Overcoming procrastination – getting things done

You know the feeling – there’s one thing that has been on your to-do list for way longer than it should take to actually do the thing. You know it should be done and part of you knows it won’t be as bad as you think, but some other part of you seems to want to avoid doing it – even at great cost to your peace of mind, life balance and stress levels. Odd isn’t it, procrastination – we know it doesn’t help and yet, we keep on doing it.

In this highly interactive and confidential online workshop, by Jamie McDonald, we explore the possible origins of your procrastination, from the features of tasks that make them unappealing to your own personal map of meaning, avoidance and concerns that keep the unhelpful behaviour in place. We use this understanding as a basis for deriving effective goals that may help you overcome that habit and get the thing done. No promises, of course, and not without some challenge, but by implementing what you learn you’ll give yourself a sounder prospect of success.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, you will:

• Understand a simple schema that summarises the story of your procrastination – the when, how and, possibly, the why,

• Be able to understand and re-cast the meaning you have given the tasks that you procrastinate about – without beating yourself up,

• Know how to use a method for setting an effective goal to get yourself back into action, based on the above understanding,

• Know that it’s not just you – by working extensively with colleagues and peers from on real situations that you bring along to work on.

Methods

This event is a highly interactive, hands-on workshop – we won’t be lecturing or diving deeply into theory. We use small group, paired and whole group discussions to review a range of focused, structured activities and reflective exercises that raise fundamental aspects of procrastination. There is no role play and we ask participants to apply what they are learning to genuine situations, to make things practical, useful and personal, as well as enjoyable and informal. Models and personal experience are the foundation of the programme. Please come along ready to reflect, to contribute and to practice.

Competences

An important part of preparing for any further professional step is becoming (more) aware of the competences you have developed and/or want to develop. In the current workshop, the following competences from the UHasselt competency overview are actively dealt with:

Intellectual competences: Problem solving

• Personal effectiveness:
  • responsibility
  • self-development
  • stress management
• Task-orientedness:
  • organization and coordination
  • result orientedness
• Intellectual competences:
  • problem solving

For whom?

• PhD students & postdocs -  24 places available

When & where?

• June 17, 2026, 09h30-12h30
• Online

Preparation?

Come along with some specific procrastination situations to work on. If you have two or three that are quite specific, that will be enough. These should be things you are happy to work on and chat about during the workshop with other participants. These could usefully be from different aspects of your life also, whichever you feel will be most useful. We will use these on the programme.

During the workshop, we will use the online note-taking package, Padlet – and the calls will be on Zoom. Please familiarise yourself with these packages before coming. Specifically, the desktop app for Zoom is better than the mobile and web-based versions.

Registration?

• Register here from March 12 until May 20, 2026.
• As places are limited, registering does not automatically imply that you will be able to participate. You will be notified by email after the registration deadline has passed.
• Please cancel your registration at least one week in advance in case you cannot make it (cf. cancellation & no-show policy).

Acknowledged as?

• DS BSH: category 'career management & personal development' - session aimed at personal development
• DS ST: category 'career management & personal development' - course/session about career or personal development
• DS HLS: category 'transferable skills' - half of a transferable skills course