Procrastination involves voluntarily delaying intended tasks despite knowing this may lead to adverse outcomes. It is estimated that procrastination chronically, negatively affects the lives of 15-20% of people and leads some of them to seek professional help. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is widely recognized as an effective intervention for reducing procrastination, however, it is not known if different CBT protocols have different efficacy. Little is also known about the mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of CBT for procrastination.
Our study compared three CBT-based protocols for procrastination with a waitlist control group. A total of 222 high-procrastinating students were recruited. The 5-week interventions were delivered online by pairs of trained therapists in a 5-7 subjects group setting. The active conditions included identical psychoeducation and cognitive strategies but differed in behavioral modules. The first protocol focused on realistic planning and timely beginning (RPT), the second on working time restriction (WTR) and the third one utilized the Pomodoro Technique (PT).
Results from intention-to-treat analyses using linear mixed models revealed significant reductions in procrastination across all three active interventions compared to the waitlist with large effect sizes. Follow-up assessments six months post-intervention confirmed the stability of treatment effects for procrastination. At the same time, however, a substantial number of non-responders were identified.
Concerning the possible mechanisms, the mediation analysis results suggested that successful CBT interventions for procrastination worked through increasing task value (meaning and interest in completing particular tasks related to long-term goals), increasing temporal orientation towards the future (future goal prioritization) and decreasing fear of failure. However, no mediation model fully accounted for the therapeutic change, suggesting that additional mechanisms, not included in our study, are involved.
This is the first study directly comparing the efficacy of distinct CBT protocols for procrastination and showing their high efficacy in online group settings. At the same time, a substantial number of non-responders and lack of full explanation of therapeutic change in mediation analysis indicates a need for further studies testing possible mediators and moderators of CBT, moving us towards personalized selection of treatments.
About the speaker
Dr hab. Marek Wypych works at the Laboratory of Brain Imaging (LOBI) at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. He is a cognitive neuroscientist focusing on the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying self-regulation dysfunctions, with a particular interest in procrastination. His work utilizes neuroimaging techniques such as functional MRI. His current project examines the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying the efficacy of CBT for procrastination.
