The Pain of Procrastination British English Teacher

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ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
THE PAIN OF
PROCRASTINATION
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1 Warm up
In pairs, discuss the following questions.
1. Do you procrastinate? How much does it affect your life?

2. Are there some things you always put off until ’later’?
3. "Procrastination is the thief of time," Edward Young. Do you agree with the quote? Why/why not?
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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION
2 Prediction task for video
You are going to watch a fragment of the video named Tim Urban: Inside the Mind of a Master
Procrastinator. First, have a look at the following pictures from the video and try to answer the
following questions.
1. What do you think each picture might represent?

2. How do you think they might be connected to the video?
picture A picture B
picture C picture D
3 Listening for gist
Watch the full video and then answer the following questions.
1. What did the above pictures represent?

2. What does instant gratification mean? Why does it cause procrastination?
3. Can you relate to what he said? How?
4. Are there any bigger things in life you want to do that you have put off to ‘someday’? Are there
any you could start doing now?
5. Do you have any tips to avoid procrastinating?
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4 Vocabulary
Part A: Complete the definitions with a missing word from the box.
chronic (adj) compassion (n) insecurity (n) irrational (adj.)

pat on the back (phrase) ritual (n) tempted (v) vicious circle (phrase)
1. A is something that is done regularly and in the same way.
2. is feelings of concern and sympathy for someone who is suffering.
3. A is when one problem causes another problem which makes the

first problem worse in an ongoing cycle.
4. To give someone a is a figurative term for giving them praise for a

job well done.
5. When you are you have the desire to do something which may
not be a good idea.
6. A person can have a feeling of which means they are not confident
or sure of themselves.
7. When someone does something that does not seem logical this can be called
behaviour.
8. is when something negative is long-lasting such as an illness or a

bad habit.
Part B: Match the sentence halves and define the words in bold.
1. The charity will release a press release to chastise (v) the government...
2. The special switch is a safety mechanism (n) designed...
3. The robot has been programmed with avoidance (n) technology, so...
4. I inadvertently (adv) forgot to pay at the cafe...
5. The idea for the invention remains only theoretical (adj)...
6. The destructive (adj) power of the hurricane...
7. I don’t want to stray (v) from the agenda in this meeting, so...
a. ...for cutting funds at a time of great need in the community.
b. ...because we cannot make the parts small enough yet.
c. ...but I returned in the afternoon to fix it and apologise.
d. ...I really want us to stay on topic this time.
e. ...it will not run into objects in its path.
f. ...caused great damage to trees and houses.
g. ...to stop children from operating the machine.

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5 Reading: prediction questions
You are going to read an article about procrastination. Before you do the following reading, predict
the answers to the following True/False questions.
1. People only procrastinate because they are lazy and disorganised.
a. true b. false
2. Only five per cent of the general adult population procrastinate.
a. true b. false
3. Around 50 per cent of students chronically procrastinate.
a. true b. false
4. It helps to punish yourself when you procrastinate.
a. true b. false

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What about procrastination?

The short genesis of procrastination and some mechanisms helping to deal with it.
1. Why do we procrastinate? 5. Think only about the next action
People don’t usually procrastinate because they According to Dr Pychyl, focusing only on the "next
are merely lazy or disorganised. It’s actually a action" of a task helps calm us and creates "a layer
coping mechanism. As Dr Tim Pychyl, professor of of self-deception." At the start, you can consider the
psychology says: "Procrastination is an emotion next action as a theoretical idea: "What’s the next
regulation problem, not a time management action I’d take on this if I were going to do it, even
problem." though I’m not?" Maybe you would open your email
Procrastination is more often used as a way of or put the date at the top of your document.
coping with difficult emotions around a task, such
6. Just get started
as boredom, anxiety, and insecurity. But when we
put off a task we inadvertently reward ourselves Just make a start. Try doing just one tiny action
with a momentary feeling of relief. This creates a on your assignment. Don’t wait to be in the mood.
vicious circle because behaviour which is rewarded is "Motivation follows action. Get started, and you’ll
more likely to be repeated. Procrastination can then find your motivation follows," Dr Pychyl said.
become a chronic habit.
7. Avoid avoidance behaviour
2. A common issue
Pychyl calls avoiding a task at the moment "giving in
Among adults, an estimated 15-25% of people
to feel good." When you’re tempted to stray from the
frequently procrastinate. But it is much worse
task after the first minute, think: ‘’I don’t give in to
for students. Dr Fuschia Sirois, a professor of
feel good.” If you give in you’ll reward yourself. Try to
psychology, said: "It’s estimated that anywhere
push through until you’ve done a certain amount of
between 80 and 95% of new students procrastinate
time or work.
at least once or more, but 50% of students
procrastinate chronically." Over time, chronic 8. Use a timer
procrastination has destructive effects on mental
Try using a timer. Education expert, Dr Barbara
and physical health.
Oakley, recommends the Pomodoro technique. Set
3. Our future selves a timer for a 25-minute block of work, followed by
Ultimately, procrastination is irrational behaviour that a short break. The ritual of it can help overcome
doesn’t serve us. It is an example of present bias. procrastination.
Research by the psychologist, Dr Hal Hershfield has
Behavioural scientist, BJ Fogg, also suggests using a
shown that we perceive our "future selves" as more
timer. ‘’I’m going to work on this for seven minutes.
like strangers. Parts of our brains actually think that
And when the timer goes off, I’m done ... most of the
the tasks we’re putting off, and the negative feelings
time you’ll do more than seven minutes, but you kind
that we will experience because of it, are somebody
of trick yourself.”
else’s problem. So how should we deal with it?
He also emphasises self-compassion. He says: ‘’You
4. Be kind to yourself
change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad.” He
Practise self-compassion and treat yourself with suggests calling out the behaviour of beating yourself
kindness and understanding. It is more effective to up and turning it around. Instead, take one small step
forgive yourself than to chastise yourself. In a 2010 and give yourself a pat on the back. He also suggests
study, researchers found that students who were lowering your expectations. Don’t aim to do the task
able to forgive themselves for procrastinating when perfectly. Just aim to do something.
studying for a first exam ended up doing it less in their
next exam. Sources: Forbes, The New York Times, the Guardian

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6 Comprehension questions
Complete the following sentences in your own words.
1. People don’t usually procrastinate because they are lazy. The problem is actually because of...
2. Putting off a task creates a vicious circle, because...
3. We think of our future selves like...
4. You should use self-compassion and forgive yourself when you procrastinate because...
5. A few strategies the reading suggests for dealing with procrastination are...
7 Language point: self/selves
Part A: Look at the boxes below.
• In the reading, there are a lot of examples of reflexive pronouns. For example:
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves and themselves
• These are used when the subject and object of a verb are the same, eg: Tom washed
himself.
• In this example, the subject is Tom, the verb is washed, and the object (the person being
washed) is also Tom. So in this case we need the reflexive pronoun "himself".
subject - Tom verb - washed object - himself (Tom)
• Let’s look at another example where the subject and object are different. In this example,
we want to say that Tom washed his dog. For example: Tom washed him.
subject - Tom verb - washed object - him (the dog)
• So you can see that the ’self’ part makes the pronoun reflexive (it is a like a mirror of the
subject).
• If the subject is plural you should use ’selves’ instead. For example: The cats washed
themselves.

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Self as a noun
• The word ’self’ when used alone, is a noun. For example:
"He doesn’t seem like his old self."
"What would you tell your younger self, if you could?"
• This use is not so common.
Self in compound words
• A hyphen should always be used between ’self’ and the following word.
• Also, the stress does not fall on the word ’self.’ The stress will appear in the word
following.
self-deception, self-important, self-confident, self-compassion
Part B: Find at least eight examples of the word self or selves used so far in this lesson.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
8 Discussion questions
In pairs, discuss the following questions.
1. Do you reward yourself when you do well at something?

2. What do you sometimes beat yourself up for?
3. Is there a way to trick yourself to get started on a task you don’t want to do?
4. Do you think about your future self much?
5. How could we all be more self-compassionate?

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9 Optional homework/extension
Task 1: Choose a task you have been putting off. For example, tidying up, doing your homework,
studying etc. Try setting a timer for only five minutes and work on the task until the timer goes off.
Reflect on the five minutes:
• How much did you get done?

• Did you want to keep going?
Task 2: Look at the following quotes. Write 100-150 words on which quote you like the most and
why.
• "If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would get done." - Rita Mae Brown
• "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well." - Mark
Twain
• "I’m going to stop putting things off, starting tomorrow!" - Sam Levenson
• "Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether." - Epictetus
• "One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off
living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying
the roses blooming outside our windows today." - Dale Carnegie
• "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." - Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette Married

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TEACHER MATERIALS · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
Transcripts
2. Prediction task for video
Speaker: So in college, I had to write a lot of papers. Now, when a normal student writes a paper,
they might spread the work out a little like this. And I would want to do that. But then,
actually, the paper would come along, and then I would kind of do this.
Speaker: Now, I had a hypothesis that the brains of procrastinators were actually different than the
brains of other people. And to test this, I found an MRI lab that actually let me scan both
my brain and the brain of a proven non-procrastinator, so I could compare them. So here’s
the brain of a non-procrastinator. Now, here’s my brain. There is a difference. Both brains
have a Rational Decision-Maker in them, but the procrastinator’s brain also has an Instant
Gratification Monkey.
Speaker: Now, what does this mean for the procrastinator? Well, it means everything’s fine until this
happens. So the Rational Decision-Maker will make the rational decision to do something
productive, but the Monkey doesn’t like that plan, so he actually takes the wheel, and he
says, "Actually, let’s read the entire Wikipedia page of the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding
scandal because I just remembered that that happened." The Instant Gratification Monkey
does not seem like a guy you want behind the wheel. He lives entirely in the present
moment. He has no memory of the past, no knowledge of the future, and he only cares
about two things: easy and fun.
Speaker: Now, sometimes it makes sense to be doing things that are easy and fun. But other times,
it makes much more sense to be doing things that are harder and less pleasant, for the sake
of the big picture. And that’s when we have a conflict.
Speaker: Turns out that the procrastinator has a guardian angel, someone called the Panic Monster.
Now, the Panic Monster is dormant most of the time, but he suddenly wakes up anytime
a deadline gets too close or there’s danger of public embarrassment, a career disaster or
some other scary consequence.
Speaker: But there’s a second kind of procrastination that happens in situations when there is no
deadline.
Speaker: So if you wanted to have a career where you’re a self-starter—something in the arts,
something entrepreneurial—there’s no deadlines on those things at first, because nothing’s
happening, not until you’ve gone out and done the hard work to get some momentum, to
get things going. There’s also all kinds of important things outside of your career that don’t
involve any deadlines, like seeing your family or exercising and taking care of your health,
working on your relationship or getting out of a relationship that isn’t working.
Speaker: Now if the procrastinator’s only mechanism of doing these hard things is the Panic Monster,
that’s a problem, because, in all of these non-deadline situations, the Panic Monster doesn’t
show up.
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Speaker: And it’s this long-term kind of procrastination that’s much less visible and much less talked
about than the funnier, short-term deadline-based kind. And it can be the source of a huge
amount of long-term unhappiness and regrets.
Speaker: I had a little bit of an epiphany. I don’t think non-procrastinators exist. That’s right. I
think all of you are procrastinators. Now, you might not all be a mess, like some of us, and
some of you may have a healthy relationship with deadlines, but remember: the Monkey’s
sneakiest trick is when the deadlines aren’t there. We need to think about what we’re really
procrastinating on because everyone is procrastinating on something in life. That’s a job
for all of us, and it’s a job that should probably start today. Well, maybe not today, but you
know. Sometime soon.
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Key
1. Warm up
5 mins.
Ask the students to talk to each other in pairs as a way to introduce the topic of procrastination.
2. Prediction task for video
5 mins.
Give students time, in individuals or in pairs, to look at the pictures and answer the questions. These are screenshots
from the video. There are no right or wrong answers, it is only to get them thinking about the video content.
Sources for images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk5C149J9C0&ab_channel-TED
3. Listening for gist
5 mins.
Students exchange their answers to the questions in pairs or small groups. Assist and help them as needed.
1) What did the above pictures represent?
picture A - Rational Decision-Maker
picture B - Instant Gratification Monkey
picture C – It shows when the Instant Gratification Monkey takes control from the Rational Decision-Maker
picture D - The Panic Monster
2) What does instant gratification mean? Why does it cause procrastination?
The students may have their own answers or interpretations.
However, as an overview, instant gratification is when you gratify your desire for something immediately, rather
than waiting. For example, you want to eat chocolate so you immediately get a chocolate bar and eat it. It is about
satisfying a present desire rather than thinking about the future.
It causes procrastination because when we focus on instant gratification we put our immediate desires ahead of
our future goals.
4. Vocabulary
Part A:
5 mins.
Students can tackle the vocabulary tasks in individuals or pairs. Assist them with definitions and pronunciation
where needed.
Note that vicious cycle is also in common use with vicious circle and is essentially interchangeable.
1. ritual 2. Compassion 3. vicious circle 4. pat on the back

5. tempted 6. insecurity 7. irrational 8. Chronic
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Part B:
5 mins.
Students match sentence halves and try to define the words in bold.
mechanism – a system or process by which something happens
theoretical – something based on theory rather than practice
stray – move away from the right place
avoidance – intentionally not doing something
chastise – punish or severely criticise
destructive – causing great damage or harm
inadvertently - unintentionally
1. → a. 2. → g. 3. → e. 4. → c. 5. → b. 6. → f. 7. → d.
5. Reading: prediction questions
10 mins.
Time permitting, you can ask students to prepare for the reading by quickly trying to guess the answers to the
True/False questions.
1. b. 2. b. 3. a. 4. b.
Ask students to do the reading. It can be either out loud or quietly to themselves. Check their understanding and
draw attention to the glossary of phrasal verbs. Discuss these with them if they are unsure of any of the meanings.
References:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/education/edlife/learning-how-to-learn-barbara-oakley.html
https://archive.vn/gTuIQ#selection-431.0-1023.1
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyblaschka/2021/04/03/youre-not-lazy-youre-scared-how-to
finally-stop-procrastinating/?sh=5e49f04a6dab
https://lifehacker.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating-with-behavior-scientist-bj-1842027698
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/aug/04/procrastination-expert-guide-book-advice-fuschia-sirois
Glossary:
put off - delay action until later
push through - keep going despite difficulties
give in - stop resisting
call something out - confront bad behaviour
beat yourself up - criticise yourself
turn something around - change the direction of something
6. Comprehension questions
5 mins.
Depending on your students they can do this for themselves in pairs as a spoken task, or if you prefer you
could ask them to write the endings. This serves as a way to reinforce what they have read and to check their
understanding.
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Example endings follow.
1. ...difficulty regulating their emotions around a task.

2. ...behaviour which we reward we are more likely to repeat.
3. ...strangers.
4. ...it is more effective than being critical.
5. ...using a timer, using the Pomodoro technique, thinking about the next possible action on a task, forgiving
yourself, and not giving in to feeling good.
7. Language point: self/selves
Part A:
10 mins.
Go through the boxes with the students and check their understanding.
Part B:
5 mins.
Give students some time to go through the lesson and look for eight examples with ’self’ or ’selves’. Let them do
it unaided but if needed, help them.
1. be sure of themselves 2. reward ourselves

3. punish yourself 4. be kind to yourself
5. treat yourself with kindness 6. forgive yourself
7. chastise yourself 8. reward yourself
There are more than eight examples that have been mentioned above, mainly: trick yourself; beat yourself up for;
give yourself; our future selves; self-compassion; self-deception
8. Discussion questions
5 mins.
Students can use these discussion points in pairs or small groups to further discuss the topic and reinforce the
reflexive pronouns.
9. Optional homework/extension
Task 1 is designed to encourage students to try one of the simple recommendations to combat procrastination.
Task 2 gives them an opportunity to write a short response to one of the quotes of their choice. Alternatively,
you can simply ask the students to read and respond verbally in class to the quotes.
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HEAAADERLOGORIGHT

ENGLISH FOR TEENAGERS · ENGLISH IN VIDEO · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

QrrkoD Scan to review worksheet

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. Do you procrastinate? How much does it aﬀect your life?

FOOOOTERRIGHT Learn without forgetting! 1/8

THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

2 Prediction task for video

1. What do you think each picture might represent?

3 Listening for gist

1. What did the above pictures represent?

FOOOOTERLEFT Learn without forgetting! 2/8

THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

chronic (adj) compassion (n) insecurity (n) irrational (adj.)

1. A is something that is done regularly and in the same way.

2. is feelings of concern and sympathy for someone who is suﬀering.

3. A is when one problem causes another problem which makes the

4. To give someone a is a ﬁgurative term for giving them praise for a

8. is when something negative is long-lasting such as an illness or a

2. The special switch is a safety mechanism (n) designed...

4. I inadvertently (adv) forgot to pay at the cafe...

5. The idea for the invention remains only theoretical (adj)...

6. The destructive (adj) power of the hurricane...

a. ...for cutting funds at a time of great need in the community.

b. ...because we cannot make the parts small enough yet.

c. ...but I returned in the afternoon to ﬁx it and apologise.

d. ...I really want us to stay on topic this time.

e. ...it will not run into objects in its path.

f. ...caused great damage to trees and houses.

g. ...to stop children from operating the machine.

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THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

5 Reading: prediction questions

1. People only procrastinate because they are lazy and disorganised.

2. Only ﬁve per cent of the general adult population procrastinate.

3. Around 50 per cent of students chronically procrastinate.

4. It helps to punish yourself when you procrastinate.

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THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

What about procrastination?

1. Why do we procrastinate? 5. Think only about the next action

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THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

Complete the following sentences in your own words.

2. Putting oﬀ a task creates a vicious circle, because...

3. We think of our future selves like...

7 Language point: self/selves

Part A: Look at the boxes below.

subject - Tom verb - washed object - himself (Tom)

subject - Tom verb - washed object - him (the dog)

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THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

• The word ’self’ when used alone, is a noun. For example:

"He doesn’t seem like his old self."

"What would you tell your younger self, if you could?"

• This use is not so common.

Self in compound words

self-deception, self-important, self-conﬁdent, self-compassion

1. Do you reward yourself when you do well at something?

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THE PAIN OF PROCRASTINATION

Reﬂect on the ﬁve minutes:

• How much did you get done?