Basic Principles of Eﬃcacy
Following are the ten fundamental rules of eﬃcacy that proved
most eﬀective in helping chronic, problem procrastinators
manage comfort and fluency compared to matched controls.
Each rule was accompanied in the study with detailed strategies
for practice and assessment (Boice, 1995a; 1995b); here I
greatly abbreviate the rules.
1. Wait. Waiting helps writers (and teachers) develop patienceand direction for writing by tempering rushing. Its exercises
include methods for calming, slowing, and noticing before andduring starts. At first glance, this rule seems at odds with thesecond.
2. Begin before feeling ready. The second rule coaches writers insystematic ways of finding imagination and confidence; writers
practice regular bouts of collecting, filing, rearranging, andoutlining ideas while making sure they solve the right problem
and have the right materials and plans at hand. Neither eﬃcacy
nor its rewards, including happiness, just happen; they must be
prepared for and cultivated (Csikszentmihalyi, 1994). The
second rule, incidentally, is often mastered before the first; there
is no necessary chronology or separation in these admonitions.
3. Work in brief, daily sessions. Writers are advised to work
regularly at prewriting, at writing, and at additional things
easily procrastinated and blocked. But the rule also means
maintaining a regular habit of brief sessions that will persist
because it does not supplant other important activities. Its
strategies include contingency management (but only in theshort run, until a habit of regular work is established; writers
perform better with intrinsic motivation). A distinctive qualityof productive, creative people is that each day they return totheir desks (Gardner, 1993).
4. Stop. Stopping means halting in timely fashion, when breaks
are needed or when enough has been done for the day. It means
moving on from writing to other things including rest. This
most diﬃcult rule is practiced by means of planned breaks, bystopping early (often in the midst of tasks), and with external
reminders (for example, social cues, such as a prearranged phone
call from a friend about when to stop.
5. Balance preliminaries with writing. Writers practice thebalance rule by scheduling periods of delay before moving frompreliminaries to actual writing. They make clear, manageable
plans for collecting, organizing, and conceptual outlining—in a
way that ensures as much time spent on these preliminaries as
on writing.
6. Supplant self-defeating thinking and habits. The sixth rule isabout moderating the pessimistic, self-denigrating thoughtsthat lead to depression and inaction or overreaction (Seligman,1991). It is also about changing habits that otherwise incline
writers to shyness, suspiciousness, and related self-defeating
behaviors (Baumeister & Scher, 1988). At its most complex, it
teaches ways of making the private bets that discourage
impulsiveness, by requiring a price for impetuous acts ofprocrastinating and blocking. When these bets are made well,they recast the penalty for defaulting as too expensive to permit
indulgence in escape behaviors—those immediately rewarding
acts that tempt us to be disobedient and self-defeating (Ainslie,1975; Logue, 1994). Other exercises include (a) habitualmonitoring for negative talk about the self and for maladaptive
styles of working and (b) practice of rational-emotive therapies
to defuse and redirect irrational thinking in and aroundsessions.
7. Manage emotions. The seventh rule, like the sixth, is about
self-control but more about the emotional side of writing. In
particular it means monitoring for and moderating thehypomania that can make writing rushed and superficial. It
means working at a moderate pace punctuated by occasional
bursts of excitement and accent that energize but do notprevent returning to unhurried gaits of working, that do not
induce enduring depression (Boice, 1994). The resulting
patterns of variability in pacing and emotional emphasis
resemble what Carl Rogers identified as ‘‘focused voice’’ in his
pioneering observations of expert therapists (Hill & Corbett,1993).
8. Moderate attachments and reactions. The rule about moderationreflects the finding, in composition research, that successful
writers tend to be less attached to their writing, especially in its
formative stages. Their detachment allows more revision andmore benefit from critics; it makes inevitable criticism lessdevastating. Writers in the treatment program are coached tonotice when they are reluctant to stop during sessions, when
they feel their early plans and drafts are already brilliant, when
they are unwilling to share unfinished work because its ideas
may be stolen.
9. Let others, even critics, do some of the work. The penultimate
rule requires even more letting go, delegating, collaborating. It
leads to regularly scheduled sharing of work and soliciting
constructive praise and criticism. It engages writers in roleplayed approximations to socially skilled ways of handling andlearning from criticism (for example, ‘‘Yes, I can see how
someone might react that way . . .’’).
10. Limit wasted eﬀort. Because this last rule, about not wasting
eﬀorts, comes late in the year-long program, when writers arebeginning to work on their own, its practices are somewhat
idiosyncratic. It nonetheless has a common theme, one
originating in the finding that resilience in writing relies mostheavily on ways of working with minimal wasted eﬀort. Its
exercises focus on monitoring for ineﬃciencies, notably
impatience (for example, rushing work until fatigue sets in) andintolerance (for example, overreacting to an interruption orcriticism).
Boice, R. (1995a). Developing teaching, then writing amongst
new faculty. Research in Higher Education, 36, 415–456.
Boice, R. (1995b). Writerly rules for teachers. Journal of HigherEducation, 66, 32–60.