The repeated and rigid thinking patterns and behavior of these students impressed me most. To develop new approaches - in order to circumvent these habitual patterns - was a real challenge for me. I experimented with two new approaches, namely

1. working with slogans
   Procrastinators seem often to use 'slogans' in a kind of negative self-regulation (for example: I'll start tomorrow). The question was: are more positive, straight, self-regulating statements effective? Do they have potential as a ‘call to action’?
2. offering students visual stories in 2 and 3 dimensions on a computer screen
   Procrastinators tell themselves and others all kinds of stories to explain the postponement of tasks and perhaps, in a more general way, to make some sense of their lives. In our Digital Coaching project we found that for some of the students just self observation was very important and the first step to change. This finding is related to recent developments in cognitive therapy. In what is called the third generation of cognitive therapy observation and experiences are stressed as the main components of psychotherapy.(Segal, Z.V., Williams, J.M.G. & J.D. Teasdale (2002) Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. New York The Guilford Press. Hayes, S.C., Strosahl, K.D. & Wilson, K.G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiental approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford.)
   Procrasinators and their cognitive therapists use a lot of words. To change unproductive thinking patterns verbal discussions are seen as essential. It seems both parties believe an old Russian theory: 'thinking is talking without sound'. So use words to change thinking. However other modalities of information processing are neglected and could be fruitfull to circumvent rigid, habitual thinking patterns. So the question was: Is it possible to ‘write’ visual stories which are relevant for procrastinators, have some impact and stimulate observation of procrastination experiences? (A minimum of wise words of advice, no recipes, no instruction on how to overcome procrastination: just look and experience)
   

According to the rules of cognitive behavior therapy these thoughts and thinking patterns should be observed and noted down in a diary; ABC schedules have to be made, basic assumption should be tested, etc. Honorable procedures leading to evidence-based therapies, however in daily life people use simple procedures most of the time. Such a daily life situation is described by William James in his 'Talks to Teacher' (1899) in a thrilling 'bed scene'. On page 174 "It is easy to apply this notion of inhibition to the case of ideational processes. I am lying in bed, for example, and think it is time to get up; but alongside of this thought there is present to my mind a realization of the extreme coldness of the morning and the pleasantness of the warm bed. In such a situation the motor consequences of the first idea are blocked". The result is "the state of hesitation or deliberation".
Is it possible -in de words of James- to start the "inhibitive machinery" of a procrastinator? Do slogans inhibit procrastination? Are straight forward self-regulating statements effective? I'm not sure. However all over the world this question seems to be answered positively.

1. Sign in Birma , (Pimay along the road of the main temple)
2. Clocktower in the Netherlands ; 'Time flies away' ( Be on time & 'Rest rusts' ; 'Rest rusts' )
3. Land of Cockaigne, a kind of visual slogan of Brueghel, 1567 (indirect didactics of the opposite. This is a kind of visual slogan, which I will discuss later. Procrastinators Paradise?)
4. And of course in advertising slogans are used again and again: Sign in NOW / This special offer is only valid through ...

1. Effect of two different slogans

Procedure

1. 2 slogans; left/right
2. 2 slogans; up/down

There seemed to be a strong Left - Right and Up - Down effect of the position on the screen: 66% preference for left or up. The effect of position on the screen of the visual slogans was less outspoken (Left: 60%). These results gave me the clue that the choice in this context was not a rational choice, but was based on a simple heuristic and that visual preference played an important part. (Still 44% and 40% were not influenced by position on the screen) No difference in effect was found between the two slogans. It was clear: no Nobel prize for me. But still I was fascinated by slogans and I wondered if slogans had different effects on people with different procrastination tendencies.

2. Do procrastinators with different levels of procrastination react differently?

Postponing is fatal for my study (confrontation, fear appeal, scare tactics) By putting off, my grades will get worse (personal vulnerability) If I stop postponing I can prevent poor results (loss aversion, prevention of loss) If I stop postponing I can improve my results (maximum utility, outcome expectancy) I'm able to tackle postponing and improve my results (self-efficacy, personal-efficacy) Study ... because you're worth it (advertisement, soft sell)

1. online questionnaire (LPS) (n=943)

2. outcome of questionnaire and presentation of 6 slogans; example of strong tendency to procrastination.

3. selection of 1 slogan (n=655; 69%)

4. choice to click to more info (n=176; 27%) (in Dutch)

• For No and Average tendency to procrastination, slogan 6 (Study ... because you're worth it ) is preferred in comparison to the other slogans.
• While for high tendency to procrastination slogan 1 (Postponing is fatal for my study ) is preferred in comparison to the other slogans.

• No tendency, only 10 persons. I skipped the results
• Average tendency to procrastination, slogan 5 (I'm able to tackle postponing and improve my results ) and slogan 6 (Study ... because you're worth it ) (attracts attention; (also a test anxious student reported slogan 6 was a very stimulating slogan). In general, slogan 5 resulted in more action)
• High tendency to procrastination, slogan 1 (Postponing is fatal for my study ). This surprised me; fear appeal is working for this group! This finding is in contrast to results from anti-smoking research, where slogans based on self-efficacy are seen as most effective. It is also more or less in contrast to a remark of Ferari: "scare tactics" have usually little or no effect. (Procrastination and Task avoidance, pp. 203).

A slogan is a compressed thinking pattern and a slogan is easy to remember . Also designing effective slogans has three aspects: 1. attracting attention, 2. stimulating processing of the content and, 3. promoting realization of a (planned) action. The slogans I developed and researched are rather plump and not elegant. I’m only a beginner in sloganology

1. Offering slogans is a very minimal therapeutic intervention, but worth trying.
2. Seen over the two groups the slogan based on self-efficacy seems to be moderate in getting attention and seems to have most effect.
3. The slogan based on advertisement (Study ... because you're worth it) attracted a lot of attention, but the efficacy - seen over two groups of average and high tendency to procrastination- is moderate. However, I have to learn to write attractive slogans
4. For both students with an average and a high tendency to procrastination a combination of fear appeal and self-efficacy is perhaps a productive combination: 'Postponing is fatal for my study and I feel I'm able to tackle postponing and improve my results', or 'Tomorrow and failing (Flunking) again? No. I'm able to study NOW'
5. Also 'priming' effects should be considered as a way to influence procrastinators.

Story telling is perhaps as old as humankind is. (Gilamesh epic, Illias, stained glass windows of cathedrals, etc.) It is a technique to teach people about important human themes, about heros and facing danger, important questions of life, journeys to the unknown, transformation, etc. In many stories, the hero encounters great dangers and meets his own weakness. Only after confrontation is change possible.

You don't have to be an disciple of Carl Jung or of Joseph Cambell to see the potential of storytelling in education and therapy. And at the last conference in Groningen, Jean O'Callaghan (see abstract in Counseling the Procrastinator in Academic Settings , 2001) discussed the narrative approach to working with procrastinators.

So I decided to make a computerized ‘Procrastination Picture Book’. In this interactive book one can follow story lines, but it is also possible to make your own story by clicking computerized text and a lot of images. Choice is always possible.

In many stories the hero travels to extreme places and this is the case in our project as well. One of the story lines brings the student to the Land of Plenty: The Land of Cockaigne. In 'Dreaming of Cockaigne; Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life',( Columbia University Press. ) Herman Pleij, (2001) describes this country as follows:
In the Land of Cockaigne ideal living circumstances form the daily pattern. The weather is always temperate, the wine flows freely, sex is readily available, and all stay forever young. Work is forbidden and food offers itself spontaneously.
Yhat is to say: Less (effort) is more (reward) And the question arises: Is that what you want? This indirect 'didactics of the opposite' stimulates a moment of reflection, and perhaps change and more freedom (instead being a prisoner of procrastination).

Another story line brings the students through 'obstacles, anxieties and confusions' to the basic question of personal involvement.A prototype of this 'Procrasination Picture Book' is ready; a web version not yet available.

'The thinkbox of the procrastinator'
At this moment we are working on 3D images and on 'virtual reality worlds' (a web version of 'the thinkbox of the procrastinator' is not yet available).

Experiences of 10 students

The results of these observations were a bit confusing for me. Students experienced the pages quite differently.

• Overall the pages were rated as 'amusing', however with one exception. A female student was not amused: 'the pictures are over the top' she said. Amusement is a strategy of circumventing the usual routines and in that sense can be a fruitful strategy. In the words of a student: Now you think of a problem, that I don't like to think about.
• The involvement of most of the students was increased by the ambiguity of some of the pictures, while others seemed to have the heuristic: what I don't understand in one glance is not interesting for me. In one group the students discussed the meaning of the pictures and the options, whereby their involvement was increased.
• Most of the students did understand the irony of the Land of Cockaigne, but at least one student expressed a strong longing for a passive state, where everything comes to you without effort. Another student commented with a sigh: no stress in the Land of Plenty. The story line in the Land of Cockaigne was experienced as amusing, but some students were also a little alarmed, or suspicious: 'You mean I have to work harder? What are you trying to tell me?’

Procrastination picture gallery