Ep# 182: Procrastinators Unite! (...Later)

Coffee With Dr. Kashey

In this episode, Dr. Kashey explores the second type of frustration aversion leading to the "frustration aversion paradox" procrastination, or as he calls it, "frustration aversion by delay." Dr. Kashey explains when frustration tolerance is low or frustration sensitivity high, people become highly impulsive and likely to make poor decisions. He argues that procrastination occurs when you imagine some future frustration, tell yourself an anxious narrative about needing to avoid failure, and thus create real emotional frustration in the present. To escape this, you avoid the task entirely as a "purposeful delay" and distraction. Dr. Kashey outlines how this cascade happens when you envision a frustrating responsibility looming, and Instead of thinking rationally, you catastrophize. This whips up real anxiety now, and you avert dealing with those feelings via procrastination. Since the imagined frustration persists, so does the desire to distract yourself. Before you know it, you've created lasting misery and problems across life domains. Dr. Kashey suggests that the solution lies in calling out the BS stories we tell ourselves about imagined frustrations. As frustration tolerance increases, sensitivity decreases, creating space for rational deliberation. and Dr. Kashey encourages us to "STFU" and confront the automatic narratives driving procrastination and avoidance.