more for you than a book. If you read these books and practice the exercises, hard, for a few months and you don't make all of the progress you want find one of these professionals.

Since a lot of this is learning to recogonize irrational thoughts, you can work hard and not see some of those things, whereas someone who is outside your skin can.