Overcoming Procrastination: The power of the odd “Scooby Snack”
If you’re destroying your productivity by procrastinating - constantly checking your email, surfing the web or with some other bad habits then this video is especially for you. It will introduce you to the hidden powers that are driving your behaviour and help you get started in turning this around today!
September 12th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
How about making up little coupons with a treat, say renting a movie, going for ice cream, or some other thing that is a treat but doesn’t cost an arm and leg. Fold them up and put them in a jar, upon completion of a task, your reward is one of the activities on the coupons in the jar. And if would be something different each time.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I helped my old boss by giving him stickers every day for staying on his diet and doing exercise. It really seemed to help. I’m going to get some stickers for my calendar to help drive the things I want to achieve. It sounds dumb, but it works.!
September 12th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
maybe to make it intermittent - put it a few dud/blank coupons, so during the new goal (say setting 1 hr aside to read), you get to pick a coupon every 10 minutes, most times you get nothing, but sometimes you get something good.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
The intermittent rewards you described seem to be after an interval of suspense… as in.. will I feel pleasure this time? You don’t know until you’ve again indulged the habit.
Could it be that ‘not knowing’ is part of the excitement? The anticipation…
So perhaps this anticipation can be duplicated in the reward system that we want to set up to reinforce productive habits.
But how can we do this if we are actually the ones rewarding ourselves? There is no anticipation if we are the ones making this decision!
Therefore it might be an idea to confide in a supportive family member or friend regarding our goal/s. We can ask that person to reward us intermittently without saying when (ex sending a letter or putting something in a prize box.. or something more creative.. whatever..). Then we can enjoy this intermittent reward and the anticipation as well
September 12th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Instead of a sweet as positive re-inforcement what about a 10 minute break to do something you really like. A chapter in a good book, crafts, exercise, meditation. I am going to try it.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
dorcas , your idea is excellent!!!
September 12th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Wow, these are excellent ideas. Thanks everyone!
September 12th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I liked the idea as suggested by Jennifer of the treat jar with coupons…but to give the intermittant reward perhaps some of the coupons should be blanks with “better luck next time!’ written on them!
September 12th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Whoops…just saw Dorcas has already said the same thing!
September 13th, 2008 at 6:09 am
I’m not convinced that rewards of a material kind are a good thing. It appears to be the same as smoking. You finish a piece of work and have a ciggy. You take a break and have a ciggy. It’s a reward, and swapping sweets or what ever for ciggies is just changing addictions, be they psychological and not chemical.
Perhaps a period of cold turkey would do the trick during which you say, ‘I will only look at emails twice a day at specified times’, or whatever the compulsive action might be.
During the rest of the time some other distraction may be required - like work. And if you don’t like doing that then let’s consider a change of profession.
Also there is that excellent piece of advice from you about doing things you have been putting off - ‘How good will I feel when I have finished this?’ It succeeds every time.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:20 am
How about eating a candy or somthing you like. I feel this will cause a powerful drive. I will try it. Love your site. Bye for now
September 14th, 2008 at 7:06 am
What terrific ideas for variable reinforcement of behaviours we want to sustain over time.
I was reflecting on whether intermittent rewards (happening in variable time frames) really need to be random (no fixed time frames)? I thought perhaps not. In which case, setting phone alarms to go off at times in the day and allowing yourself a reward for the task that is finished closest to the alarm sounding might be equally as effective as putting your the hand in the jar to claim your reward after completing a set (but different each day) number of tasks (e.g., every 3rd or 4th or 9th task). I have to say though that the simpler the idea the more likely it is we will sustain the behaviour. So the jar with blank and reward notes is an excellent idea. Also, you could use envelopes for the stickers idea but only put the stickers in some envelopes and that would also provide randomness!
Perhaps the notion of variable reinforcement could be extended to include a range of intensity of reinforcement. For example, maybe the majority of ‘rewards’ are enjoyable low cost activities, but one or two in your pot could be slightly more extravagant, and of course the rewards really do need to be rewards you would enjoy. But the research I’ve just completed shows double-benefits help sustain behaviours. So you could have some rewards with double-benefits, like allowing yourself an extra phone call to a loved one (so the loved one gets a blessing too) or asking your partner out to dinner - you get dinner and time with your partner! I’m sure you get the idea.
In motivation terms, externally based rewards are helpful, however, the pleasure found intrinsic to a task is an extra powerful reinforcer or sustainer of behaviour! Of course there are some tasks that will always remain unpleasurable, but then there are other undesired behaviours that may respond and change when you reframe your perspective on that task or behaviour.
Maybe when we have mastered the variable external reinforcement approach, a next step is to identify some pleasurable aspect intrinsic to the new task or beheaviour and focus on reframing our perspective on the task at hand.
Anth - thanks for delivering the videos - keep up the great work.
Hope the training you promoted recently is going well.
Kind regards
Felicity
September 17th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Love the videos Anth! Working hard to adopt your ideas and make them my own!
Thanks!
Olivia
October 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
I really like the idea of the stickers…but I feel I need to attach some sort of reward to them as well - a bit like the child trying to earn enough stickers on the sticker chart to get the toy they want. I’ve decided to attach some ‘relax time’ to each one I earn. I have extremely busy weeks and weekends but the more I achieve during the week the less i have to do on the weekend so I;ve decided for every specific action I complete off my daily to do list I get a sticker. Each of these stickers is worth a certain amount of time eg. 5mins so on the weekend I add up how much “time” I have accrued by being effective throughout the week and this is how much “me time” I have earned for the weekend which I can spend however I like eg. reading coffee on sunday morning with friends etc. Also by setting a specific time limit ‘coffee with friends’ doesn’t turn into a completely wasted sunday.