GRASP
Is distraction driving your procrastination?
April 2nd, 2026, by
This post is the fourth in a series exploring the research of Tim Pychyl, a leading scholar on procrastination at Carleton University.
- In Part 1, I introduced Pychyl’s core argument that procrastination is not a time-management problem, but an emotion-regulation problem.
- Then in Part 2, we looked at managing difficult emotions as a key strategy for reducing procrastination.
- Following that, Part 3 focussed on the importance of connecting to your future self as a motivational tool for overcoming avoidance.
In this post, I highlight some of the main points and key research studies that Pychyl uses to argue for a further key strategy to combat procrastination - pre-empting distractions.
It’s so easy to be distracted!
We can all relate to the problem of being easily distracted, particularly in the online environment. It requires no effort at all to be drawn away from a task at hand to check emails or phone notifications or follow internet rabbit-holes. Another attention grabbing website or post is just a click away. On top of that, the clicks can be immediately rewarding and very addictive. These distractions mean that a task that we think will only take a minute can turn into hours.
Digital distractions are nothing new. As far back as the early 2000s, when the internet was barely a thing, studies such as Cyberslacking and the Procrastination Superhighway (2001) showed that people procrastinated by ‘surfing the internet’.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with digital browsing, it can be a problem when we ought to be getting on with other tasks.
What distracts you?
Everyone is different when it comes to the types of things they find distracting, so it’s important to think about what typically pulls you away from a task. Being aware in this way, you can then be proactive in limiting access to those distractions. For example, you can leave your phone in the next room, close tabs on your browser, or install apps to limit your ability to access websites.
However, you may need to look beyond the obvious distractions that lead to procrastination. Research in the early 1980s by Maury Silver and John Sabini (see their article called Procrastinating) showed how procrastination can be so subtle that it doesn’t even seem like we are withdrawing our attention from an aversive task when we operate from what they refer to as a ‘Procrastination Field’.
For example, if you sit down with the intention of writing notes on some key journal articles for your literature review but instead spend your time chasing down even more references, it can appear - even to yourself - that you are still on task. You have not got out of your seat, you have not left your computer, you are even still working on the literature review, and possibly even feeling productive and virtuous … but you have shifted your attention away from the original, more important (for now) task.
When we catch ourselves drifting between tasks this way, it’s tempting to reframe it as multi-tasking — convincing ourselves we’re being productive on multiple fronts at once. Productivity for the win, right? Unfortunately, not so.
Develop the skill of ‘single tasking’
Although the idea of multi-tasking is commonplace, it is, in fact, a myth. When we think we are multi-tasking successfully, we are just switching rapidly from one task to a another. Each time we switch tasks, we are merely creating distractions and interruptions, drawing precious energy and time away from our goals.
As Gazzaley and Rosen, authors of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in the High Tech World argue, our human brains are not built for multi-tasking, and are actually very limited in their ability to pay attention. The authors contend that there is a fundamental mismatch between our ancient brains and the demands of the modern high-tech world. Due to the abundance and accessibility of information, we bounce from one source to another. We find it difficult to stay at one source of information for long, driven by internal forces such as intolerance for being bored, fear of missing out (FOMO), or anxiety about being more productive.
Understanding why our brains behave this way is useful, but what can we actually do about it?
Putting it into practice
The research points to a few concrete strategies you can implement in your daily work habits.
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Limit access to distractions before they arise. Rather than relying on willpower in the moment, make distraction harder — put your phone in another room, close browser tabs, or use website blocking apps. Pre-empting distraction is far more effective than trying to resist it once it has grabbed your attention.
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Pay attention to your internal states. Boredom, FOMO, and anxiety are big contributors to our tendency to switch tasks. Practice single tasking by starting with small steps; for example, try committing to one task for just 10 minutes and build from there.
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Remember that being distracted is not a personal failing — the technologies we interact with are designed to capture and hold our attention. It’s important to be proactive and deliberate about regulating our technology use.
Final thoughts
Distractions are everywhere, and our brains are poorly equipped to resist them. Recognising what pulls us away from our important work, limiting access to those distractions, and practising single-tasking and focussed attention, are all positive steps we can take to reduce our tendency to procrastinate.
Sources used
I’ve drawn upon the arguments presented in Pychyl’s book, Solving the procrastination puzzle: A concise guide to strategies for change, Penguin: New York, 2013, and from his audio series on the Waking Up app.
I’ve also dabbled in the long list of published papers listed on Pychyl’s website.
Please make any anonymous comments/ feedback, or suggestions for further posts at this link. If you would like to get in touch, or write a post for the Ideas Hub blog, please email karen.miller@curtin.edu.au
Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash