GRASP
Manage your emotions to combat procrastination
December 10th, 2025, by
This post is the second in a series exploring the research of Tim Pychyl, an expert in procrastination research at Carleton University. Earlier, in The reasons we procrastinate, we looked at what procrastination is, outlined its costs, and considered why we procrastinate even when we know it’s harmful. In this post, I’ll outline one of the five key strategies derived from Tim Pychyl’s research that can help combat procrastination.
Strategy 1: Manage your emotions
We noted in the first post that Pychyl frames procrastination as an “emotion regulation” problem. When facing a task we intend to do but don’t want to do, negative emotions such as frustration, boredom, anxiety and resentment arise. We then run away from these negative feelings, avoid the task, and feel better (at least for a short while).
To address this problem we need to develop our ‘emotional intelligence’, which Pychyll defines as “the ability to effectively identify and utilise emotions to guide behaviour”. How can we come to terms with the negative emotions? It’s important to recognise how the task makes us feel. Then, stay put - don’t run away. From here, you can choose a different emotion to focus on. Instead of, say, focussing on your anxiety, you can instead focus on your curiosity.
Affect regulation training (ART)
Pychyl also draws on “Affect Regulation Training (ART)”, a seven step method designed to help break the cycle of negative emotions, developed by psychologists Matthias Berking and Brian Whitley. According to the ART method, when you experience negative emotions related to procrastination, take the following steps:
- Muscle relaxation: Calm yourself physically by relaxing your muscles.
- Breathing relaxation: Calm down your breathing.
- Non-judgemental awareness: Observe your thoughts and emotions without interpreting judging or reacting.
- Acceptance and tolerance: Be accepting and tolerant of your feelings - it’s OK to feel this way, the feelings will pass.
- Compassionate self-support: Be compassionate, kind and understanding toward yourself - this promotes positive feelings such as safety, comfort and confidence.
- Analyse your emotions: Identify the origin of the emotion and the specific factors that contributed to the emotion arising.
- Modify your emotions: Use a problem solving model that involves understanding the problem, setting a goal, creating and acting on a plan, and evaluating the outcome.
Final reflections
Managing procrastination starts with recognising the negative emotions that arise with certain tasks we typically want to avoid in order to feel better. By being more aware of our feelings, and applying structured approaches like the Affect Regulation Training method, we can interrupt our reactionary patterns of avoidance and make a more intentional choice to stick with the task. It’s not easy to do, but is a strategy we can practice and get better at.
What’s next?
In the next post in this series, I’ll share another key strategy from Tim Pychyl’s research to help you combat procrastination. Stay tuned!
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.
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Photo by Uday Mittal on Unsplash