Monday, February 22, 2016

How do I keep from procrastinating on values?

Its Monday the first day of the work week.  It is the day that is typically filled with all the resolutions about what I will get done this week, including actions in support of my values.  If you have been reading regularly, you know that I really want to try to help people identify and act according to their personally meaningful values.  I am trying to post something each day for the month of February that supports that goal.  This week is the home stretch.  Can I keep it up until the 29th?  (Did I have to choose a year in which February has an extra day?)  If I dont want to miss a day I had better not procrastinate.  But I feel my motivation slipping a little and so I am going to try to get some help from Piers Steel, a researcher on the science of motivation,

well-known for his work on procrastination.  Perhaps His Procrastination Equation can help me.  His equation shows the relationship among the elements that influence procrastination.  Things that increase motivation are on top in the numerator.  Things on the bottom in the denominator reduce motivation. Expectancy is my belief that I can do something.  Value is what I will get from doing it.  Impulsiveness is the extent to which I can be distracted.  Delay is how long till I get there. 

Motivation =    Expectancy x Value
                          Impulsiveness x Delay
For each element, I am going to score myself out of 10 just to be able to compare.  Remember in the numerator, high scores are better and in the denominator low scores are be better.
Expectancy:  Do I expect to succeed in writing each day till the end of the month?  You would think this would element would be high.  I have done it so far and but I am wondering if I can keep it up.  So I will rate my expectancy as 6/10.
Value: I general, I have enjoyed the chance that writing about values has given me to clarify and deepen my thinking and this feels worth it to me.  But on days where I am not sure if you are reading, I can wonder why I bother.  Still I think it is a 9/10. 
Impulsiveness:  Will I rashly quit this blog?  I am a university professor and we are not generally a group known for our impulsiveness ;-) and I would be embarrassed to not finish so 1/10.
Delay:   How far away is success?  Well this is the 22nd and there is only one week left.  Mathematically that would be 2.5/10 but it feels further so I am rounding it up to 3/10.
So if I look at the elements, none are a huge risk to lose motivation and procrastinate but I am most vulnerable in the areas of expectancy and delay.  If I catch myself thinking that I can’t do this anymore (low expectancy) or if I don’t encourage myself with the idea that I am nearly there (delay), I might undermine my own motivation.  Something to keep in mind. If you want to know more about what to do about procrastination, visit Dr. Steel’s website http://procrastinus.com/.

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