[SERIES] Stop Procrastinating Today With Behavioral Science - PART IV - How to decrease the diminishers

How to Decrease Impulsivity

Eliminate Distractions

The best way to decrease impulsivity is to reduce the stimuli that tempt you to be impulsive in the first place. Pay attention to the things that distract you from your important work. For most people in the 21st century, the internet and smartphones are our biggest distractions. Instead of using pure willpower to suppress those digital distractions, eliminate them altogether. 

Set up a system on your computer and smartphone that blocks distracting websites entirely or for set periods during the day. 

Improve Your Ability to Concentrate

While your best bet in reducing impulsivity is to eliminate or decrease distractions, strengthening your willpower and ability to focus can definitely help as well. 

How to Decrease Delay

Break a Final Deadline Into a Series of Mini Deadlines

As discussed above, the further away the deadline is for the completion of a task, the harder it is to get motivated to work on it. 

It might seem like the solution would be to create your own, more immediate deadline for the task. But in practice, this isn’t effective; if a task is big and difficult (Expectancy and Value are low), an artificial deadline will not produce sufficient urgency to overcome these motivational drags. That is, pretending that the deadline for writing a paper is October 15 rather than November 15, won’t make you feel any more inclined to work on it.

Rather than moving the ultimate deadline for a task, a better tactic to decrease delay is breaking the project down into smaller chunks and assigning a series of mini deadlines that lead to the final due date. As already discussed, this move increases Expectancy and thus Motivation. 

I picked up this skill while in law school as I juggled writing and editing law review articles and getting ready for finals. Before any big project, I’d set down and map out my attack plan for it. I’d start from the final, absolute deadline. Then, going backward, I’d create deadlines for completing smaller chunks of that bigger task. I’d work my way back, setting deadlines until I got to the date I was planning out my project. 

I still use this tactic today when writing articles for AoM. Here’s the schedule I set for myself for this one:

September 29: Article publish date
September 24: Edit and finalize draft; send to Kate for editing and revisions
September 22: Have first draft done
September 18: Outline article
September 16: Collect all notes and review
September 14: Review resources and make notes

By breaking down the task into smaller chunks and assigning closer deadlines, I can decrease the sense of delay, which helps me not to procrastinate. What’s more, completing each step in the timeline creates Success Spirals, which can further increase Expectancy.

Your Procrastination Plan

Once you understand the Procrastination Equation and the ways you can manipulate its variables to up your Motivation and take more immediate action, flipping off the switch on the procrastination vacuum becomes a cinch. Increase Value and Expectancy; decrease Impulsivity and Delay.

To make it even easier for you, here’s a suggested attack plan for whenever you find yourself procrastinating. Think of it as a checklist to keep you from ever putting things off:

1. Recognize you’re procrastinating. 
2. Ask yourself, “What’s causing me to put this task off?” Go through the different factors of the Procrastination Equation:
   • Is there a way I can increase Expectancy for this task?
     1. Can I experience Vicarious Success?
     2. Can I create a Success Spiral?
     3. Can I make this task easier?
   • Is there a way I can increase the Value of this task?
     1. Can I choose an enjoyable way of getting it done?
     2. Can I make the task more enjoyable?
     3. Can I reward myself for this task?
     4. Can I punish myself for not completing the task?
     5. Can I tie the task to a bigger meaning?
   • Is there a way I can decrease Impulsivity?
     1. Can I eliminate distractions?
     2. Can I strengthen my willpower?
   • Is there a way to decrease Delay?
     1. Can I break this task down into smaller tasks and assign closer deadlines for each?
3. Take action.