I love these anti-procrastination videos. They take my mind off of what I should be doing.

I just clicked the “watch later” button and then realized how ironic that was.

It took me getting quarantined by the coronavirus to finally watch this video after a year of knowing about it...

psychology professors always have a soothing speaking voice.

I am watching this instead of doing things I should.

11:50 is there any way I could do it now 31:00 risk factors: not conscientious, impulsive, perfectionism, Emotional intelligence 38:00 procrastinator: work-do nothing-work-do nothing.. 42:35 Nature of goals and intentions: How the nature of the task you're trying to do affects your procrastination 43:00 1. Find meaning. Why is it important to you? Drive it home. Make it really connect (TA) 2. Find structure. What are the steps? Sketch it out. What should you do when? (Advisiors, TAs) 45:30 When it's concrete, your brain things it's urgent and you should do it now 47:00 Counterfactuals 55:00 Go from goal intention to implementation intention

I emailed Tim after seeing this lecture and reading his book. He responded within an hour, and he gave me a long and thoughtful response. I was inquiring about setting goals, b/c without concrete life goals every waking moment feels like procrastination. He spoke to me about the recent loss of his father, and referred me to "Man’s Search For Meaning” by Victor Frankl. So, if anyone else is having difficulty deciding which tasks in life are important, as I have been, I would give that book a shot. It's a difficult read, but I found it helpful.

No joke, after finding this video over 2-3 years ago, I still remembered I needed to watch it and finally did just now. Great talk.

I am not exaggerating but this was life-changing for me.

I was procrastinating by listening to KZfaq and came across this and now I am halfway through and need to put this off in order to do my job again. Really great lecture. I have lots of anxiety in my final year of graduate school in which I didn't do much...one thing is certain: without a worthy goal and belief that you can achieve it, you just keep procrastinating.

I watched through all of this, having used both good and bad study habits in the past. The BAD: up until the second year of university, I was a 'last minute' kind of worker. In this, I had NO structure for doing schoolwork all through school, having been the first in the family to show any kind of academic promise at school. The GOOD: the second year of university I had a trip the US planned in the month leading up to Christmas, which was also a very busy time for assignments. I had a simple choice, either stay very much on top of the work all through the term or not have the chance to travel. I did the work as soon as was possible, and by the time of my travel, had completed all assignments A MONTH before the deadlines. It felt great and I also got excellent grades, unsurprisingly. I took that new experience through the rest of my university education and graduated with First Class Honours and the highest grades in the Humanities for that graduation year. This research does seem to be based mainly on procrastination in educational work. In research, studying students and educational work is an easy setting. Bad habits learned then are also taken into the work place later, so one might expect consistent results across educational and work settings. But one thing strikes me - the 'do something pleasurable now' principle too easily suggests that we are simply pleasure seekers, when an alternative view is that we are just as much pain avoiders. When it comes to financial management, poor people often have a situation where the ends just don't meet. They have no chance even to 'complete all the work', even if they could. Knowing this to be true, rather than waste resources on a task (bill) that they know they have no hope of completing (paying), they will often divert those minimal resources towards something else, whether it's pleasure seeking (doing something fun with the kids) or simply fulfilling other more feasible tasks (buying food vs. paying the electricity bill). Sometimes, if a situation appears impossible, the whole situation is avoided rather than trying to work at the problem piece-meal, simply because one is either convinced the effort won't make a difference, and any attempts to solve it only reinforce the feelings of despair and helplessness, or one has lost hope that things will actually improve enough to make a difference later. It is easy to see how this 'pain avoidance' is a useful survival strategy, and one that adds a different dynamic to the 'procrastination' picture. Sometimes procrastination is an attempt to avoid the worst psychological effects of a problem. In this kind of 'economy', it's easy to see the pay-off, it offers an alternative coping mechanism, the ability to put difficult things to the back of one's mind and carry on with the basics of survival. In modern terms, that survival likely translates often as simple pleasure seeking, which can make procrastination appear trivial, when its origins might have been anything but trivial and where the payoffs may have been more positive than negative. It isn't very often that a learned behaviour that has followed us throughout our evolution has entirely negative consequences - usually there is a positive aspect to it, but in a modern context, that payoff is diminished by a different mechanism for setting priorities.

A well known strategy that has been lying around for ages: in formulating your outcome, BE SPECIFIC. - what exactly, concretely? - when exactly? Pat yourself on the back along the way.

I procrastinated watching this video for over a month

I'm procrastinating watching this right now but I convinced myself watching a talk as helpful as this one is worth the procrastination.

I forced myself to watch it all, I benefitted enormously, I recommend it for all of you reading this comment. I realize it's hard to watch 58 minutes continuously but force yourself out of this depraving habit.

I have only left 2 hrs study time and I watched this video instead of doing my homework and I didn't finish my homework. But It was soooo worth it.

Came for the procrastination techniques, stayed for the asmr

This was in my watch later folder from Reddit for years. I finally watched it with time I have on a Christmas break. Time to make small steps to big progress in 2023!!

One of the best lectures I've heard in a long time, watched 3 times to really absorb the insights.

I only wish there was more time where I could hear him talk. Truly an amazing educator. There are only a few people every generation who can illustrate technical concepts so eloquently an Dr. Pychyl is clearly one of them, on of Feynmans bretheren.

I watched this immediately. I was going to make a joke about procrastinating, but I put that off.

This talk is a gem... Why doesnt it have more views? This really helped me...

I was procrastinating and came to watch this video it helped a lot and kind of gave me the motivation to it. Why put pressure on my future self, tomorrow never comes, the time i'm wasting watching TV is not enjoyable as I have a heavy weight, pressure and stress of having to complete 'that work' so why not complete it and actually relax and have fun?

this will probably be the last procrastination-related video I'll ever watch, thank you mr. tim pychyl.

I have found this video around 2016 and clicked 'watch latter' and here we are in 2021 and I finally watched it... Only 5 years... lol

This is more relevant now than ever.

Dr. Pychyl has never met me, yet he described me to a T as a graduate student procrastinating like crazy with his thesis. So much of this made me laugh and shake my head because it was so true! When friends and family ask what I'm doing "I'm working on my thesis"; thinking of how much time I have at the beginning before watching it drift frivolously away; thinking "I'll get it all done on this day"; thinking "I can't get anything done in 30 minutes"; thinking of all of the easy tasks that I can do instead (like cooking and cleaning); the list goes on... I really need to get my shit together.

This guy is brilliant. Well worth the time to listen to perhaps a couple of times even. Thanks for the post.

35:08; You need to develop the skill of Emotional Intelligence; must learn to identify and manage your feelings. 57:11 Move from Goal Intention to Implementation Intention. “The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte.

Recalling information aids in memorization, so i'm going to use this as an exercise. What procrastination is and isn't: A) Procrastination is intentionally delaying a something you promised you would do - it's the gap between intention (what you tell yourself to do) and action (what you actually do) B) Procrastination will cost you a lot, even on your death bed - Procrastination is existential. When it comes down to it, it's whether you took agency of your life; it's sloth, a sin in major religions. C) How often does this occur over populations? - About 20% of adults (even lawyers, PhD students) and 95% of students D) It's not about time mismanagement or planning problems - Planning gives a false sense of control, and when given planners procrastinators will just schedule things to the last minute. E) A little progress breaks the mental barrier of "i can't do it" - Just convincing yourself to do 15 minutes of work is good progress Procrastination is an issue of self-regulation, like a gambling problem, or overeating. Going back to point A, procrastination happens when you cannot exert self-control/your will is weak. (Well, i'm going to follow your advice and take this lecture bit by bit. Continue at 27:30 tomorrow :)

I've had this video in my Bookmarks and my "Watch Later" list for over 8 years now. I still haven't watched it.

As I reach the end of this lecture I looked around in my car and noticed about 10 different things that I have been procrastinating on I am anxious to get home and find out the millions of other things that I've yet to do thanks professor

You know it’s bad when you’re using a video about procrastination to procrastinate..... the struggle is real.

I can honestly say i'm a procrastinator and this video opened my eyes...thank you so much!!!! I'm going to do my best to implement this into my life. Thanks for the lecture.

Just want to say I finally returned to this video when I bookmarked it on January 8th 2019 to "watch later" while procastinating writing my bachelor's thesis

I put this video in a playlist to watch at a later time, only now while scrolling through it some 6-7 years later did I find it. I'll make sure to watch it later though!

he has a really young voice, it's really refreshing and makes me happy to think someone could sound so much like a jovial yet passionate teenager so late in life, i like this guy

I feel so much for what he had said. For an undergraduate student like me, it has been driving me crazy.

this is a great lecture. dont look down, its just idiots making the same joke.

I swear, I actually had this tab open for 3 Months, before I finally watched the whole video...

This is hands down the best video about procrastination out there.

I watched this while procrastinating. But this has been very helpful

I have been meaning to watch this video for 4 years now... Surely I will get to it in 2020...

this is in my watch-later-list since years now

Very helpful indeed! I listen to the podcasts regularly and highly recommend them!

what a wonderful man and great presentation!!

Really beautiful talk, I appreciate it being apart of my journey of self betterment.

He's my favourite lecturer now

This video will forever be in my watch later

One of the best, understandable, relatable & efficient talk about procrastination and how to minimise it. Thanks

I saved this for about 8 months before I finally watched this.

Took his PSYC2600 class in '11. Skipped the classes and procrastinated in writing an essay. Ended up handing in a "corrupted" word doc. Procrastinated with that and just ended up dropping the course. Now I'm here in '18 procrastinating and watching his video. huh.

I've had this book marked for 2 years and have only just got around to watching it.

This was posted on Reddit a year ago. I wanted to watch it, but decided to procrastinate, finally found the motivation now.

What a cool guy. Loved his style and delivery. Very calming to listen to. I think I know what needs to be done next time I want to avoid procrastination now. Hopefully I can execute what I learnt here.

This video has been in my “watch later” playlist for a year now

This is a great, great talk. Thank you!

Sometimes, all you need is go to the beach and have fun. It takes your focus off the negative (which in this case is procrastination), and you just let go. After a while, you'll feel inspired to take the action. You just needed to let go of the struggle in your mind and emotion.

Best thing on this topic i've heard or seen yet. Thanks.

I would often-times procrastinate even with doing things that I enjoy, so it's not just doing what feels good. And it would often take me incredibly long periods of time to do basic things. For instance, writing a three page paper could take me 12 hours because I'm awful at stretching out information and tend to condense it all down to very little. I'm also obsessive compulsive/mild perfectionist and would consider myself "conscientious" but still have immense problems getting things done, even without any distractions. It's like having the worst of both worlds. About "waiting for the mood to strike". That's an actual thing. Some days, I could just get everything done easily right away with no stress, and others, just thinking about it would cause me to go into a cold sweat, and doing it felt agonizing to type a single letter, even well after I'd gotten started.

im supposed to be doing work, not watching this video on procrastination... This was a great video thanks!

Such a good lecture. It really helps me to understand my problem better so I can start to live my life again

Added to favourites.. Maybe I'll watch it some day

i completely agree with this. doing it now helps more than anything

Saved to watch later

Remind me to watch this tomorrow.

I got the rest of my life to watch this. I'll get back to it later.

I’ll save this to watch later

After sitting on my Waterfox tabs for over a month, I finally watch the entire video, I feel complete now.

Amazing talk! Thanks Dr. Tim :)

Excellent presentation!!

such a great speaker.

Saved this video to my Watch Later

What a great talk! I love his voice.

I found this randomly while procrastinating my thesis. I procrastinated 85% of the lecture also. Took me about a year to get around to finish it off. Sounds like a joke, but it feels bad

Watched this while exercising. Really great video

I'm watching this rather than starting my dissertation

as a student stuck at home due to corona, I'm procrastinating by watching this.

You're a goddamn genius, professor.

i've had this video open in a tab now for the past week. today might be the day.

Looks like a great lecture. Just going to save it to Watch Later

subbed and notified :) thankyou, and Thankyou Tim. This is a big step in a direction for me. This will help me achieve many things. Thankyou.

I added this to watch later

I had to drop grad school because of chronic procrastination and fear of finishing work. I know this is a deep psychological issue but I think this lecture is helping me realize that it's not so difficult. If you have to do it now, just do it, otherwise you'll regret about it. And I have never told about my procrastination to anyone, but yeah, it doesn't matter even if you tell someone and they help you, you have to help yourself especially with procrastination because you do your work.

I have a very difficult time motivating myself because I feel it doesn't matter what I do.

I think I'll watch this in a little while

Those are nice pieces of advice! As for me, I use Time Planner app to make me inspired to do more, as it shows me my own stats about my own time wasted. That is a real wake-up call!

Watching this tomorrow, today I'm gonna play League all day ;)

Saw the entire thing. I recommend it to everyone.

This is in my watch later for 5 years

It took me several months to finish the video. I know that I'm easily distracted, but I try. Keep fucking trying, don't give up.

I can't believe I procrastinated watching this video for reals.

I have not watched it yet, but i've bookmarked the site for later view.....

Thanks!!!

I'll watch this tomorrow.

Thank you

amazing! thank you so much!

Saving this to watch later.

Thing that I learnt is, we do procrastinate, we are aware of it but we think it is to feel good now, somehow we live in self denial of the consequences it will produce. For example if at the time of procrastination I just tell myself that due to it I have to work even harder and have to go through lot of pain to pull the work at the last minute, which will probably be not half decent can create impact. Choosing self awareness and making conscious decision to ask oneself Will scheduling this work later will give me same gratification and pleasure later as postponing it gives now? Second *procrastination is a habit.* Habit are acquired over time and bad habits take time to leave. So if you are thinking one day you will have an epiphany and suddenly you will stop procrastination. You couldn't be more wrong. Single video or article won't probably solve your problems but will surely help mitigating it. *Concrete goals over abstract goals.* Be specific and break down problem and focus on just one sub problem at a time.

Daddy AF. Subbed immediately.