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Timothy A Pychyl Ph.D.

Don't Delay

SELF-CONTROL

Self-regulation Failure
(Part 1): Goal Setting and
Monitoring
Procrastination: Quintessential self-regulation
failure.
Posted February 16, 2009

The simplest way to think about a self-regulating system is

how your thermostat functions with your furnace. As simple
as this may be, this model does speak to our own ability for
self-regulation, and it's a good place to start this discussion
about when self-regulation fails.

To understand procrastination, we must understand self-regu‐

lation failure. And, of course, to understand self-regulation
failure, we must begin with a little about self-regulation.

I'll use the next few blog postings to share some thoughts on
self-regulation failure. What I will attempt to show is that there
a number of places at which our self-regulation can and does
fail leading to procrastination (or any other number of self-de‐
feating problems like overeating, overspending, drug and al‐
cohol abuse, problem gambling). In the end, I will not leave
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you with a mechanistic model. It won't surprise regular read‐
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ers of this Don't Delay blog that we'll return to a fundamental
notion of what motivates you in life.

Self-regulatory systems: The basics

Homeostasis, roughly translating to a relatively stable state of
equilibrium, is the goal of many systems, living and mechani‐
cal. In the case of our household heating, the system is de‐
signed to keep the ambient temperature stable at our chosen
level. The thermostat plays the key role of monitoring the
temperature and signaling either action (start heating) or ter‐
mination (shut off).

One way that a self-regulating system like this is summarized

is the T.O.T.E. model: test-operate-test-exit. The thermostat
executes the key test and exit roles, based on a chosen stan‐
dard (or target) that we set.

Self-regulation and procrastination: A key first step

Even this simple model of self-regulation certainly applies to
our everyday behavior. Studies that I'll discuss over the next
few blog entries include behaviors as mundane as regulating
our junk food consumption, impulsive spending, television
viewing, even whether we procrastinate on washing our
dishes. Let's see where this process begins.

The self-regulating thermostat begins with two key functions:

recording a chosen standard and monitoring the environment
in relation to this standard.

Standards
The simple standard we set with our thermostat is tempera‐
ture, but standards for self-regulation are the concepts we
hold of our possible selves (our ideal or ought selves) as well
as our overall expectations, values and goals. With that said,
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it's pretty obvious that the first place that our self-regulation
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can fail is simply when we set unrealistic or inappropriate
standards about our possible selves or our goals..

New years resolutions are one obvious place where our stan‐
dards are often unrealistic. Overly optimistic and hopeful, we
imagine ourselves going from no exercise this year to exer‐
cising everyday next year. A recent example of this can be
found in Marissa Kristal's PT blog, "Shake your beauty" with
her blog entry "Re-do your resolution to get fit" She argues
that we may need to re-do our resolutions in February. And,
while she notes a program that draws on social support to
maintain motivation, a key first step is ensuring that you have
a reasonable goal. Enough said, I think we all recognize the
importance of setting attainable, realistic goals. Without this
starting point, self-regulation is impossible from the outset.

Goal setting tips

1. Break it down, make it concrete, frame it as an approach

goal (rather than avoiding failure) and create an imple‐
mentation intention - you should be able to say what
you'll do when as the next step towards goal completion

2. Enhance your interest in the goal - be sure it's related to

your values, and if the connections aren't obvious at first,
think through how the task at hand complements your
values and overall goals (and if it doesn't, think about why
it's on your "to-do list" - maybe it's a task you should dele‐
gate or delete)

THE BASICS

What Is Self-Control?

Find counselling to help with self-control

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Together, these simple tips represent the "manageability and
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meaning" of your goals. Do everything you can to keep your
personal goals manageable and meaningful, and you will see
the tasks as less aversive. If you do, you'll probably procrasti‐
nate less (yes, "probably" as no one change can ensure per‐
sonal success, and as we'll see, self-regulation can break
down when we exhaust our willpower).

Monitoring: Mindful attention

Once realistic goals and standards are set, the first regulation
step is monitoring our activity in relation to these standards.
We have to pay attention to our goal pursuit. Here's a sum‐
mary of the psychology behind this process in relation to
procrastination:

Procrastination is a form of self-regulatory failure (this is a

prevalent view of researchers, and it fits with all explana‐
tions of procrastination, although the cause of the regula‐
tory failure itself is debated, e.g., whether it's something
like discounting future rewards, fear of failure, a personal‐
ity trait or living in bad faith).

Self-regulation is the process whereby systems maintain

stability of functioning and adaptability to change. It's
based on feedback loops as described above.

Self-regulation failure is largely a problem of under-regu‐

lation. We fail to regulate and maintain the feedback loop.

Most models of the cognitive control of behavior through

feedback begin with noticing a change that needs to be
regulated in the system. These models begin with atten‐
tion to the system.

Therefore, loss of attentional control is a common harbin‐

ger of self-regulatory failure.

SELF-CONTROL ESSENTIAL READS

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 INTL
Why Free Will Is Real

6 Ways to Boost Self-Discipline

As Baumeister & Heatherton (1996) write, "Over and over, we

found that managing attention was the most common and of‐
ten the most effective form of self-regulation and that atten‐
tional problems presaged a great many varieties of self-regu‐
lation failure. . . The effective management of attention was a
powerful and decisive step, and self-regulatory failure en‐
sued when attention could not be managed."

Concluding thoughts
The implications are clear, we need to set well-defined, at‐
tainable goals (standards) and pay attention to our goals as
an ongoing process in self-regulation. If you want to know
more about paying attention, self-regulation and procrastina‐
tion, you may want to read my previous PT Blog, "Mindfulness
Meditation: Thoughts on paying attention."

However, this is only part of the process of self-regulation,

and it may not even be the weakest link in terms of self-regu‐
latory failure. We need to consider exerting effort towards a
goal - the thing that procrastination really seems to
undermine.

"Good intentions pave the road to hell" they say, and we all
know that we need the willpower to act on our intentions
and goals. The surprising thing that recent research has
shown is that willpower is like a muscle, and it's a limited re‐
source (no surprise here I guess) . . . more on this next time
where I'll explore how the "operate" phase depicted in the
T.O.T.E.
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strength. We'll also consider an answer to the question: How
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can we maintain our "willpower" in spite of depleted self-reg‐
ulatory strength?

References
There are many sources you may wish to consult, but here
are three favorites from a preeminent colleague and PT blog‐
ger, Dr. Roy Baumeister (and his colleagues).

A recent summary of self-regulation from a personality per‐

spective is provided in:

Gailliot, M.T., Mead, N.L., & Baumeister, R.F. (2008). Self-

Regulation, In O.P. John, R.W. Robbins & L.A. Pervin (Eds.),
Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research (pp. 472-491).
New York: The Guilford Press.

For self-regulation failure:

Baumeister, R.F,, & Heatherton, T.F. (1996). Self-regulation fail‐

ure: An overview. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 1-15.

Baumeister, R.F,, & Heatherton, T.F., & Tice, D.M. (1994).

Losing control: How and why people fail at self-regulation.
San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

About the Author

Tim Pychyl, Ph.D., is a recently retired

university faculty at Carleton University, he
spent his career researching and writing
about procrastination.

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