Thesis question

More than 20% of adults in the United States suffer from chronic procrastination, and this is closely linked with negative effects on both physical and mental health.

Is there a way to reduce (or reverse) the negative feelings caused by chronic procrastination, and give people the tools and energy they need to overcome it? In particular, I want to explore the relationship between chronic procrastination and physical exercise. Can procrastination be used as a creative tool in this context – not something that’s bad, but something that can be used to create a positive result?

Form – Initial thoughts

At the moment, I want to integrate what I’ve learned from ITP/IMA to collect data on procrastination and use that data to help people overcome it. I want to explore the potential of a wearable device combined with a visual interface – either on the device itself, or on some sort of digital platform that allows greater interactivity with the device and with other users.

Because it’s wearable, this type of device will be highly personal. It will travel with users and become a part of their daily lives. This close proximity will hopefully build a sense of connection with the device, even intimacy. Through either negative or positive reinforcement, it can help them understand the negative cycle of procrastination and break out of it.

Why it’s important to me

This problem is very close to my heart. I’ve been dealing with procrastination for years, and it has been the source of great negativity in my life.

Project goals

Changing habits is a painful experience for many people. Most of us give up before we start. Instead of creating pressure to “change,” I want to explore new actions that are related to the problem and create a way for people to understand and gain control over their procrastination.

My ultimately goal is to see people interacting with bad habits like procrastination in an enjoyable way and help them end the negative cycle of chronic procrastination.

Influences and inspiration

Procrastination research

  • Piers Steel (The Procrastination Equation) – Focus Me is an app that forces people to focus. In this blog entry on the app’s website, the author talks about an equation developed by Dr. Piers Steel that combines the different factors that our brain measures when we are tempted to procrastinate. This breakdown of the relationship between motivation, expectancy, value, impulsiveness, and delay is an interesting interpretation of this problem, and I want to explore these factors further.
  • Tim Pychyl – Associate Professor of Psychology at Carleton University, Canada. He specializes in research on procrastination and its relation to personal well-being. His work has helped me understand the more serious long-term effects of chronic procrastination in people’s lives.
  • Fuschia Sirois – Director of Recruitment, Department of Psychology Sheffield University. His research focuses on procrastination and perfectionism as risks factors in personal health management. Similar to Dr. Pychyl’s work, his research gives insight into how procrastination can lead to negative health outcomes.
  • Joseph Ferrari – Professor of General Psychology at DePaul University, recognized as one of the world’s most renowned experts on chronic procrastination (author of multiple books, podcast host). His work is a good foundation for understanding the causes of chronic procrastination, self-handicapping, and techniques for changing attitudes to overcome these barriers.
  • Research on the efficacy of buddy systems – A study on how effective “buddy systems” are when people are trying to quit smoking. Building on the idea of how interpersonal encouragement and pressure can help empower people, I want to explore the idea of buddy systems when it comes to dealing with chronic procrastination.

Procrastination-related products and services:

  • Taobao real person alarm service – A service on China’s largest ecommerce platform (Taobao) that allows you to arrange for a real person to call and remind you to do things (or encourage you to do them). This personal touch is very popular, and I’m interested in exploring how interpersonal contact can help people overcome issues with motivation that lead to procrastination.
  • Hack your life (27 tools that helps procrastination) – A list of different tools that help people overcome procrastination. In particular, I was inspired by their description of the DreamLab app, which helps people use their urge to procrastinate to drive positive change in the world (in this case, donating your phone’s processing power to help train AI models for COVID research).

ADHD resources:

  • ADHDgene – A database on genetic factors that might cause ADHD. Is there any way that this data can be used in a product that helps people with ADHD understand and overcome their chronic procrastination? I want to explore this data set further to see if there is anything that is actionable.
  • The surprising habits of original thinkers | Adam Grant – Great TED Talk about the unexpected habits of “original thinkers” who dream about new things and create positive change in the world. He talks about how great ideas come from having many bad ideas and failing at them. I want to explore how this concept can help people with ADHD use their daily challenges (nonstop new ideas) to create positive results.
  • Solving Procrastination- Dr. John Kruse – Dr. John Kruse is a psychiatrist that specializes in adult ADHD, which is often correlated with chronic procrastination. He talks about how to recognize the signs of ADHD, and different approaches (exercise, therapy, diet, meditation) for dealing with it.

Realizing this project – Process, techniques, and tools

Process: Key steps to making this project a reality include:

  • Expanding my efforts to interview different people about their procrastination challenges and habits, and collecting more data related to this
  • Testing prototypes to see if the use cases I envision are realistic/practical
  • Following up with testers (in-depth interviews) to understand their reaction to the product and whether or not it helped them

Benchmarks: I will need to come up with ways to measure the effects of procrastination and compare these effects before and after the use of my product.

Tools: I would like to incorporate Arduino into this project, either to power a wearable device or to collect data on procrastination. I would also like to use p5 to visualize this data.

Access: I will need access to people dealing with chronic procrastination

Research and skills:

  • SolidWorks or Rhino for model building
  • Unity for modeling different user scenarios (maybe VR?)

Potential tags

#habits

#change

#procrastination

#exercise

#wearable