Piers Steel Ph.D.

About

Dr. Piers Steel is one of the world’s leading researchers and speakers on the science of motivation and procrastination. Winner of the Killam Emerging Research Leader award, he is considered the top new professor at the University of Calgary, where he teaches human resources and organizational dynamics at the Haskayne School of Business. He has been studying procrastination and its impact for more than ten years—and spent the decades before that as a procrastinator himself. Dr. Steel’s research has been reported thousands of times around the world, ranging from Psychology Today and New Scientist to Good Housekeeping and The New Yorker. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, with his wife and two sons.

Books by Piers Steel Ph.D.

Recent Posts

The Original Myth

Does procrastination improve creativity? A new take on an old idea.

Shoot for Now, Ask Questions Later

Deadline gorillas. They chase us to get that assignment done or to fill in tax returns. Zap'em dead with hyperbolic discounting.

Living in the Candy Store

Taking responsibility for yourself sometimes means taking responsibility for the world you live in. Change where you are and change who you are. The latest generation of technological assists do that exactly that, helping you march to your own tune and do the work you think is important.

How Ebola Won The Election for Conservatives

There's a natural fit between concerns and political values. Where liberals are the party of promotion, conservative are the party of protection. So why should democrats emphasize Ebola in their election campaign? Simply put, they shouldn't... ever, and paid the cost. The psychology of why this is so is covered here.

Self-Efficacy and Success: Is There Any Relationship?

What's your self-confidence level? Use our comprehensive assessment battery to find out if you have too much or too little. Either can be problematic.

If You Met All Your Goals Today, This Article Is Not for You

Smarter than SMART goals, this describes a research program to develop an online app that trains you how to make goals that have the maximum motivation and science theoretically allows.

When Self-Blackmail Becomes Blackmail

Precommitment can be changed from self-blackmail, where you try to get yourself to follow through on your intentions, to just plain old blackmail. This can happen any time you have a referee to help enforce the precommitment and a legitimate reason for violating your own rule. Worse case scenario? The financial destruction of an entire nation.

The Two Faces of the New Year

New Year's Resolutions are one of the finest traditions that Western society has produced. And psychological research indicates that the very act of making one is one of the easiest ways to improve yourself, providing you do it the right way.

Procrastination, Precommitment and The Fiscal Cliff

James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, wrote about how psychology can fix the workings of government. With a little help from psychology, we can make the fiscal cliff work as intended.

Lying and Procrastination

I’ve lied to myself plenty because it was easier to. At least at first. Confronting ones own lies is hard to do because if you believe them, you think there are no lies to confront in the first place.