We’ve all been there. That looming deadline, that project we just can’t seem to start. Procrastination. It’s a universal struggle. But why do we procrastinate, and, more importantly, how can we break free? This exploration of procrastination will give you actionable strategies to finally complete tasks and stop wasting time.
Procrastination isn’t simply laziness. It’s a complex behavior with roots in our emotional and cognitive processes. We often tell ourselves we’ll feel more like doing it tomorrow, but this rarely leads to positive outcomes. While people have procrastinated for centuries, our increasingly demanding lifestyles seem to magnify this issue.
Table of Contents:
- Why We Procrastinate
- Combating Procrastination
- Understanding the Procrastination Mind
- Tools and Strategies to Overcome Procrastination
- Conclusion
Why We Procrastinate
Perfectionism
The drive for perfection can be paralyzing. Perfectionism can lead to endless revisions, making it nearly impossible to finish tasks.
For example, a researcher might endlessly tweak a paper, past the point of publication (Steel, 2007). Letting go of flawlessness can feel like admitting defeat. This often leads to important work not getting submitted, furthering feelings of frustration.
Low Motivation
Some tasks are simply boring. When motivation drops, so does our willingness to act.
A student dreading a test may find any excuse to avoid studying, especially if grades aren’t a priority (Ferrari, Johnson, & McCown, 1995). Procrastination becomes an escape from unpleasant tasks.
Unclear Goals
Vague goals, like “get in shape,” often lead to procrastination. How do you even start such an enormous goal?
Specific goals, like “Run a 5K in under 30 minutes,” provide a clear target (Locke & Latham, 2002). This allows for measurable steps toward achieving your goal, making it feel far more achievable. Start creating specific daily, attainable goals to avoid making poor time management choices.
Underlying Psychological Factors
Sometimes, procrastination is a defense mechanism. One example is self-handicapping – creating obstacles to justify potential failure. Students who anticipate failing a test might intentionally avoid studying (Ferrari & Tice, 2000).
If they fail, they blame the lack of preparation, not their abilities (Berglas & Jones, 1978), thus protecting their self-esteem. Consider taking the opposite approach. Focus on your long-term rewards and stick to your to-do list. Learn your time management skills and use tools and methods to become more proficient at managing your procrastination time.
Combating Procrastination
Boosting Your Motivation
Our brains prefer immediate rewards. Combat the present bias by linking dreaded tasks to enjoyable activities. This is called temptation bundling.
For instance, only watch your favorite show while folding laundry or listen to a podcast during your workout (Morin, 2020). This makes chores more appealing.
Breaking It Down
Large projects can be overwhelming. Break them into smaller, more manageable pieces. Instead of writing a whole book, aim for one page. Rather than cleaning the entire house, focus on just the sink. Keep in mind that beating procrastination takes time and you can overcome procrastination. Procrastinate tend to sabotage themselves because the activity they avoid often has long-term rewards that make people feel good.
This keeps momentum going (Burki, 2020) and prevents procrastination from derailing your day. Even seemingly insignificant tasks are steps towards progress and prevent those small bits of procrastination from snowballing into a day of wasting time.
External Accountability
External consequences can motivate us to keep commitments. Enlist a workout buddy, share copy link with friends, or utilize accountability websites. On Stickk, for example, failing to reach your goal results in a financial penalty.
This encourages follow-through (Clear, 2018) by forcing your present self to invest in future success. Stickk employs negative reinforcement strategies to motivate goal completion.
Visual Cues
Visual reminders can be powerful tools. Use a calendar, check off a to-do list, or create a visual representation of your progress (Clear, 2018).
Try the Seinfeld Strategy. The Endowed Progress Effect helps maintain visual awareness and offers a structured approach to tackling daily tasks, avoiding self-criticism if you fall off track. Just restart the system the next day, focusing on the strategies that work for you. Share copy link info shopping with those you know if you feel it will encourage or motivate your success.
Understanding the Procrastination Mind
Procrastinators often rely on flawed thinking, convincing themselves they work best under pressure. This isn’t always the case.
The “I Work Better Under Pressure” Myth
Research debunks the “pressure equals productivity” myth (Ferrari, 2013). While it might feel true in isolated instances, this mindset is generally damaging (Cherry, 2023).
Some studies suggest this only applies to specific personality types in controlled settings. While there may be some specific situations or personality types where a “controlled burn” so-to-speak helps a select minority (Ferrari, 2013), in many cases procrastination due to pressure stems from emotional self-sabotage and lack of sufficient preparation.
Mood Management
Procrastination is often a way to avoid negative feelings. We tell ourselves our future selves will handle it better (Cherry, 2023). This assumption, however, isn’t supported by scientific findings.
Take “revenge bedtime procrastination” (WebMD). This describes sacrificing sleep to reclaim a sense of control after a stressful day. Often times the activities avoided can help promote a more relaxed mood as well as making household chores a welcome change of pace and daily basis for making decisions for what you want in life instead of procrastinate tendancies to let poor time management take over.
Tools and Strategies to Overcome Procrastination
Here are more actionable strategies for managing procrastination:
- The Two-Minute Rule: If a task takes under two minutes, do it immediately. This builds momentum. Breaking down larger tasks into smaller chunks gets things moving.
- Ivy Lee Method: Plan tomorrow’s top six tasks. Tackle them in order, completing one before moving to the next (Clear, 2018). This promotes efficiency over busyness. And helps students procrastinate from pushing things off until the last minute.
- Timeboxing: Allocate specific time slots for certain tasks. This adds structure to your daily routine. Create small windows of opportunity and see your time management transform to overcome procrastination for household chores.
- Eliminate Distractions: Identify procrastination triggers (social media, email, etc.). Silence or block them. Procrastination can sometimes be affected by poor time management in correlation with your overall mental health.
We all procrastinate. However, chronic procrastination requires lifestyle adjustments. Implementing the discussed strategies can be helpful before procrastination becomes overwhelming. Avoid striving for perfection when fighting procrastination. Depression procrastination can manifest if your procrastination time takes control of your day so you need to take charge and making decisions on a daily basis about what will improve and make things better overall. Completing tasks on time builds self-confidence.
| Book | Author | Why It’s Helpful |
|---|---|---|
| Thinking, Fast and Slow | Daniel Kahneman | Explores the cognitive biases contributing to procrastination. |
| Learned Optimism | Martin Seligman | Helps cultivate an optimistic outlook to combat procrastination. |
| Stumbling on Happiness | Daniel Gilbert | Examines how expectations about the future impact our current actions. |
| The Paradox of Choice | Barry Schwartz | Discusses how excessive options can lead to indecision and procrastination. Provides practical steps toward making better choices by offering various approaches, including managing daily tasks logically to increase quality engagement. Helps readers consider different perspectives on what holds them back, be it urgent goals or daily routine decisions. |
Conclusion
Procrastination is a common, yet conquerable, challenge. By using strategies for time management, mood regulation, breaking tasks down into manageable steps, and building in accountability, you can achieve your goals and manage even mundane tasks. Time management skills can be used to plan for your procrastination time so that the negative consequences of procrastinate tend to not have as much control of your daily routine.
Don’t let procrastination steal another day. This article offers practical strategies to implement into your daily routine. Start small, be consistent, and celebrate your progress. By using these tools to fight procrastination and take those initial steps today you can get what matters accomplished today, by making the conscious decision that those things that matter and those tasks that make you feel good when they are completed can improve today.
