Two weeks of daily practice with bad feelings helped adults put things off less
Who it’s about: Adults, Workers
- Helped
Two weeks of daily 10-minute practice in facing bad feelings about tasks helped people put things off less than waiting.
- Action: Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywaytested
- Action: Do a relaxation exercisetested
- Rule: Every daytested
- Rule: Keep the daily version tinytested
- Rule: Through an online programmeused
Small randomised trial of 83 working adults in Germany · vs people still waiting for the training · they rated themselves · ⚠ only counted people who finished; numbers unreliable
The study
Who took part
83 adults in Germany, most of them working, about 41 on average and two in three women. They weren't picked for putting things off.
What they did
For two weeks, one group spent about 10 minutes a day online picking a task they were likely to put off. They let the unpleasant feeling be, calmed down or rethought the threat if needed, then decided whether to do it. The other group waited and got the training afterwards.
What happened
The training group said they put things off a little less at the end, while the waiting group barely changed. The gain was small and there was no later check. The paper says it left some people out of the sums. Its numbers suggest everyone was counted, so the details don't fully add up.
Source
Overcome procrastination: Enhancing emotion regulation skills reduce procrastination (2016)
DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2016.10.001 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action2
Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywayEmotion regulation: name, accept or tolerate the feeling a task brings, then begin.
