Manualized/Structured Treatments for Procrastination

[Harry3990]

It definitely occurs to me that this is an overly specific question, but with the variety of experienced clinicians that frequent the forum, I thought it may be worth posing.

I'm certainly aware that any CBT approach can help address procrastination with a variety of specific interventions. I guess I'm more looking for whether people have ever come across manualized or structured approaches that are designed for really targeting procrastination as a standalone problem. Obviously it's not that simple and is often present with emotional disorders and driven by anxiety and avoidance, but because it shows up so much across different clinical presentations (and subclinical presentations), I was thinking people might have tried to target it specifically by itself in a very behavioral way.

Things that come to mind for me are structured behavioral activation tasks (activity tracking/scheduling, breaking tasks up, using timers, etc,). Also I think Barlow's Unified Protocol references procrastination here and there (though in the context treating general emotional problems). Either way, I'm looking for workbooks, manuals, handouts, homework activities, etc. Anything that people feel has been useful in their own practice is welcome as well.


Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for any info.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Harry3990]

It definitely occurs to me that this is an overly specific question, but with the variety of experienced clinicians that frequent the forum, I thought it may be worth posing.

I'm certainly aware that any CBT approach can help address procrastination with a variety of specific interventions. I guess I'm more looking for whether people have ever come across manualized or structured approaches that are designed for really targeting procrastination as a standalone problem. Obviously it's not that simple and is often present with emotional disorders and driven by anxiety and avoidance, but because it shows up so much across different clinical presentations (and subclinical presentations), I was thinking people might have tried to target it specifically by itself in a very behavioral way.

Things that come to mind for me are structured behavioral activation tasks (activity tracking/scheduling, breaking tasks up, using timers, etc,). Also I think Barlow's Unified Protocol references procrastination here and there (though in the context treating general emotional problems). Either way, I'm looking for workbooks, manuals, handouts, homework activities, etc. Anything that people feel has been useful in their own practice is welcome as well.


Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for any info.

A quick clarification. I'm talking more about procrastination in adults. It seems like this could be addressed pretty thoroughly through behavioral and systems-oriented approaches with kids who have people in their environment who can help on a daily basis.

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

It definitely occurs to me that this is an overly specific question, but with the variety of experienced clinicians that frequent the forum, I thought it may be worth posing.

I'm certainly aware that any CBT approach can help address procrastination with a variety of specific interventions. I guess I'm more looking for whether people have ever come across manualized or structured approaches that are designed for really targeting procrastination as a standalone problem. Obviously it's not that simple and is often present with emotional disorders and driven by anxiety and avoidance, but because it shows up so much across different clinical presentations (and subclinical presentations), I was thinking people might have tried to target it specifically by itself in a very behavioral way.

Things that come to mind for me are structured behavioral activation tasks (activity tracking/scheduling, breaking tasks up, using timers, etc,). Also I think Barlow's Unified Protocol references procrastination here and there (though in the context treating general emotional problems). Either way, I'm looking for workbooks, manuals, handouts, homework activities, etc. Anything that people feel has been useful in their own practice is welcome as well.


Hope this makes sense. Thanks in advance for any info.

Don't know if the behavior of procrastination in your particular client(s) is related at all to perfectionism but, if it is, I've used the following book by Monica Ramirez-Basco which outlines a cognitive-behavioral approach to perfectionism:

Never Good Enough: Freeing Yourself From the Chains of Perfectionism

It's $9.99 on Amazon (probably because it's several years old but, trust me, it's a good book and I've used it frequently with veterans to pretty good effect...CBT strategies are timeless). It's a bit of a 'self-help' book but I use it as a manual of sorts as I have the client read each chapter to prepare for upcoming sections and we apply the material to his/her own life together.

 

[bcliff]

Solanto, 2011


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Harry3990]

Thanks for the recommendations guys. Very much appreciate them, and both seem to be great resources for different aspects of procrastination (perfectionism vs EF/ADHD problems)

I came across a helpful case study (Puente and Mitchell, 2016) that adapts Solanto's manual for individual use in case anyone is interested:

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adult ADHD: A Case Study of Multi-Method Assessment of Executive Functioning in Clinical Practice and Manualized Treatment Adaptation (PDF Download Available)