Procrastination is putting off a task that we know we should be doing.
It’s normal. In small doses it can even be helpful, but when it gets out of control it can prevent us from achieving our goals and trap us in a life we don’t want.
To overcome procrastination we first need to understand why we procrastinate. Our brains want to avoid pain and seek pleasure. When confronted with an unpleasant feeling brought about by a task, our brains seek to escape that feeling and find something more pleasant to do, so we procrastinate. It’s a subconscious drive that all humans experience. That’s why procrastination is so common and so difficult to control.
Succumbing to procrastinating doesn’t make us lazy. It is a natural response to unpleasant feelings inspired by certain tasks and is nothing to feel guilty about.
Avoiding a difficult task by doing something more pleasant makes sense if we only consider the short-term. Occasionally procrastination can even be a good thing. If you have pushed your brain too hard for too long on a difficult or stressful task, unintentionally switching to something effortless or pleasant can give your brain time to rest and recuperate. Unfortunately, procrastination is rarely limited to the bare minimum time required for our brains to recuperate. When we procrastinate too much, we will eventually face negative long-term consequences.
At the heart of procrastination is the inability to focus our attention on the things we consider important. Our conscious minds can only focus on one thing at a time. When we focus on something, our experience of the rest of the world fades away. When we watch an engaging movie, read a compelling book or focus intensely on work, the room we are sitting in and the people around us disappear from our experience. So, when we are spending time with friends and family and are then distracted by our phones, our friends and family leave our experience until we bring our attention back to them.
Our attention also directs our experience of our minds. If we take a moment to focus on a pleasant memory or sensation, our mind fills with that pleasantness. If we focus on a negative experience or future outcome, negative feelings envelop our minds. Hence, our attention influences our experience of life. The skills and techniques that help address procrastination also help us focus our attention on what truly matters to us and thereby improve our experience of life.
Over time, procrastination becomes a habit that’s hard to break. All habits have a cue, which triggers a desire, which in turn prompts an action that produces a reward. The reward reinforces the habit and increases the chance it will be repeated. The procrastination habit can work like this:
In this way, our brain is rewarded for procrastination. Over time, our avoidance of unpleasant feelings is reinforced and procrastination becomes a deeply ingrained habit.
Our chance of procrastinating at any given time can be thought of as an old-fashioned balance scale. On one side are the causes of procrastination, things like fear, low willpower, exhaustion and unpleasant tasks. On the other are the solutions to it, things like good planning, motivation, energy and discipline. When the weight of the causes grows heavier than the weight of the solutions, we procrastinate. When the solutions outweigh the causes, we are productive.
Thinking of procrastination as a balance scale can help us understand the following features of procrastination:
To overcome procrastination we need to tip the scales toward the solutions to procrastination. The Technique helps us learn the most efficient way to do this.