The Science Behind Why You Procrastinate and How To Overcome It

You know what you need to do.

The deadline is approaching.

The task is sitting there, waiting for you to start.

Instead, you scroll social media, reorganise your workspace,

and finally call your grandmother.

And then—panic sets in.

The last-minute rush.

The self-criticism.

The guilt.

You don’t eat.

You don’t talk to anyone.

Heck, you forget you have a phone.

You stay up all night to finish.

And you make it!

You did it.

“Maybe I do work better under pressure.”

No.

You vow that this won’t happen again and that it will be different next time.

But next time isn’t different.

You fall into the same cycle of procrastination, despite knowing better.

I know I was there, too.

Just last year.

I procrastinated writing these newsletters.

I always wrote them at the last minute.

Sure, I’d make it and share them.

But, once shared, I always thought, “If I had done this sooner, it would be so much better.”

Unfortunately, procrastination caught up with me.

I wouldn’t finish the letter in time, or I didn’t feel it was good enough.

So I didn’t post.

And then it’d happen again.

My posting became inconsistent, and I felt guilty.

So I wouldn’t post again.

On and on, this happened.

I was trapped in a cycle of procrastination, and I couldn’t understand why.

I knew writing the newsletters was important, but I still procrastinated.

I knew if I didn’t turn this around, I’d be sacrificing my goals.

I wasn’t lazy, undisciplined or short of productivity strategies.

There was something deeper going on, and I needed to get to the root of it.

Because if I didn’t, I feared I’d get to the end of my life filled with regret.

“The cost of procrastination is the life you could have lived.”

The Battle You Keep Losing

Most people think procrastination is about time management or laziness.

If only you had the right planner, the perfect schedule, or enough willpower, you’d finally get things done.

But even with that, people still procrastinate.

Maybe you think that procrastination is putting things off until the last minute.

You’ll do it later.

But procrastinating isn’t the same as delaying.

According to Dr Tim Pychyl, one of the leading experts on procrastination, there are different kinds of delay.

• Purposeful delay: You delay things intentionally because it fits better at a different time. e.g. having a meeting with a partner because it works better in your schedules. You use your reason to determine if it’s something to do now or later.

• Inevitable delay: This is when you delay things due to unexpected events. e.g. traffic or flight delays. It’s unexpected, but you know it happens.

• Delay due to emotional problems: You delay tasks and things due to emotional events such as the death of a loved one.

Procrastination can be thought of as a form of delay, but this is where it differs:

But why would we voluntarily delay something despite our better judgment?

Why would we delay something if we know it won’t benefit us?

Is there something wrong with us?

To understand why we procrastinate, we need to let go of the common misconceptions we have about procrastination and embrace its truth.

Procrastination isn’t a symptom of laziness, lack of willpower, or some fundamental flaw in your character.

It’s a manifestation of pain avoidance and an issue of emotional regulation.

What Happens When We Procrastinate?

When you procrastinate, two parts of your brain are involved:

• Prefrontal cortex — the part of the brain that sets long-term goals and exerts self-control.

• The limbic system — The emotional part of your brain. Also known as the reptilian brain. This part of your brain is concerned with survival and comfort. It also deals with pleasure, arousal and reward.

When faced with anything challenging, uncertain, or uncomfortable, your limbic system (the emotional part of your brain) hijacks your decision-making.

This system is wired to prioritise immediate comfort over long-term rewards.

If it perceives any situation or task as threatening, it wants to get you out of that situation as quickly as possible.

It views any threat — psychological or physiological — as a threat to your survival and will avoid it if it means you stay alive.

So if the deadline of a report, a newsletter or a conversation is coming up and it causes you immense stress, your limbic system perceives it as a threat.

So, instead of pushing through the discomfort of doing the task, you seek quick relief—like watching YouTube, checking social media, or doing anything other than the task at hand.

Procrastination is ultimately a protective or defence mechanism.

But this hijacking from the limbic system sends you down a vicious cycle:

1. You have a task to do. (But you think it's challenging, stressful, or difficult)

2. Your limbic system perceives the task as a threat.

3. You avoid the task. (Because it feels uncomfortable.)

4. You feel guilty and stressed. (Because you know you should be doing it.)

5. You still don’t do it. (Because the guilt makes you feel even worse.)

6. The deadline forces you into panic mode. (Cue the last-minute scramble.)

7. You get the work done, but it’s rushed and stressful.

8. You vow to do better next time

9. But then, you repeat the cycle.

Procrastination is about feeling good now rather than being in the discomfort of doing the tasks you should do.

But what feels good isn’t always what’s good for you.

This cycle doesn’t just affect your productivity or performance—it impacts your confidence, your stress levels, and even your health.

Studies show that chronic procrastinators experience:

• Poor health

• Lower self-trust

• Frequent burnout

• Missed opportunities

• Worse work performance

• Increased stress and anxiety

• Increased feelings of guilt, shame, and regret

Procrastination isn’t just a bad habit.

It’s a self-sabotaging cycle that erodes your ability to achieve your goals and lowers your quality of life.

But there is good news.

The good news? You can break free.

But only if you tackle procrastination at the root.

Understanding Why You Procrastinate (And How to Break Free)

Once you stop blaming or shaming yourself for procrastinating and recognise it as a defence mechanism in your brain, you can break the cycle.

There are three key factors driving your procrastination:

1. Emotional Regulation

Procrastination is an emotional issue.

You feel an internal resistance towards doing a certain task.

Underneath that resistance, there is a negative emotion — fear, uncertainty, boredom, self-doubt or discomfort.

The brain associates the task as the source of those negative emotions. So, to escape and ease the discomfort, the brain leads you down the path of least resistance — avoiding the task entirely.

But if you can take control of this process, you can stop yourself from spiralling into a cycle of procrastination.

When you experience these intense and uncomfortable negative emotions, your limbic system is hijacking everything.

It shuts down your prefrontal cortex and goes into survival mode.

So, to prevent this from happening, you need to ease your emotional brain before you go into doing the work.

You can do this by following the acronym RAIN, first coined by Michele McDonald, a meditation teacher.

It’s a simple and easy tool for practicing mindfulness and emotional regulation.

RAIN:

1. Recognise what is going on. Label your thoughts and emotions. Labelling is a way to open yourself to the experience without forming judgments or resistances.

2. Allow the experience to be there, just as it is. Don’t try to change anything. Learn to be fully present with what’s happening and what you are experiencing. It’s only in the present moment that you can do something about anything. So allow yourself to be here.

3. Investigate with kindness and curiosity. Like an investigator, you explore and get curious about the thoughts and emotions you are experiencing. Ask yourself: “Where are they coming from? What’s triggered me? Where in my body am I feeling the emotions? What do I need right now?” Be curious and follow where the trail leads you.

4. Non-Identification or Nurture. From a space of presence and curiosity, observe your thoughts and feelings without identifying with them. Acknowledge that you are not the thoughts or emotions; you are simply experiencing them. And there’s no need to let them overwhelm or control you. You can be the awareness that experiences them.

If you can’t do the emotional work, you can’t do the cognitive work, and this will prevent you from doing the tasks you know you need to do and achieving your goals.

2. Task Perception

Maybe your goals feel too far out of reach or they lack urgency, e.g. many people procrastinate on their retirement savings because it’s so far away. So they put it off.

You may procrastinate on certain tasks because you lack a strong reason to do them. You may not care for the task itself, or it isn’t linked to a self-generated goal (a goal you set yourself), thus, it lacks importance and meaning.

You don’t intrinsically value the task yourself because it comes from other people, or it’s based on what is expected from you by society.

You might also procrastinate because the task is important and meaningful to you, and because it is, you don’t want to mess up or fail. So to avoid failing, you don’t do it. How can you fail if you never try?

The way you perceive a task influences how you approach (or avoid) it. Whether it's because it’s too abstract, unimportant or very important, these are all reasons why you procrastinate on certain tasks.

So how do you change how you see it?

• Make the task smaller. Instead of “Write a 10-page report,” start with “Write one paragraph.”

• Use the 5-Minute Rule: Commit to just five minutes. Once you start, let momentum kick in, and it’s easier to keep going.

• Increase the goal intention: This means strengthening the desire to do the task by increasing its intrinsic value

  e.g. You want to get in better shape.

  You can increase the goal intention by visualising how you’ll look when you’re on holiday in 6 months.

  Or you visualise walking your daughter down the aisle (this was Ed Mylett’s reason for taking his health seriously).

  Both of these increase your motivation to go to the gym and eat better because you link doing the task to the goal in your mind.

• Create short-term urgency: Set an earlier deadline and work in short, focused sprints (like the Pomodoro technique—25 minutes on, 5 minutes off).

3. Pain vs. Pleasure

All human behaviour is driven by the desire to escape discomfort or pain.

If your brain perceives certain tasks as painful, i.e. overwhelming, boring, or complex, it will seek to bring immediate relief by avoiding it.

You procrastinate to avoid the effort and challenge that doing the task requires. You know it serves your long-term goal, but you don’t want to go through the pain and difficulty that comes with the effort of doing the task.

When you internalise this principle, that all human behaviour is driven by the desire to avoid pain, you see it everywhere:

• Time management is pain management.

• Weight management is pain management.

• Financial management is pain management.

All human behaviour and everything stopping you from getting to your goals is about how well you can manage and face pain in your life without avoiding it.

Solution:

• Flip the Script: Make the pain of not taking action immediate. Your brain needs a reason to start now. Create an immediate consequence for procrastination and an immediate reward for action.

  • e.g. paying a friend $5 if you don’t do the task (immediate pain for not taking action).

  • e.g. getting a cup of your favourite coffee for completing the task (immediate reward for taking action)

  You want to make it more pleasurable to take action and more painful to not take action.

• Environment Design: Change your environment to minimise distractions. Again, you want to make it easier for yourself to take action. Put your phone in another room, use website blockers, or work in a focused space. By changing your environment, you reduce the willpower needed to resist distractions and increase the ease and pleasure of taking action.

Once you address these three factors—emotional avoidance, task perception, and the pain-pleasure balance—you will be able to break out of the procrastination cycle.

Procrastination was never a character flaw, laziness or a lack of the latest productivity tools.

It’s a mechanism from your limbic system designed to protect you whilst operating in this new, advanced world.

Procrastination is a cycle that you’ve developed because you didn’t have the right internal systems that make your brain work with you instead of against you.

The systems that allow you to perform at your best in all areas of your life.

But with this understanding and the tools described, you can overcome procrastination and make high-level execution your default mode of operation.

And if you’re like me, you’ll be more consistent with your newsletters.

Thank you for reading.

I hope you enjoyed it.

See you in the next one.

— Shana

p.s. If you’re ready to overcome procrastination and 2 - 5x your performance and productivity, click here.