Page 30 - End Procrastination Now Get it Done with a Proven Psychological Approach

xxviii Introduction

feature. You can apply this comprehensive psychology self-help
program again and again to get more of what you want and deserve
out of life. Try it and see!
By developing your positive cognitive, emotive, and behavioral
skills, you can quickly put yourself on the path to self-efficacy. The
belief that you have the ability to organize, regulate, and direct your
actions toward positive goals is among the most studied in psy-
chology and is associated with higher levels of productive per-
formance. Low self-efficacy, procrastination, and substandard
performances are understandably associated.
By taking a cognitive, emotive, and behavioral approach, you
can extend and refine your productive skills. However, this is not
done in a vacuum: you engage in purposeful projects that yield
meaningful results. Another element is accepting that major, pur-
poseful life goals are accomplished small step by small step. Keep
your eye on the prize of accomplishing more by procrastinating
less and keep moving toward this objective.
In addition to tactics and strategies for ending procrastination,
you’ll find references to the scientific literature on procrastination.
Some of this work is promising, such as recent research that deals
with a segment of a theory on procrastination that I outlined. How-
ever, much of the research on procrastination suffers from a con-
stant error. The student surveys conducted by the majority of social
scientists represent a very limited sample in the broader social
context of different peoples and groups. In drawing attention to a
specific characteristic, such as procrastination, this can lead to a
focusing illusion that can be a significant source of error. These
consistent errors are scattered about in University of Calgary Pro-
fessor Piers Steel’s summary of the procrastination research. Per-
haps in the next decade we’ll find a rising tide of outcome research
concerning what people can actually do to kick the procrastination
habit. Until then, the three-pronged approach is based on strong
findings from clinical research in the area of taking corrective ac-