Overview

Overcome is running a waitlist-controlled RCT to test the 4-week procrastination coaching programme following a successful pilot in late 2023. The sample will include EAs, animal advocates, and the general population. If you’re interested in joining the study, read on!

The Programme

4 x 1-hour coaching sessions over four consecutive weeks. Your coach will work with you to explore your procrastination triggers, and then help you develop and troubleshoot your tailored action plan. They’ll also incorporate cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness techniques to help you manage urges, as well as help you build long-term habits to reduce procrastination (e.g., sleep, relaxation, leisure). The programme was designed based on a literature review, expert interviews, personal experience, and our experience with procrastinating clients.

The Study

1. If you’re eligible, you’ll be invited to a 20- to 30-minute screening call to confirm your eligibility and ask your questions about the study.
2. You’ll sign a consent form to confirm your participation.
3. You’ll be randomised to the intervention or waitlist group. The former receives the programme immediately, and the latter in four weeks. Participants are randomised twice per week, so you can expect to be randomised in 2-3 days after you attend the screening call.
4. You get £10 / $12 to compensate you for completing a few short questionnaires, and the same again if we ask you to do a follow-up interview.

Deal-Breakers

1. Scheduling: The study coaches are mainly available between 9am and 6pm UK time. If you’re based in a time zone like Pacific Time (e.g., San Francisco), your sessions will be early in the morning.
2. Follow Through: It requires at least 20 minutes each day to maintain any productivity gains after the programme.
3. Nothing flashy: We’ll be helping you reliably execute on the 20% of things that make 80% of the difference. If you’re already executing on those things, we can't help.
4. If you have a mental illness: If you’re struggling with a severe mental health condition, you’ll get screened out unless you’re getting support for that elsewhere.
5. 20% Failure Rate: There is a ~20% chance that you will invest ~10 hours without seeing meaningful improvement (see below for pilot results).

Pilot Results

The feedback was ~15% glowing, ~65% positive, ~15% neutral, ~5% negative. Below is an example from each category of feedback, written by anonymised EAs.

• 15% had an amazing experience
  • “I feel as though I’ve seen an 80% increase in not only the amount of work, but the quality of work… all in just 3 sessions!”
• 65% benefited from the programme and maintained their progress.
  • “The six sessions I had with [coach] were eye-opening. He was fairly professional, was actively listening, and provided me with tools and great pieces of advice regarding my problems. The program improved my productivity and showed me to a healthier way to perceive everyday problems. I am now able to overcome difficulties easier and became significantly more self-aware (the lack of awareness was a key contributor to my procrastination). [Coach] is a competent facilitator who created an atmosphere in which I was comfortable with opening up and I’m grateful for all the work he put in the process. They're friendly and intelligent and I think is a perfect fit for supporting people.”
• 15% did not benefit, usually saying it's due to factors outside our control (but they might just be too polite to blame us)
  • “For the two weeks I worked with [coach], I felt exceptionally productive (probably my top 5% most productive of weeks), and felt that [coach] helped me a lot in dealing with procrastination of a single issue. After the two weeks, I didn't manage to get the habits to stick (mostly because of travelling and multiple tasks becoming overwhelming) and so probably regressed to my original baseline of procrastination. This is not a reflection of [coach]'s help of course, but maybe for the program to be impactful it also has to help to stick and look beyond procrastinating single tasks.”
• 5% reported a negative experience.
  • “[Coach] was a very helpful and welcoming person, but I think the real issue was that there probably should have been more clarity upfront about the level of prep someone has made in the past trying to handle their procrastination. The steps themselves all felt very basic - things I have dealt with in the past that unfortunately did not work for me. So, I ultimately felt like there was nothing new in the process for someone who had done research on trying to fix their problems themselves; but, at the same time, it could be that someone who has been through all the basics and is still procrastinating, cannot be helped by a couple-session course. So, it may be fine for people that the course is better suited for, and perhaps it makes sense to screen out folks like me in advance.”
  • Another user had an extremely unreliable coach who essentially ghosted them for weeks on end. The coach in question no longer works here.
  • Not everyone responded to our request for feedback, so there might be more bad experiences we don't know about.

Pilot VS This Study

• The pilot in 2023 had strong results despite weak execution. We expect to get equal or better results this time round.
  • It was with our first-ever batch of coaches, we’re now on our 19th.
  • That batch of coaches was recruited from 80 applicants, this one from ~400. We’ve had around two years to iterate on the programme, how we select coaches, how we train them, and how we pair them up.
• This study aims to quantify the impact on people’s productivity and happiness, whereas the pilot relied on qualitative feedback from users.
• If the RCT results are strong, we plan to roll this out for free for EAs and animal advocates.

Social Proof

• AIM sends their staff and incubatees to use our programmes
  • For a big list of testimonials from their founders, see here.
• High-impact professionals send their alumni
• Hive promotes our services to all their members
• Trustpilot rates us 4.7/5 (n = 34)