Taking a step away from mainstream clinical psychology, I still think this is a great episode for psychology students and psychology professionals because depression is a part of life. (Please remember there’s a difference between Major Depression and Depression) And this podcast episode will be great help with when you’re sad and depressed in everyday life.
This episode has been sponsored by Clinical Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it.
3 Tips To Help You Stop Procrastinating If You’re Depressed or Sad
Switch Up Your Priorities
When you’re upset or depressed, you don’t feel like doing certain tasks and you don’t always have the energy. So you need to break the cycle of procrastination and one way to do this is by switching up your priorities.
For example, I remember a very distinct time after my first driving lesson after the third lockdown here in the UK and it went badly. I hadn’t driven for months upon months and… it just didn’t go well.
In fact, I got so annoyed and sad about it I made myself ill. I had a terrible headache and it costed me an evening of my life.
Anyway as I was coming ill and was extremely sad with myself, and I was home alone, I knew it needed to do some basic life things. Also I should take this opportunity to remind you that for depressed people even getting out of bed can seem impossible.
Furthermore, I knew I was basically depressed and starting to get a headache so I made sure I did some stuff like make myself some dinner. But normally I would want to do some other things first but by making my dinner first, I managed to break the cycle of procrastination.
Overall, when you’re feeling depressed and sad (Whether it’s because something happened at university or work), try to break the cycle by changing up with routine and priorities. For example, exercise before you go to work or university or vice versa if that’s part of your routine.
Take Another Route To Your Goal
I remember when it was towards the end of my first university term and surprise, surprise a group project was going wrong. (I really don’t like group projects) so I was so annoyed and depressed about it because I didn’t want to fail or do bad at my first major project at university.
Yet I knew I had try and fix the situation but I was so depressed by it all, I couldn’t face it.
Therefore, another tip is to take another route to your goal and what this means is do something else that will break the cycle of procrastination. Then by the time it’s finished you should have the energy and concentration to finish the goal you’ve been avoiding.
Whilst I completely forget what I ended up doing for my first project, a few nights ago there was a health related situation (absolutely nothing serious, I promise) and it made me loose all focus and interest in writing fiction that night. So instead of entering a cycle of procrastination because I really wanted to write the story I was planning to, I switched to another task. I wrote some nonfiction instead.
So whilst that’s a very specific example to me and my life, the point is whenever you feel down and enter a cycle of procrastination, you can break it by doing something else and returning to the goal later.
For a university student, it might be reading a textbook chapter and returning to your essay later.
For a psychology professional, you might want to check out Continued Professional Development course then return to typing up your client’s report later on.
Self-Compassion
A final tip is very simple, be kind to yourself.
Sometimes we give ourselves so much grief for no reason or we think we need to make a decision there and then, when we don’t.
For example, when I got a bit depressed about my first university project, there was no reason for me to get depressed about it. It wasn’t my fault and I was trying my best with the project.
For the driving example, I hadn’t driven for months so of course I was going to be bad.
Therefore, whenever you’re faced with a problem that’s getting you down, just be kind to yourself and maybe check out some self-compassion techniques to help you. Since sometimes you just need to tell yourself you aren’t in any danger so you can concentrate on other things and come back to the problem later on.
I really hope you enjoyed today’s social psychology episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Clinical Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback, large print and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it.
Clinical Psychology Reference:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-practice/202106/4-procrastination-tips-when-youre-feeling-down
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