CBT for Procrastination and Depression: A Comprehensive Step-by-Step Guide to Personal Transformation

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Ever found yourself stuck in a never-ending cycle of procrastination and depression? It feels like the more you procrastinate, the deeper you sink into hopelessness and depression, and the more depressed you feel, the more you procrastinate. It is a toxic and vicious cycle.

I totally get it because I’ve been there myself.

I was also once stuck in an endless loop, with each delay pulling me deeper into this pit of despair. But here’s the good news – I broke free! And the best part? I have a step-by-step guide that can walk you through the process of transformation and freedom.

The process I am about to teach you is called Behavioral Activation, and is one of the components of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is considered one of the most effective and science-based psychological methods for a wide range of mental health problems, including depression, anxiety and procrastination.

This was my experience, my journey. I used CBT techniques for procrastination and saw my life change. It was like finding my way out of a dark tunnel and into the daylight.

In this guide, I’m going to explain how Behavioral Activation works for depression and procrastination, the science behind it, and walk you through a step-by-step process, that will help you go from procrastinating and depressed, to active and uplifted. And trust me, if I could do it, you can too.

Ready for a change? Let’s dive in!

What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based form of psychological therapy that is centered around three main basic components: Thoughts, Emotions and Behaviors.

CBT is based on the idea that your thoughts, emotions and behaviors are closely connected and influence each other. The aim of CBT is to identify your unhelpful thoughts, like telling yourself: “I fail at everything I do”, and understand how these thoughts influence your emotions (depression and anxiety) and your behaviors (procrastination and avoidance)

CBT is the most well researched and science-backed form of therapy and is one of the most effective treatments for a wide range of mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, phobias and PTSD.

Studies have shown that CBT is highly effective in the treatment of moderate to severe depression, and has been found in some studies to be more effective than medication in reducing depressive symptoms.

CBT is an evidence-based treatment for procrastination, especially when it is entangled with feelings of depression and disrepair.

To learn more about the link between procrastination and depression, check out this article.

Behavioral Activation: A Core Component of CBT for Procrastination and Depression

Behavioral activation (BA) is a key component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

This well-researched and evidence-based technique is often used to treat depression, but it can also be effective for other problems such as procrastination.

In a nutshell, behavioral activation (BA) is based on the assumption that when you are depressed, you often lack motivation to do anything, which can further feed into the loop of inactivity and depression.

In contrast, if you can get yourself to start engaging in certain activities, it will lead to changes in your mood, thoughts, and behaviors.

The goal of BA is to help you hatch a plan to get yourself involved in activities that are meaningful and enjoyable to you. It helps you break the cycle of depression and inactivity, improve your mood, productivity, and overall wellbeing.

Why and How Procrastination and Depression are linked?

Studies have found that procrastination is closely linked to a wide range of mental health problems, especially depression and anxiety.

Procrastination and depression are intertwined in several ways, and the relationship between the two is bidirectional, meaning each one can contribute to the other.

On one side, depression can cause a wide range of symptoms that contribute to procrastination, such as reduced motivation and energy, negative thinking, increase in stress and anxiety and avoidance behavior. All these symptoms can cause you to stop doing your day-to-day activities and avoid important tasks. This avoidance is what causes you to remain inactive and procrastinate on most activities.

In turn, this inactivity and idleness will fuel your negative thoughts, increase your stress and worsen your low self-esteem, which will inevitably make your depressive symptoms worse.

Real-life example:

As a student, I had a persistent feeling of sadness and hopelessness, which made it incredibly hard for me to concentrate on my studies. Consequently, my academic performance began to decline and I was unable to keep up with my assignments and meet the deadlines. I found myself procrastinating more and more.

My growing academic backlog further added to my despair, feeding a vicious cycle of procrastination, low self-esteem, and deepening depression.

I felt trapped in this loop, with each element exacerbating the others, making it difficult for me to see a way out.

📖 Behavioral Activation for Procrastination and Depression : What Does the Science Say?

Regarding its effect on depression, multiple studies have found Behavioral Activation to be highly effective and sometimes even more effective than other treatments such as psychotherapy or antidepressant medication for treating depression.

For example, a 2006 study found that Behavioral Activation was as effective as medication and slightly more effective than psychotherapy for severe depression.

Now, regarding procrastination, there isn’t much research examining the effectiveness of Behavioral Activation for procrastination. However, one 2018 clinical study done on university students showed that Cognitive behavioral therapy is an effective treatment for students struggling with severe procrastination.

Behavioral Activation (BA) can be a potent strategy for someone dealing with both procrastination and depression. By guiding you to identify valued activities and progressively re-engage with them, BA can help you break the cycle of avoidance often seen in people with depression and procrastination.

It encourages you to start small, gradually taking on more challenging tasks, and using positive reinforcement to reward progress, thereby addressing the loss of motivation common in depression.

Take the Beck’s Depression Inventory here to assess depression severity.

Behavioral Activation: A Step by Step Guide to Conquer Procrastination and Depression

This is a step-by-step, easy-to-use guide that comprises effective and actionable actions directly derived from Behavioral Activation therapy, which have helped me personally and, without a doubt, can also help you conquer feelings of low mood, inactivity and procrastination. Some components of this guide are derived from the Behavioral Activation Treatment Manual by C. W. LEJUEZ.

However, I must note that while this guide has been carefully curated with science-based strategies, it should not be seen as a replacement for professional therapy, especially if you are dealing with severe depression or other mental health challenges.

Step 1: Identify your Core Values

Values are the guiding principles that shape your life, behavior, and decisions. They represent what is important to you, acting as a compass that points out what it means to live in a way that is true to yourself.

Everyone’s values are unique, guiding you to different goals and paths. Your values could be honesty, creativity, family, kindness, health, integrity, professional excellence, etc.

Identifying your values is key because it helps align your actions with what truly matters to you. It’s like laying down the tracks for your journey, leading you towards meaningful activities and fulfilling experiences.

But how do you identify your values ?

Although there are many ways to identify your values in various areas of your life, one technique that I found particularly helpful is the “Imagine Your Own Funeral” technique.

Imagine Your Own Funeral : This may sound a bit morbid at first, but this exercise helps you zoom out and view your life from a broader perspective and can be a profound way to identify your core values.

Here’s how it works: choose a calm environment, lay down, close your eyes, and imagine that you’re attending your own funeral.

Visualize the people who might be there, the setting, and the overall atmosphere. Most importantly, think about what you’d want people to say about you.

What kind of person would you have liked to have been? How would you have wanted to impact the lives of others?

Do you want to be remembered as compassionate? Adventurous? Dedicated to your family? Innovative? The characteristics and actions that you hope to be remembered for often reflect your deepest-held values.

Write down your most important values in each life area. Download Value Worksheet PDF and fill it out.

Step 2: Translate Your Values into Goals

A goal is the specific way you intend to execute your values. They are the landmarks on the path defined by your values.

For instance, if maintaining physical health is a key value for you, then running 3 kilometers a day could be a goal. Understanding this distinction is important.

Now for each value, try to come up with a series of long-term and short-term goals that will allow you to put your values into action.

Write down your overall goals, whether they’re related to your career, personal life, health, or any other area. Make sure they’re aligned with your values and are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).

Specific: Your goal should be clear and specific. To make a goal specific, you need to answer the five “W” questions: Who is involved? What do I want to accomplish? Where is it located? When does it happen? Why is this important?
Measurable: It’s crucial to have measurable goals so that you can track your progress and stay motivated. A measurable goal should address questions such as: How much? How many? How will I know when it’s accomplished?
Achievable: Your goal should be realistic and attainable. In other words, it should stretch your abilities while still remaining possible. For example, setting a goal to be fluent in a new language in one month may not be very achievable.
Relevant: This step ensures that your goal matters to you and aligns with your values and other relevant goals.
Time-bound: Every goal needs a target date, so that you have a deadline to focus on and something to work toward. A goal without a timeline can be endlessly postponed.

Now, write down your most important goals in each life area.

Download this Goal Worksheet and fill it out.

Step 3: Turn Your Goals into Smaller Tasks

Breaking your goals down into smaller, more manageable pieces is a key strategy for effective goal achievement. It can make a daunting goal seem less overwhelming and more attainable.

There are many reasons why turning goals into smaller tasks is an extremely effective strategy. It provides clarity, focus, and motivation. It allows you to define specific actions, stay focused on one task at a time, and experience a sense of achievement as you make progress.

By allocating time effectively and being flexible, you can adapt to challenges and track your progress more easily. This approach enhances productivity, reduces overwhelm, and increases the likelihood of successfully achieving your overall goals.

Now, write down a set of 15 tasks and activities that you can implement in order to accomplish your goals and be in line with your values.

Example : let’s consider “being physically active” is a key value for you, you might set a goal like: “Attend the gym three times a week.”

To achieve this goal, break it down into smaller tasks:

Find a suitable local gym.
Set aside specific workout times in your weekly schedule.
Establish a workout routine or enlist a personal trainer.
Pack a ready-to-go gym bag.

Each of these steps gets you closer to living out the value of staying active.

Step 4: Implement A Task Difficulty System.

When you rate your tasks based on difficulty and pleasure, you create a roadmap for your progress. Starting with tasks that are less challenging and more pleasurable can help build your confidence and provide an initial boost of productivity and positivity.

You need to list your tasks and rate each one of them, by assigning a difficulty rating. You could use a numerical scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the easiest, and 10 the most difficult. The rating should reflect how challenging you anticipate the task will be.

After rating tasks based on difficulty, arrange them in order of ease. Start with the easiest tasks at the top and the most challenging ones at the bottom.

Download this Task Difficulty and Pleasure Worksheet.

Step 5: Schedule Your Tasks from Easiest to Hardest

Scheduling tasks starting with the easiest and gradually building up to the most challenging ones is a brilliant approach to implementing a behavioral activation plan. This technique respects the fact that motivation and resilience are often built over time.

Begin by scheduling the easiest tasks into your day or week planner. As you accomplish these tasks, you’ll likely experience a sense of achievement, which can motivate you to take on more.

As you find the easier tasks becoming routine and less challenging, gradually introduce more difficult tasks into your schedule. Remember, it’s not a race. The pace should be comfortable and manageable for you.

Example : let’s get back to our previous scenario, “attend the gym three times a week”. After rating the different components of that goal, you can schedule tasks like this:

Week 1 (Easiest Tasks):

Research local gyms and their schedules.
Purchase appropriate gym clothes and shoes.

Week 2:

Sign up for a gym membership.
Plan a weekly workout schedule.

Week 3:

Start with light workouts at the gym, such as 20 minutes of cardio three times a week.

Week 4:

Increase workout time to 30 minutes and add simple weight lifting exercises.

Week 5 (More Difficult Tasks):

Attend a group fitness class, like spin or yoga.
Try out more challenging weightlifting routines or machines.

Week 6 and Beyond:

Gradually increase your workout intensity and duration as your fitness level gets better. You might aim to eventually do 1-hour workouts three times a week.

Download this Weekly Planner Worksheet to schedule your tasks.

Step 6: Test Your Predictions

Now, you need to conduct an experiment, much like a scientist would.

Before you undertake the task, you should rate how difficult and pleasurable you predict the task will be on a scale of 1 to 10. This gives you a clear idea of your expectations.

After you’ve completed the task, you rate the actual difficulty and pleasure you experienced. Comparing these ratings (predicted vs actual) often reveals a gap between our anticipations and reality. You might find the task was not as challenging as you expected, or you may find it more enjoyable than you anticipated.

This process can significantly reshape your perspective. Over time, you may discover that your predictions, particularly when feeling low or anxious, are often more negative than the reality. Realizing this can encourage you to take on activities you might have previously avoided due to perceived difficulty or low expected pleasure.

Example : before your first workout, you might predict it to be quite challenging (say, a difficulty level of 9 out of 10) and not very pleasurable (a pleasure rating of 2 out of 10).

After completing your workout, you might be surprised to find it was not as hard as you expected (actual difficulty of 6 out of 10), and you enjoyed it more than you thought you would (actual pleasure of 7 out of 10).

This exercise helps to adjust your often-inaccurate predictions and encourages you to engage in activities you might have otherwise avoided.

Download the FREE Daily Tracker Worksheet at the end of this guide.

Step 7 : Create A Reward System

Rewarding yourself for every achievement can indeed motivate you to stick to your tasks and goals. Maybe you treat yourself to a favorite snack after hitting the gym three times in a week or watch an extra episode of your favorite show after finishing a challenging task. These rewards can make the process more enjoyable and motivate you to continue.

A reward system worksheet can be a fantastic motivator and progress tracker. On this sheet, you’d list your tasks and activities in one column – the ‘Activity Column’. This ensures you’re clear about what each task’s completion looks like.

Beside each task in a ‘Reward Column’, you’d note the reward you plan on giving yourself upon completion. This reward could be anything from an indulgent treat to an hour spent reading your favorite book or soaking in a relaxing bath.

As you make progress, start reducing the frequency of these external rewards. This is because you want to build intrinsic motivation – the kind that comes from the pleasure and satisfaction of the tasks themselves, not just the rewards that follow.

Example : Let’s say one workout session of “30-minute cardio” is completed “. You decide in advance that your reward for accomplishing this will be “watching an episode of your favorite series.” This will motivate you in the short run and make you associate working out with a pleasurable activity.

Over time, as you get into the habit of exercising, you might start to feel naturally motivated by the workout itself and need fewer external rewards.

Download FREE Reward System Worksheet at the end of this guide.

Step 8 : Track Your Progress

At the end of each day or week, review your planner. Look at your task completion rate progress over the days, and examine the difference between your predicted and actual ratings for difficulty and pleasure.

This review process will provide valuable insights. You may find that you often overestimate task difficulty and underestimate pleasure. Seeing this pattern can help you challenge and adjust your expectations, making it easier to engage with activities in the future.

Additionally, observing your progress and the tasks you’ve managed to complete can give you a sense of accomplishment, which in itself is rewarding and motivating.

Remember, the purpose of monitoring progress is not to judge or criticize yourself, but to understand your patterns better, celebrate your successes, and find areas where you can continue to grow.

Example: in our workout example, at the end of the week, you review your planner. Perhaps you’ve noticed that each time you’ve gone to the gym, the actual difficulty was lower than you predicted, and the pleasure was higher.

This could help you challenge any anticipatory anxiety about the gym being too hard or not enjoyable and motivate you to continue.

At week’s end, review your gym visits. Even if you didn’t complete all, cheer for what you did! It’s perfectly fine if two weekly visits feel more achievable for now. Progress matters, not perfection!

Step 9 : Review and Adjust

Final step, it’s essential to review your progress and adjust your plans as needed. No plan is set in stone. You might realize that some tasks are more challenging than you thought or that some rewards aren’t motivating you as much as you expected. That’s completely okay. It’s all part of the learning process.

Take time each week or month to look at your worksheets. How many tasks did you complete? Were the rewards effective? Did they motivate you to finish your tasks? How did you feel after completing each task? Use your responses to these questions to tweak your tasks and rewards for the next week.

One powerful tool to use in this step is the “Problem-Solving Session“.

The “Problem Solving Technique” is a proactive method that involves setting aside a specific time each day to address problems and brainstorm solutions. Instead of letting worries or issues scatter throughout your day, you concentrate them into a designated problem-solving session.

Use our Problem Solving Simulator to get an idea of this technique.

Example : In your weekly review, you found that you only completed half of your planned workouts and the reward didn’t motivate you as expected. Using your problem-solving session, you analyzed the reasons: was it a lack of time, energy, or enjoyment in the workout? You brainstormed solutions: maybe trying morning workouts, improving diet or sleep, or switching the workout type.

Based on this, you can adjust your plan for next week: maybe attempt workouts in the morning and treat yourself to a tasty post-workout smoothie. This flexible approach of reviewing, solving, and adjusting ensures your plan stays effective and aligned with your needs.

Free CBT Worksheets for Procrastination ＆ Depression

Download the Daily Planner and Mood Tracker Worksheet and the Reward System Worksheets for FREE.

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CBT Worksheets for Procrastination ＆ Depression

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Further Help: Try Online CBT

While many can find this guided step by step strategy highly effective, it’s important to note that everyone’s journey with mental health and productivity is unique. You may find greater benefit in working directly with a professional. In this case, online Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be a valuable option, as research suggests that it can be just as effective as traditional in-person therapy.

If you’re seeking additional support, check out Online-Therapy.com, a reputable platform providing comprehensive CBT-based mental health services for a wide range of conditions, including depression. Their unique therapeutic approach combines valuable worksheets, live sessions, and unlimited messaging to create an effective, personalized treatment plan. With a high satisfaction rate among patients, Online-Therapy.com offers a robust, holistic, and interactive approach to mental health care.

Takeaways

Behavioral Activation (BA) is a core component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). This form of treatment is science-backed and has shown significant effectiveness in dealing with several mental and behavioral health problems, including depression and procrastination.

Depression and procrastination are often intertwined, as depression can lead to avoidance and procrastination, which in turn can deepen feelings of depression.

This guide provides a detailed, science-supported roadmap to help you break free from the debilitating cycle of procrastination and depression.

It will assist you in pinpointing your personal values and objectives, transforming these into achievable tasks, and then ranking these tasks based on their difficulty and enjoyability. You’ll also be scheduling these tasks, testing your expectations, monitoring your progression, establishing a reward system, and making necessary adjustments along the way.

This comprehensive approach is designed to empower you to take control of your life.

Start your journey towards transformation today!

By Sam David

Published June 14, 2023

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About the author

My name is Sam David. I am the founder of "Proactivity Lab," a website that provides comprehensive strategies and resources for understanding and overcoming procrastination.

The website's resources are the culmination of more than 20 years of research and experience, during which I embarked on a long and gruelling journey of study and self-discovery.

Being a former procrastinator myself, it took me years of investigation and numerous trials and errors to gain a clear understanding of the underlying causes of procrastination and the most effective and scientifically supported strategies to permanently conquer the vicious cycle of procrastination.

I would like to share my knowledge with you, for free.