You've Got Procrastination Wrong

Many people have an obsession with productivity and goal achievement. And on the path to achieving success, you will need to overcome the obstacles that get in the way.

Procrastination is a common obstacle that everyone faces along their journey. It’s the dragon you must slay to achieve your goals and make your dreams a reality.

But unlike other obstacles that arise unexpectedly, procrastination feels more self-inflicted. It feels like you are getting in your way.

But for you to slay the dragon and ‘save the princess’, you must understand who and what your enemy is.

So What Is Procrastination?

Procrastination” is derived from the Latin verb procrastinare — to put off until tomorrow.

It is also derived from the ancient Greek word akrasia — doing something against our better judgment.

“Against our better judgment?” Hmmm…

If you care about your goals, but get in your own way, that can be frustrating.

Could it be that you don’t care about your goals as much as you say you do?

No. Maybe?

Maybe you are pursuing goals that are not meaningful to you. So if they aren’t meaningful to you, you won’t care about them and take action towards them.

But if this isn’t the case for you,

Let’s explore why you procrastinate and do things against your better judgement as well as why procrastination is not a character flaw or laziness.

The Common Misconception

I want you to engrave this in your mind:

Procrastination is not laziness.

As weird as it may sound, these two concepts are not the same thing.

You can procrastinate without being lazy and you can be lazy but not procrastinate.

• You procrastinate on the important assignment you have to do by cleaning your house.

• You are lazy when you don’t take out the trash like you were asked to or postpone doing the dishes because “you want to relax and watch TV for a little bit.”

Laziness is a choice.

It’s about not doing the things you don’t want to do. You don’t want to take out the trash, so you don’t. Or you feel that the things you don’t want to do aren’t suited for you. Why can’t my younger sister take out the trash? Why does it have to be me?

Procrastination, on the other hand, is not a choice.

You don’t intentionally delay things to the last minute. You know that what you need to do is important and that there will be negative consequences if you don’t do it, but still you leave it last minute. You work under pressure and with extreme anxiety. You get it done, but you know it’s not your best work.

You make a mental promise to not let this happen again, but two weeks later, you are making the same promise after procrastinating on another task. This becomes a vicious cycle.

At a certain point, this behaviour can’t be explained as laziness or bad time management. Because in all that time you were procrastinating on this task — you cleaned the house, did the laundry, bought your friend’s gift for the part you were invited to but forgot about and still slept at night. But still, the task remained untouched.

Procrastination isn’t laziness.

Or a character flaw.

It has a deeper explanation for its persistence in many people’s lives.

Why You Procrastinate

There’s something very irrational about procrastination even though so many people struggle with it.

Some struggle with it so much and are chronic procrastinators.

Because why would anyone delay a task or activity that is important to their long-term goals and fulfilment?

If procrastination was truly a time management problem, then why doesn’t the advice to “just do it” work?

Silly as it may sound, telling a chronic procrastinator to “just do it” would be like telling a clinically depressed person to “just cheer up”.

If procrastination was a choice, then why do you still feel so frustrated about the choice?

Why is there this inner conflict of “I want to, but I can’t seem to get myself to do it?”

When you look at procrastination, it is a symptom. Every symptom has a root cause and in the case of procrastination, its root causes are avoidance and fear.

You’re a Human. Just Like Everyone Else

At the basics of all human behaviour and motivation, we move away from pain and move towards pleasure.

Procrastination follows this principle.

There is repeated and constant avoidance of certain tasks until the anxiety and pressure of their incompletion is too great that you do it last minute.

When you procrastinate, you typically avoid task A and do task B. You do task B which is easier and more enjoyable than task A. This is another reason why procrastination isn’t laziness. Laziness would be not doing tasks A or B. Procrastination is doing task B instead of task A.

Task B could be productive such as cleaning your house, doing laundry, sorting out your emails, planning your week, and organising your files.

But it’s not crucial to the goal you are working towards achieving like task A is.

You move from the pain and discomfort caused by task A to the pleasure and perceived reward (usually relief) of task B.

Procrastinators are also aware that they are procrastinating. This self-awareness greatly contributes to the anxiety and stress procrastinators experience.

The guilty, ruminative and self-blaming thoughts that many people experience when they procrastinate are known as “procrastinatory cognitions.”

The thoughts you have about your procrastination create more anxiety and distress, which contributes to further procrastination and the vicious cycle of procrastination.

Task A becomes more difficult and painful because the thoughts you have around it cause more anxiety and stress.

Task B becomes more appealing and enjoyable because “Hey, I’m not still doing something”. But again, task B is not important.

Many reasons cause fear and avoidance to arise that lead to pain-avoidance and pleasure-approaching behaviours.

Some include:

You don’t know where to start.

• When you don’t know where to start, there could be feelings of confusion and discomfort, thus avoidance.

You aren’t interested in the task.

• No one likes doing things that they aren’t interested in, What you don’t like you avoid.

You don’t have a strong reason to do the task.

• If you don’t think it’s important, you don’t think it’s worth your time, thus why bother doing it? Avoid.

Fear of failure.

• No one wants to fail or make a bad decision. This fear can lead you to say, “Let’s start later”, which turns into “Let’s start tomorrow.” Soon enough it’s the night before.

Your self-worth is tied to the task.

• When your self-worth is tied to the project you are doing, you want it to be perfect. It represents you, right? Your work. So you want it to be the best. But what if it isn’t? Just a little more time and then it will be perfect.

• Perfectionism is a mask procrastinators wear when their performance is tied to self-worth. You fear not being good enough so you procrastinate until “it is”.

Lack of immediate consequences.

• The human brain will always default to instant gratification. If there are no immediate consequences to not doing the task, then you will give into the immediate rewards and do the task later.

There are more reasons why you might procrastinate but they are not the root cause.

The root cause is that there is an inability to manage the negative emotions and feelings around a task.

The task generates feelings of fear, discomfort, anxiety, pain, confusion, stress and more. Then in one way or another, you will avoid what is painful.

Though some many strategies and systems help overcome procrastination, the best solution is emotional regulation.

Identifying the reasons you procrastinate and the negative emotions linked to the task. Until you can work with your emotions and their triggers, you will stay in the vicious cycle of procrastination.

Rethinking Procrastination

You’re a human and there are going to be tasks that you don’t like doing and that you don’t want to do. It happens.

Yes, here and there, you’ll need some extra willpower and motivation to get things done.

However, willpower and motivation aren’t long-term solutions. In many ways, they aren’t solutions.

They are resources, finite resources.

A better approach is incorporating and using systems that make the process effortless.

But be aware that systems give out what they get given. You and your effort.

If you aren’t at your best, you won’t always give your best. Thus you won’t get the best.

The best approach is to manage your emotions, specifically your fear.

Whether you struggle with discipline or procrastination, the task still needs to be done. That hasn’t changed. The task itself hasn’t changed.

So what changes?

Your emotions.

Learn to manage your emotions and getting tasks done becomes easier.

Maybe procrastination isn’t the huge dragon you have to slay on the journey towards your goals.

The real obstacle is the one you are always carrying around with you. The fear that prevents you from even challenging the dragon.

Dragons will always be there on the path, but a knight still shows up and challenges them.

Not because they are brave. Instead, they are willing to face their fears and not let their fears stop them.

So you need to learn how to face the fears you have related to the tasks you are avoiding.

When you can view procrastination as an avoidance of fear, instead of judging yourself, you can ask,

“What I am afraid of that’s related to this task?”

With that awareness, it’s easier to confront the fear.

Once you can confront those fears, it’s easier to reframe them and begin taking action on the tasks you were procrastinating on.

— Shana

Thanks for reading!

p.s.

If you are an entrepreneur or creator struggling with procrastination and want to become more focused and productive, book a FREE consultation with me:  https://calendly.com/shanamdluli/claritycall