The Procrastination Antidote
Three tips for getting on with things in 2024
Like most of us, I have plans and intentions for the New Year. Two weeks in and I’ve managed to:
Write something almost every day ✅
Eat a nutritious breakfast most mornings ✅
Walk for at least 2.5km each day ✅
Not the most challenging goals but a nice rhythm is evolving along with feelings of satisfaction and success.
What I have NOT managed to achieve is my goal of daily yoga practice, even though I:
Have set the bar for success low. 10 minutes of stretching will do. I don't even have to get the yoga mat out.
Really enjoy yoga and have practised it regularly for over 20 years. I’m hardly a novice so it's not like I’m lacking in competence (a key force for motivation1)
Know that when I practice, even briefly each day, niggly things like my twitchy lower back and sore neck and shoulder muscles are instantly relieved.
Always revel in the post-yoga sensations of a more integrated body and mind.
Yet I still don't do it. What gives?
Let’s workshop procrastination a little, shall we? I’m sure I’m not alone in avoiding tasks, behaviours and embedding new habits so maybe this will help you too.
This is an edited extract from Conquering Procrastination on the Potential Psychology Podcast, a solo episode I recorded in 2019. I’d largely forgotten about it until the lovely Jessica Lee wrote this article in Wellbeing Magazine in December 2023.
You can listen to the full episode above or find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
Here's a little of what we know from the psychology of procrastination.
It’s an issue for everyone. Whether you're a working parent, a workplace leader, you're self-employed, a student, or a stay-at-home parent, we all struggle at times with the tendency to put off doing something that we know or feel we should be doing.
For about 20 percent of us, procrastination reaches chronic proportions. This is not an innocuous, ‘Oh I’m such a procrastinator’ situation for this 20 percent. If you're in this cohort, procrastination causes you to consistently underperform relative to your capabilities and to suffer emotionally. It’s associated with feelings of guilt, shame and misery that have a very detrimental effect on wellbeing.
So what’s the difference between chronic, problematic procrastination and what most of us do regularly?
In the literature, procrastination is defined as a habitual or intentional delay in starting or finishing a task despite knowing it might have negative consequences. There’s the rub, right there at the end of that sentence - despite knowing it might have negative consequences.
For most of us, there are things that we put off doing that don’t have negative consequences. I might put off vacuuming the house and while that means an accumulation of grotty mess, it's not a negative consequence. It's just an annoyance that other people probably don't notice.
That’s not procrastination. I can, with a bit of mental gymnastics, remind myself that I'm busy or I'm tired or I have other priorities, and that if the vacuuming doesn't get done right now, or today or even this week, it doesn't matter.
Procrastination researchers will tell you that putting something off that doesn’t have negative consequences or can be reprioritised is not procrastination, it’s delay.
Why is this important?
If I asked you if procrastination was good or bad, or helpful or unhelpful, you would likely say that it’s bad and unhelpful.
If I asked you if delay is helpful or unhelpful, you’re more likely to say, ‘It depends'. You might ask, ‘What am I delaying and why? Do I have other priorities? Is it critical that the task is done right away? Might I perform the task more effectively if I delay?’
We’re more likely to be flexible and open-minded when it comes to delay - and much less harsh on ourselves. We don’t end up in that messy quagmire of guilt and self-recrimination that neither helps us nor gets things done.
Tip 1: If you’re putting off a task or activity, ask yourself if you are really procrastinating (will there be serious negative consequences by not completing the task) or whether you are just delaying the task. If it’s delay, can you reschedule? Or reprioritise? Or not complete the task at all? Do you feel better if you label your behaviour differently? Does it free you up to make a start on the task? (More on that in a moment, so read on…)
So what if there are negative consequences? Or the task can't be delayed because there's a deadline? What if you still delay getting started or you leave the task until the last minute and your stress levels rise - but you still don't do anything about it except get anxious and cross with yourself?
What if, as a coaching client said to me,
“I say I’m going to do it, but then I don’t. And I know I’m not doing it while I’m not doing it, and I’m already feeling bad about that - and I still don’t do it. What’s going on with that?”
That is procrastination.
Here’s one way to deal with it. It’s called “the mood repair theory of procrastination,” developed by Tim Pychyl and Fuschia Sirois at the University of Sheffield and it proposes that we don't procrastinate because we're avoiding a task, we procrastinate to feel better. Or as I like to say, we’re not avoiding a task, we’re avoiding a feeling.
Here’s a personal example:
I procrastinate when writing and producing podcast content (even though I love doing both). Why? Because there is always a little voice that says, ‘I want this to be great. Really excellent. But what if it’s not? What if I can’t make it great? What if I write something and it’s crappy and boring? That will be upsetting. I’ll be disappointed in myself. I’ll doubt my ability - and then doubt everything about myself. What happens then?’
What happens? I avoid doing it don’t I? Because if I don’t do it I can’t be disappointed can I?
It’s completely illogical on the one hand - but makes perfect sense on the other.
This is what psychologists call a failure of self-regulation. We fail to regulate or manage our behaviour to achieve our goals because our feelings get in the way. We give in to feel good, as Tim Pychyl says.
At its core this is the same failure of self-regulation that takes place when we eat or drink more than we should, or spend money we don’t have. Our immediate need to feel good takes precedence over our future need to achieve our goal. For chronic procrastinators, this short-term mood repair becomes a habit that can trump pretty much everything else.
Tip 2: Can you identify a feeling you might be avoiding when you procrastinate? Is it boredom, or resentment, or anxiety, or fear, or self-doubt, or something else? Can you label it? Putting feelings into words (called ‘affect labelling’) has been shown to have a regulating effects on our emotions.
So what do you do if chronic procrastination is a problem for you? Or you get stuck in a loop of berating yourself for your delay and never getting started on tasks that are important to you? What’s the best way to overcome that?
It turns out that the best antidote to procrastination is kindness.
Often when we procrastinate we get angry and frustrated with ourselves. We let our inner voice tell us that we’re hopeless, that this is behaviour only exhibited by people with no self-control, and that procrastination is some kind of ugly character flaw. We feel that motivation will come through punishing ourselves.
But that’s backward. It’s not punishment but forgiveness that we need to build motivation.
Researchers have discovered that when we acknowledge that we’re human, that being human is messy sometimes and we won’t always feel or behave the way we’d like to - and we forgive ourselves for that - we free ourselves to focus on the future. When we focus on the future we can move past maladaptive behaviour like procrastination, which in turn helps us to get started on the necessary task.
Tip 3: If you’re beating yourself up for procrastinating and getting stuck in a self-defeating loop of recrimination, blame, and avoidance, try flipping things around. Forgive yourself, talk to yourself kindly, and acknowledge that you’re human and you won’t always get things right. Then take a deep breath, shrug off those uncomfortable feelings, and see if you’re better able to get started on the task.
So what does all of this tell me about my yoga avoidance?
It tells me that it’s normal. That I’m not a bad person with little self-control. That I avoid it, at times, because getting started prompts a complicated set of thoughts and feelings such as…
Am I wearing suitable clothing and if not, do I feel like getting changed?
Can I find uninterrupted time and space when everyone is home during summer?
Which routine do I choose?
Do I have the energy right now?
What if I start and somone interrupts me?
What it makes me uncomfortable?
Would tomorrow be better?
Should I forget about this regular home practice and stick to my weekly classes instead?
The usual mild but messy, human kind of stuff.
So, what will I do about it?
I’m going to practice self-compassion. I’m going to focus on how good it feels when I’ve finished a yoga practice, as my source of motivation. I’m going to accept that while everyday practice might be amazing, occasional practice is still great. And I’m going to go and get my yoga mat out from under the bed so that it’s ready and waiting for me tomorrow morning.
Is there something that you are avoiding doing? Tell me about it. Better yet, have a go at the suggested tips and tell me if they help.
Before I go, I have an update on the Potential Psychology Podcast and plans for 2024. We’re back! I’m using the messiness of 2023 as inspiration to explore renewal and change. How do we create new behaviour and fulfil our potential, as individuals and as members of bigger systems - work teams, organisations, families and communities?
Today’s exploration of procrastination is an example of how systems thinking can help us to understand our behaviour and achieve our goals. Systems thinking explores interrelatedness, interconnectedness, patterns and feedback loops. It looks at the whole system that effects what we do and how we do it, rather than analysing individual standalone elements.
These bigger systems have a huge influence on us. They can be the factor that makes or breaks us when it comes to finding ways to be the best versions of ourselves. Yet we rarely explore them. We search instead for the silver bullet, the quick fix or the five point plan that’s going to transform our work, our business or our life.
If you know that life and work is messy and complex and you want to get into the nitty gritty of that to make a positive impact on your world, please join me. Subscribe here on Substack for updates and to the podcast on your favourite podcast app or platform. Just search Potential Psychology.
Onwards and upwards,
P.S. It might not be scientifically accurate but I love Tim Urban’s take on procrastination 🐒
1 Self Determination Theory - a widely researched theory that links personality, human motivation, and optimal functioning- posits that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are highly influential determinants of our behavior, and both drive us to meet the three basic needs of Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness.