Posted by So, there’s a specific job on your to-do list. How long are you going to put it off for? How long will you leave it until you can’t avoid it any longer? What will you start working on, instead of the more urgent job?
Everyone procrastinates at one time or another. Procrastination is the deliberate choice to delay a task, even though you know you’ll be the worse off for that delay! It’s a problem that I think probably everybody has to deal with at one point or another… including myself.
So this week I’m taking a look at procrastination: what it is, why do we do it, and what we can do to stop it!
Looking for the quick fix
Procrastination, at its heart, seems counterintuitive. If you know that delaying something is going to make life more difficult, why still do it?
It’s because, fundamentally, procrastination is a quick-fix to make you feel better. Not doing something might make you feel happy in the short term (‘Hooray, I’ve avoiding doing that horrible job!’), but when you stop to think about it, it’s actually self-destructive behaviour, because you’ll pay the price later on. Not only that, but you might find that procrastination triggers uncomfortable feelings, like guilt or shame.
That’s why a procrastinator will often start doing another task instead. It’s a way of distracting themselves from feeling guilty about not getting on with the more urgent job. Say you’re supposed to start working on a big paper, but instead of sitting down and getting started, you decide to put the washing on instead?
It’s something that needs doing, but is easier, and therefore more pleasant. You don’t put on the TV, because that wouldn’t alleviate your guilt at putting off the job, because you’d just feel lazy: that guilt is alleviated by you picking up some other task… just not the one that you really need to do!
Why procrastinate?
So, why might people procrastinate? It’s usually because there’s one of two things going on. Firstly, people nearly always overestimate how awful a task is going to be. If you think a job is going to be so bad, so stressful, so unbelievably terrible, it gets built up to something so huge and unpleasant that of course you’re not going to do it right now!
Of course, the reality is that it’s never as bad as you imagine: how often have you breezed through something and then afterwards wondered why you were putting it off?
The other thing that happens is overestimating how good it’ll feel to avoid the task in the first place. If you’ve decided that something will be a horrible job and go and find something else to do instead, thinking it’ll make you feel better… but you still feel bad!
That’s guilt: the thing you chose to do instead, to make yourself feel better, isn’t doing what you thought. Instead of making you feel good, that guilty feeling is being exacerbated.
Understanding your procrastination type
Of course, there’s no one size of procrastination that fits all. Understanding which type of procrastinator you are can help you develop more targeted strategies to avoid it.
If you procrastinate because you find certain tasks unpleasant or boring, you’re an avoider. Your brain is trying to protect you from negative emotions by delaying the task. For avoiders, breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks and rewarding yourself after completion can be effective.
Do you put things off because you’re worried about not doing them perfectly? Perfectionists often delay starting because they’re anxious about the outcome. If this sounds like you, try setting more realistic standards and embracing the concept of “good enough.”
When faced with too many tasks or a particularly complex project, the overwhelmed procrastinator simply doesn’t know where to start. For this type, creating clear, step-by-step plans and prioritising tasks can help reduce the feeling of being swamped.
If you can learn to recognise which pattern sounds like you, it’ll help you figure out the best way to stop procrastination before you’ve had time to go and make a cup of tea, check your email, do your laundry…
Here comes the science
If you tend towards procrastination, I think it’s a good idea to understand what’s going on in your brain at a deeper level. There’s a part of your brain called the amygdala, which is responsible for the ‘fight or flight’ response.
Imagine you’re a caveman. You’re walking along and hear a rustle in the bushes. Maybe it’s a bear, or a tiger. Your blood starts pumping, your muscles tighten up and almost immediately you’re ready to either sprint away as fast as possible, or wrestle it to the ground so you can try to kill it for your dinner.
The amygdala is your fear motivation centre and triggers the release of hormones that hijack your brain and prepare you to fight or flee. The problem we have now is, because procrastination is also centred in the amygdala, what actually happens when you’re contemplating an undesirable task is that the amygdala pipes up and triggers a similar biological response, even though you’re no way in a life-threatening situation.
You don’t feel like having a fight (doing the task), and so you run away (organise your sock drawer).
Don’t put off overcoming procrastination
The good news is that in today’s day and age, you don’t need to feel like you’ve got to fight a wild animal every time you have to do your accounts/write a difficult email/start a new project: with a little bit of behaviour change, procrastination could be quite easy to overcome.
When you realise that you’re starting to procrastinate, the first thing to do is to take a moment, sit back and breathe. Try to be aware of the changes that might be happening in your body – tense muscles, shallow breathing – and address them.
Actively relax your muscles — close your eyes, and just breathe in and out slowly for a minute or two. By regulating your breathing and relaxing your body, you’ll start to calm down.
Next, try to observe what’s happening to you in an objective, non-judgmental way. Try to recognise and name the particular emotion you’re feeling, so you can begin to change it. If you can tell yourself that you’ve probably overestimated how unpleasant a task is, and that you know you don’t want to feel guilty about putting it off, you can remove the emotion from it altogether.
Whatever you do, don’t define yourself by, procrastination. A lot of people will say they’re terrible procrastinators and it becomes an excuse for them to avoid things. Remind yourself that everyone procrastinates at one point or another, but that it’s not a permanent personality trait.
Procrastination is a state of mind, not a character flaw. It’s temporary, not a reflection of your personality, so you don’t need to create a whole narrative that you’re bad, lazy, etc etc. That just feeds your negative feelings.
The three-minute rule
Don’t avoid the task. It’ll need to be done eventually, so you may as well get on with it! I like the three-minute rule, telling yourself you can stop after three minutes. The reality is that at the end of those three minutes you’ll probably find you just carry on: sometimes simply starting the task is enough to get you going.
But what you need to do once you’ve finished the task is to reflect on what it was that caused you to procrastinate in the first place. Try to understand what caused you to feel the way you did. What was it that you wanted to avoid? Was it really as bad as you thought? If you take the time to reflect now, it means that you’re less likely to repeat your behaviour in the future!
Overcoming procrastination isn’t about achieving perfection—it’s about progress. By understanding the science behind why we delay tasks and recognizing your personal procrastination patterns, you can gradually change how you approach challenging tasks. Next time you find yourself cleaning the kitchen instead of tackling that important project, take a deep breath, acknowledge what’s happening, and give yourself permission to start small. You might be surprised at how quickly those dreaded tasks transform from mountains into manageable molehills. What will you stop putting off today?