An experimental investigation of daily mental contrasting with implementation intentions and goal motives in reducing bedtime procrastination: a registered report.

OBJECTIVES

Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) is an effective self-regulation strategy for goal pursuit. Although it is a quick and cost-effective strategy, most of its applications have consisted of single-time training. Building on the existing research on bedtime procrastination, we propose that daily MCII applications can lead to more efficient pursuit of bedtime goals. Furthermore, we evaluate the conditions where MCII training could be more advantageous for people with different types of goal motives.

METHODS AND MEASURES

We recruited 297 participants Prolific and randomly allocated participants into either daily MCII or single MCII groups for a week-long diary study. We measured goal motives, goal-regulatory variables, bedtime procrastination, and affect to test our hypotheses. We conducted a multilevel structural equation modelling using .

RESULTS

Participants who completed MCII daily reported less bedtime procrastination than individuals who performed MCII one-off at the start of the week. Participants experienced increased positive affect and decreased negative affect when they procrastinated less. Autonomous goal motives were not associated with bedtime procrastination.

DISCUSSION

Daily MCII appears as an effective and easy-to-implement strategy helps reducing bedtime procrastination. Future research should test the effectiveness of daily MCII in other contexts.