Motivation = (Expectancy X Value) / (Impulsiveness X Delay)

• Expectancy: How likely you feel you’ll succeed
• Value: What you’ll gain from succeeding
• Impulsiveness: Your natural inclination to put things off
• Delay: How much time you have to complete the task

The result is your current motivation. The less confident you are, the less exciting the outcome, the longer you have to get it done – the more likely you are to put it off.

But the closer the deadline nears, the less your confidence level starts to matter, while the downsides of not completing the task start to matter more.

As the developers of temporal motivational theory write, ‘The perceived utility of a given activity increases exponentially as the deadline nears.’

So how can we get out of the habit of procrastination? Asking yourself the same four questions regularly is proven to help.

In a study published in Applied Psychology: An International Review, researchers sent a group of students text messages twice a day, asking them to reflect on the following four questions:

• Our analyses suggest that students who do best in this course start early and submit their lab report the day before it’s due. To demonstrate you have read the above statement, in the following box, please repeat what students who perform the best do
• Imagine yourself the day before this assignment is due, and you haven’t started working on it. How do you feel?
• Research has found breaking larger tasks into smaller tasks can help with motivation. What is your next small step?
• If you could do one thing to ensure you finish the lab report on time, what would it be?

The researchers hoped thinking about the inputs on the motivation equation would increase expectancy and value, and decrease impulsiveness and delay.

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At the end of two weeks, those students who had received the above messages were significantly more likely to start their assignments early than those who did not.

But the effect wasn’t immediate. The research showed that the students needed time to reflect before taking action and starting their assignments.

And they didn’t mind the repeat reminders.

You can apply it to your work, home or school life by asking yourself the following adaptation of the questions the students were asked:

• How would successful people achieve this goal?
• How will I feel if I don’t complete the task? Or run out of time to make it great?
• What is one thing I can do to make sure I finish on time?
• What is the first (or next) thing I need to do?

Ask yourself these questions twice a day – you can even put a prompt in your digital calendar so you don’t forget – or put off – doing it.

It may take a day or two but eventually the repetitive questions will have the desired effect and the self-reflection will start to pay off.

Source: Inc.com