Research Recap with Skye: Procrastination

Summary

---

Hacking Your ADHD: Research Recap with Skye – Procrastination

Host: William Curb
Guest: Skye Watterson
Date: April 24, 2026

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Hacking Your ADHD, hosted by William Curb with guest Skye Watterson, dives into the neuroscience of procrastination through a discussion of the paper Brain Reveal: Reduced attention and error processing during monetary go/no-go task in procrastination. William and Skye break down the study, share their reactions to its methods and findings, and highlight actionable takeaways for people with ADHD struggling with procrastination.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Study Overview & Rationale

[00:26 – 02:52]

• Purpose: The paper explores what happens in the brains of academic procrastinators, especially around attention, error processing, and response to rewards/punishments.

• Participants: 179 students, with a notable majority being female (uncommon in similar research).

• Design Distinction: Unlike many ADHD studies, this one excluded those with psychiatric/neurological illnesses, focusing purely on procrastination without diagnosing ADHD.

  • William Kerr: "They weren't specifically looking at ADHD...they were looking at people who just struggled." [02:09]
  • Skye Watterson: “It’s really important to get a sense of what’s going on.” [01:55]

---

2. Study Methods: Tasks & Measurements

[02:52 – 05:19]

• Go/No-Go Task: Participants completed a modified version focused on monetary rewards, assessing response inhibition and executive control.
• Brain Scans: fMRI data was collected, but both hosts questioned its essential value for practical takeaways.
  • Skye Watterson: “It was nice to see, but it wasn’t necessary.” [05:09]
  • William Kerr: “The more important takeaways...came from the results of the no-go part.” [04:33]

---

3. Major Findings: Executive Dysfunction & Error Processing

[05:19 – 07:45]

• Post-error Slowing: Procrastinators took more time to reorient after mistakes (increased post-error slowing).
  • Skye Watterson: “They needed time to reorient their attention from committing a mistake to response execution in the following trial.” [07:03]
• ERN (Error-Related Negativity): Brain signals pointed toward inefficient resource allocation in high procrastinators.
  • William Kerr: “They were seeing this as maybe related to problems in how they're allocating those brain resources.” [06:09]

---

4. The Impact of Task Difficulty & Real-Life Implications

[07:45 – 10:38]

• Task Complexity: When the task became harder, procrastinators’ performance dropped significantly, underlining difficulties with increasing cognitive load.
  • William Kerr explains hard mode: “Now you have a specific digit you’re not supposed to push…if a digit is repeated…don’t push it for the second time. So it’s really amping up that, like, oh, I have to think about what’s on the screen and what previously happened.” [08:08]
• Related Factors: Brief tangent on reaction times, frustration tolerance, and possible overlap with dyspraxia.
• Real-Life Example: Procrastination not remedied by time management alone—requires other strategies such as external accountability.

---

5. Key Takeaways & Practical Strategies

[10:38 – 13:56]

• Root of Procrastination: It’s tied to attentional fluctuations and executive dysfunction—not simply poor time management.
  • William Kerr: “If we're just focusing on something like time management, that isn't going to help with procrastination because that's not the problem that we're dealing with.” [10:38]
• Strategic Approaches:
  • Build accountability (team-based work, presence of others).
  • Use rewards, but recognize small incentives may not be motivating enough.
• Academic Insight: Even easy tasks reveal executive dysfunction; pronounced with higher memory loads, aligning with patterns seen in ADHD.
  • Sky Watterson: “They found that…executive dysfunctioning and academic procrastination…were observed even when the task was relatively easy but they became more pronounced…when the working memory load increased.” [13:05]

---

Memorable Quotes

• “Procrastination isn’t a failure of time management, it’s a failure of other attentional difficulties.”
  — William Kerr [12:34]

• “They needed time to reorient their attention from committing a mistake to response execution in the following trial. That really describes how people work.”
  — Skye Watterson [07:03]

• “Just having that month deadline is not enough for me to do that. It doesn’t matter how well I’m putting together my calendar if I don’t have other things...like accountability.”
  — William Kerr [11:11]

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:26] Introduction to the Research Recap format and today’s topic
• [01:55] Defining procrastination and study participant selection
• [03:01] Reflections on the value of focusing on procrastination rather than ADHD diagnosis
• [04:33] Questioning the value of fMRI data for takeaways
• [07:03] Key finding: Procrastinators need more time to reorient after mistakes
• [08:08] Explanation of the “hard mode” go/no-go task
• [10:38] Major insight: Time management alone doesn’t fix procrastination
• [13:05] Study conclusion: Executive dysfunction is observable at even easy difficulty levels

---

Overall Tone & Flow

The episode is conversational, occasionally humorous, and empathetic to listeners who struggle with procrastination and ADHD. Both hosts bring practical experience and lived insight, balancing scientific observation with real-world relevance.

---

Summary for Non-Listeners

This episode deconstructs a neuroscience paper to reveal that chronic procrastination is more deeply connected to fundamental attentional and executive functioning issues rather than poor time management alone. The hosts break down the methods and findings, relate them to ADHD experiences, and recommend that listeners focus on accountability and meaningful motivation rather than just scheduling—to truly tackle procrastination.

---

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states.

[William Kerr]

All right, welcome to Hacking youg adhd. I'm your host, William Kerr, and I have adhd. On this podcast, I dig into the tools, tactics and best practices to help you work with your ADHD brain. Today, I'm joined by Sky Watterson for our Research Recap series. In this series, we take a look at a single research paper and dive into what the paper says, how it was conducted, and try and find any practical takeaways that we can give you. In this episode, we're going to be discussing a paper called Brain Reveal. Reduced attention and error processing during monetary go no go task in procrastination. And this is a study that's looking at how procrastinators handle mistakes. Try to stay focused, especially when tests get harder, and how those differences in rewards and punishment affects those outcomes. So a lot there. And I'm gonna tell you, this paper has a ton of acronyms and so let's get into it.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, a ton of acronyms. But we love our neuroscience papers because they show us how the brain is working differently. And I got asked a question about that on a podcast yesterday. And it's nice to be able to say, yes, this is happening. This is different. Okay, so what they were looking at is they basically said, you know, procrastination, which we all know, but just to give you a reminder, is a phenomenon which people voluntarily delay intended and necessary and or personally important tasks despite knowing that delaying will have more negative than positive consequences. We've all done that many times probably today. And so this is a huge thing people talk about all the time. So it's really important to get a sense of what's going on.

[William Kerr]

Yeah, there's. Well, and especially going like, what are the outcomes of these procrastination things like what causes. What's the outcome of procrastination beyond the task not getting done.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So they were looking at. They basically had 179 students. Only 48 of those were male, which is quite unusual. Usually more males. But they weren't specifically looking at adhd. They were looking at procrastination. And I thought that was maybe an interesting difference in how they usually. They're like, we. This is how we Figured out if these people have adhd, they didn't do that in this study. They were looking for, you know, they were working in looking at people who just struggled. They. They actually excluded participants with psychiatric or neurological illnesses.

[William Kerr]

Yeah, it was really a study where they were going, hey, this is a, like, mental profile of what happens with adhd. And we're just gonna look at.

[Sky Watterson]

What did you think about that, by the way?

[William Kerr]

So, yeah, it was a very interesting study design being going. Yeah, we're going to have this aspect of not taking ADHD into account and just using that profile. And there are some great ways to, like, that, like, opens up a lot of, like, pathways to, like, oh, we're not just looking specifically adhd, we're looking at what people with ADHD do, which is procrastinate. And I think that is why I have that problem with this design is where I'm like, this is what they're saying exists. And I'm like, kind of. Because often, like, looking at the why behind procrastination is a bigger issue than just saying procrastination happens. And with executive dysfunction, that changes why procrastination is happening.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. So basically what they did was this was a combination of an activity and brain scans. So people were doing a modified version of a go, no go task, which is basically looking at. Yeah. How they are responding to things that say, like, you've got to start. You've got to stop all of those different things for monetary rewards specifically. And there was conversation about that. And then they were looking at. Yeah. Fmris and. And making sure that. Trying to scan their brain, which. I don't know how. How helpful did you feel like the brain scan. It was. It was interesting.

[William Kerr]

Yeah, it was certainly interesting, but it. I don't know, I. I felt like it was a step that they didn't need with just looking at. I mean, it does give a lot of like, oh, this is how the brain is interacting during these tasks. Great. But the more important takeaways from this study all came from the results of the no go, no go, no go part of it. And while they did relate the brain studies aspects of it, I was like, that's just a additional piece of data there that's interesting, but not actually giving me meaningful information.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. It was nice to see, but it wasn't. It wasn't necessary, which is. Which is not always the case. Like, usually. Usually it's the opposite when you're doing these kind of brain scans.

[William Kerr]

And I do think it's Important here to be like, hey, we're not neuroscience.

[Sky Watterson]

Oh, yeah.

[William Kerr]

So that, that might be why we're like playing like, yeah, this isn't that important. This isn't what is interesting to us. We're interested in the actual results. And the neuroscientists might be going like, yeah, but look.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, very true, very true.

[William Kerr]

Look at how the brain is lighting up. And I'm like, yeah, I don't have enough background information to make that.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, yeah, relevant to me. I haven't done. And yeah, I've done postgrad neuroscience, but it still didn't hit. So if someone else has something that really mattered, like, definitely let us know. That would be amazing. Maybe we'll have you on. Um, but yeah, so basically they were looking at post era slowing. So they found that, you know, post era slowing was increased in people who were high academic procrastinators. What. Which was really interesting.

[William Kerr]

Just like, you know, the. Now I've got another acronym that I forgot. The ern, the error related negativity, uh, was like that. They. Yeah, they were seeing this, that like, as a maybe related to problems in how they're allocating those brain resources. And this is why they were like, really wanting to look at those brain scans. It's like, oh, how are we. How are they allocating these resources? These people that are, you know, academic procrastinators are doing this thing where they are having more problems allocating resources. And based on how they did the study, they're like, oh, this is, you know, like reduced motivational engagement. And I'm like, that's really hard to accurately measure in a study that is money was involved. Do you have the financial motivation there? But it's not, you know, it's like the difference between getting $5 or $10 or something.

[Sky Watterson]

So when you're talking about this, then what they found was that they discussed, yeah, procrastinators had problems with executive control. That's what they theorized. And that they needed time to reorient their attention from committing a mistake to response execution in the following trial. Now, I highlighted that because I thought that was a really solid, you know, suggestion in terms of just the way that it describes how people work. You know, the way that people with, you know, more of this, which they then discussed as potentially having adhd, they need time to reorientate. It reminded me of that bleed effect, that transition time conversation as well.

[William Kerr]

Yeah. And it was also then really interesting too, with the differences between the regular go no go versus the like, higher intensity One which, you know, they had that, like, twist where it's like, oh, yeah, the hard level you now have. The procrastinators had a significant dip in their performance because. Which is. This is where I find it very interesting because this is where you see that executive function, if you are. So let me describe what the hard level was first. So in the regular no go, go, no go. It's like you have, you know, a series of digits that are put on the screen. Like, and then you're one through two, you push go. And then the rest of the digits, you just don't. Or something, you know, so there's like, two things and you. And they're measuring how quickly you are pushing the button. But with the hard mode, you have to, like, really think about it because it's. Now you have a specific digit you're not supposed to push anything on. And then also, if a digit is repeated, even if it's a go. So if, like, one was the go and you had one go first, then it repeats the one. Don't push it for the second time. So it's really amping up that, like, oh, I have to think about what's on the screen and what previously happened.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah.

[William Kerr]

And so I can actually be like. I basically, like, pounding the key and forgetting it all the time. Being like, I'm trying to get fast, but I'm not doing it right.

[Sky Watterson]

It's also a funny one, you know, because it does remind me of. There is a relationship between ADHD and, you know, these kinds of things and dyspraxia. And I feel like there is a conversation here about just general ability to move your body fast enough and, like, you know, all of those kinds of things coming into play as well. Like, how good are your reaction times? I don't know if that's specifically related to adhd, but. But it is a conversation. Like, I. I think I would struggle to do that just because my body and my brain are not working at the same speed, generally speaking.

[William Kerr]

Yeah. And it would also be interesting to see this with, like, frustration tolerance going in, like, as I'm trying to do it in the beginning and then being like, I'm not getting it because I'm trying to go too fast. And now I'm trying to, like, yeah, go the other way, and I'm going too slow now. And it's.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah. Like, for example, if they. And, okay, we're getting a little bit away from it, but, you know, if they had had somebody who was a procrastinate, an academic Procrastinator who was also played a sport. Whether that would have had a difference, it just, it feels like it's a lot of. And these are always the cases. I'm not saying this isn't. This is, you know, a really good study. They tried to think of everything, but it's just a curiosity.

[William Kerr]

Yeah, yeah. And really if we're like just looking at this paper overall, like, yeah, there are some great things that we can take away. You know, it's like just looking at this, you know, procrastination as you know, like this fundamentally linked to our attentional fluctuations and you know, the very much implies that, you know, if we're just focusing on something like time management, that isn't going to help with procrastination because that's not the problem that we're dealing with.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, that's a really, really good point. Can you give me an example of, of what this would look like in real life?

[William Kerr]

Well, I think for specifically like, this is kind of like being like, I, I have a deadline coming up and in a month and being like, oh, I'm going to. Trying to manage your time there beforehand is really hard. If we're looking at this purely from a procrastination time management, like, oh, I'm going to work at these times, all this stuff. This is like, oh, I need to have a bunch of other strategies in place so that I'm not procrastinating on this. Just having that month deadline is not enough for me to do that. That's. And it doesn't matter how well I'm putting together my calendar. If I don't have other things put in place, like accountability, you know, like specific times, I'm working with someone for the accountability and like working out the steps that need to happen.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, exactly. It's funny actually because this is an academic example and I always think of my clients. I've had clients in academia who write papers for a living. Found that they almost entirely had to write papers with a team for that reason. Like the deadline, the single deadline was not doable and they procrastinated a lot. And, and in fact that's why we're here doing this, doing this because it helps us both read academic articles together as well.

[William Kerr]

Yeah. And yeah, I think there's a lot that we can take out from this being like, oh yeah, okay. So procrastination isn't a failure of time management, it's a failure of other attentional difficulties. And if that's the case, let's not focus on time management, let's focus on things I can do to amp up my motivation, amp up my thing. Tiny amounts of money probably won't do it. But you know, having rewards are often great for ADHD.

[Sky Watterson]

Yeah, 100%. So they found that. Yeah, the prison data confirmed previous findings of executive dysfunctioning and academic procrastination. And they were observed at the neural and behavioral level even when the task was relatively easy. But they became more pronounced behaviorally when the working memory load increased, which is, you know, something we talk about all the time, that idea of memory. And you know, they had it really did. This is the bit where they talked about adhd. They talked about executive and attentional deficits were observed are observed in ADHD and suggested to be related to cortical arousal caused by decreased tonic activity of the noro adrenic system. So they really were going in on saying like, okay, this is probably related to adhd, but they really only brought that in at the end.

[William Kerr]

Foreign.

[Sky Watterson]

If you have enjoyed listening to this episode, then you might like to listen to my podcast, the ADHD Skills Lab, where we go and deep dive into more of the research. And also we focus on ADHD support for business owners. Whether you're aspiring or you have your own company, and if you have your own company and you wish that you had somebody who would just build these systems for you so you could stop figuring out what to do all the time, well, that's what we do. We are mentor and operator together. So if you want to learn a little bit more about that, you can find me at Unconventional Organization. Thanks for listening.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match Limited by state law not available in all states.