Why We Procrastinate and

How To Fight Procrastination

(It’s Not about Self-Control)

Did you know September 6 was Fight Procrastination Day? Since we are only publishing this post on September 9, it seems our content manager really needs to practice what we preach and follow our own tips. So, if you also feel like you always put things off to the last minute, let's figure out why we procrastinate and how to fight procrastination together!

Some surprising news for all the procrastinators out there: your habit isn't about self-control, it's about emotions! A recent article from The New York Times illuminates that procrastination is more about managing negative feelings linked to a task, not the task itself. It's a way of dealing with challenging emotions and not a time-management problem.

A few facts to understand procrastination:

Self-awareness is a key part of why procrastinating makes us feel so rotten. When we procrastinate, we’re not only aware that we’re avoiding the task in question, but also that doing so is probably a bad idea. And yet, we do it anyway. Why? 👇
People engage in this irrational cycle of chronic procrastination because of an inability to manage negative moods around a task, such as boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt, etc.
The momentary relief we feel when procrastinating is actually what makes the cycle especially vicious. In the immediate present, putting off a task provides relief and we are been rewarded for procrastinating.

Procrastination is a perfect example of present bias, which is a tendency to give stronger weight to payoffs that are closer to the present time.

“We really weren’t designed to think ahead into the further future because we needed to focus on providing for ourselves in the here and now,” said psychologist Dr. Hal Hershfield, a professor of marketing at the U.C.L.A. Anderson School of Management.

So, how to fight procrastination?

Since our brains are always looking for relative immediate rewards, so we need to give our brain a “Bigger Better Offer” (BBO). BBO is a positive reward for not-procrastinating that will help you stop this irrational habit.

First, forgive yourself for Procrastinating. In a 2010 study, researchers found that students who were able to forgive themselves for procrastinating when studying for a first exam ended up procrastinating less when studying for their next exam. Self-compassion can neutralize the insidious effects of fear of failure.
Cultivate curiosity. If you’re feeling tempted to procrastinate, bring your attention to the sensations arising in your mind and body. What feelings and where do you feel them? What happens to the thought of procrastinating as you observe it?
Consider the next action. This is different than the age-old advice to break up a task you’re tempted to avoid into bite-sized chunks (which is also a good tip, by the way, read more here). But in case of procrastination, try focusing only on the “next action” which helps calm our nerves, and it allows for so called “a layer of self-deception.”
Make your temptations more inconvenient. For example, if you compulsively check social media, delete those apps from your phone or “give yourself a really complicated password with not just five digits, but 12,”. This adds friction to the procrastination cycle and makes the reward value of your temptation less immediate.
On the other side, you can also try to make the things we need to do as easy as possible. For example, if you want to go to the gym before work but you’re not a morning person, sleep in your exercise clothes.