How to Kick Procrastination in the A$%

Procrastination is something that is universal; we are all guilty of doing it sometimes. It is part of our nature.

Learning to deal effectively with your tendency to procrastinate is a super-power, as you’ll produce higher-quality work – and feel better about it – when you aren’t constantly working under pressure to get something done because you’ve delayed starting for too long.

The article How to Stop Procrastinating by psychologist and author Alice Boyes lays out 3 primary reasons for our habit of procrastinating:

A lack of self-discipline (or reasonable systems and habits).
Intolerance for particular emotions.
Flawed thinking patterns.

While I certainly agree with the above drivers, I think it may be worth expanding on some of the author’s ideas and adding another, one that I consider being one of the primary reasons for procrastination. After we explore that, I’ll suggest some additional approaches to help you minimize the amount of procrastination in your life, as having that skill is a huge competitive advantage.

Expanding On The Drivers

First off, I don’t put a lot of stock in the thinking that a lack of self-discipline causes most procrastination. Most successful professionals want to be useful and productive and to be known as someone that is on top of their work, rather than to have the reputation of being someone that is always scrambling to pull things together at the last moment. And most people would love the feeling of being done their work ahead of time, avoiding all of that stress. So while I don’t think people procrastinate intentionally as they are lazy, there’s a lot of truth to the idea that proper habits, systems, and routines really go a long way to avoiding procrastination. As James Clear says,

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

That is a deep insight, and it means that investing time and thought into properly structuring the habits and systems in your life to optimize for the results you’re after is worth doing.

The article also points to a common tendency to under-estimate the complexity of a task when it has a deadline that is relatively far in the future. This is a known flaw in common thinking patterns. Chances are that you play down the complexity of the task, under-estimate the time it will take you to do it, and over-estimate your capability to do the work. This is part of the planning fallacy.

Part of the problem is often a lack of clarity. It’s not that you don’t want to do the work on a project, it’s that you aren’t quite clear on what to do. You may have vague notions about it, but it isn’t perfectly clear. When you’re not clear on something, getting started is hard, as it forces you to confront the fact that you aren’t really sure what to do. The normal response in this type of situation is to shift your attention to an easier task, something that you know how to do. You then get the dopamine hit from accomplishing something, and you feel good. So you end up spending so much time handling emails and administrative tasks rather than pushing forward on the projects that are most important over the longer term. By avoiding the hard tasks, you allow yourself to feel good for having checked things off your to-do list. You feel productive, and you think that you’ll always have tomorrow to work on the bigger project. Maybe you can see the challenge here; you’re setting yourself up in this cycle of procrastination. Worse yet – you’re carrying around the weight of the knowledge that the hard task still awaits you, and you’re aware that you’ve now got less time to do it than before. There’s a ticking time bomb, and you know it. This causes your stress levels to rise.

The Missing Driver

While the article explained that one driver of procrastination was having an intolerance for certain emotions, and it explored a few of the contributing emotions such as anger and boredom, it didn’t point to what I believe to be the biggest driver of procrastination: fear.

Fear is at the heart of procrastination. Fear is the biggest enemy of getting things done.

The world today is enormously complex and the complexity of the work that we need to do keeps increasing. Many tasks don’t have clear-cut paths forward, and will require you to explore unknown territory and navigate uncertainty. Most people, when facing uncertainty, experience self-doubt. You question whether or not you are up to the task and worry about how others are going to judge your work. You may even feel threatened, because you have a self-image of being competent – or even an expert – in your domain.

This is obviously uncomfortable. No one likes to feel fear, to have their ability to do their job well come into question.

Rather than face that fear, you put the task aside for another day. You tell yourself – and your colleagues – that you’ll work on it later, when you have more time. Because right now, you’re just so busy. You need to recognize that this is nothing more than a story you’re telling yourself to avoid facing your fear. I’m willing to bet that if you were to look back at the occasions when you procrastinated on something, if you’re being completely honest with yourself, you were feeling some level of fear.

What is it you’re afraid of?

that people will think your ideas suck
that you don’t know how to do the task up to the high standards you set for yourself
you’ll succeed, and then what?
people will learn that you shouldn’t be in the role you’re in, that you’re incompetent

These subconscious fears keep you from working on the task until you’re forced to. Then when you finally crunch out the work in a last-minute dash, you’re able to tell everyone – and yourself – that you did your best with the time you had, that you know it could have been better if you’d only had more time.

That’s obviously not an ideal strategy for producing quality work.

Now that you understand some reasons you procrastinate, what the heck do you DO about it?

Strategies For Overcoming Procrastination

Learning to overcome your human tendency to procrastinate will put you ahead of most people, so it is worth investing some time and energy into experimenting with some practical tactics to see what works for you.

Time-block. This is an incredibly popular productivity hack for a reason; it works. This time management strategy has you record in your calendar what task you will work on, where you’ll do it, and for how long you’ll do it. You can do this on either the weekly or daily scale, although my preference is to do this daily. Doing this helps bring some realism to your day; you will quickly discover if you’re “biting off more than you can chew”, forcing you to prioritize your tasks. It also helps you avoid spending time on the wrong things; you decided at the start of your day what was important. Now you simply execute. At the start of your day, record time on your calendar to work on the important task you’ve been stalling on. Treat that appointment with yourself in the same way you’d treat an appointment with anyone else. If you don’t schedule time for working on something, you’ll fill up the time with something else.
Start small. When faced with a complex task, it’s very easy to be overwhelmed and put off the work. Just get started and let the momentum carry you forward. It always amazes me how quickly I can get something done, if I just start. I’ve found I can spend more time and energy ruminating about a task, wondering when I’ll do it and feeling overwhelmed and time pressured than I take to just do the damn work. Close your email, turn off your notifications, and focus on nothing but making progress on the task for 30 minutes. Once you’ve started making progress, it is much easier to keep going. You’ve created momentum. Newton’s First Law of Motion applies; an object in motion stays in motion, unless acted upon by another force. This applies to work tasks as well.
Stop waiting for inspiration. It isn’t coming, at least not where you think it is. Most people wait to start work on something until they “feel motivated”, but this is completely backwards. You’ll never feel inspired to start; that inspiration comes after you’ve started and made progress. As you get started on the work, you’ll see more clearly how you’re going to get the job done. You’ll get the dopamine hit after having made some progress, and now you’ll be more clear about the next step. That dopamine hit will feel good and you’ll want to keep going. Create the inspiration you need by getting started.
Build systems and routines. Tasks can be complex, so having a systematic approach to tackling them is one of the best ways to ensure you make consistent progress. Creating systems and routines involves setting up structured ways of working that help you minimize decision fatigue, maintain focus, and build momentum. Rather than treating each task as a one-off, figure out how you can break it into smaller, repeatable steps you can systematize. Determine what habits and routines you’d need to develop to be more effective, and start to slowly building those habits up, one at a time. The more you’re able to systematize your work, the easier time you’ll have delivering results.

Now that you have a solid understanding of why procrastination happens and have explored a few practical strategies to combat it, you can start implementing these techniques to enhance your productivity and achieve your goals. Overcoming procrastination is not about eliminating it entirely but about developing a toolkit of strategies that helps you manage it effectively.

Conclusion

In conclusion, procrastination is a common challenge that everyone faces, but it doesn’t have to derail your productivity. By understanding the underlying reasons behind procrastination – such as fear, lack of clarity, and flawed thinking patterns – you can address these issues head-on. Implementing practical strategies like time-blocking, starting small, not waiting for inspiration, and building robust systems and routines can significantly reduce the tendency to procrastinate.

Remember, the goal is not to be perfect, but to make consistent progress. Start small, be patient with yourself, and gradually incorporate these techniques into your daily routine. Over time, you’ll find that you’re better equipped to handle tasks efficiently and with less stress, ultimately leading to higher-quality work and a greater sense of accomplishment.

Procrastination may be a universal challenge, but with the right strategies, you can turn it into a manageable one and gain a competitive edge in your personal and professional life.

Quotation that I’ve been pondering

The mathematician and philosopher Alfred Whitehead had some great thoughts about the importance of systems:

“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.”

Building systems allows you to outsource parts of your work to either someone else or to your subconscious. Allow your systems to do some of the work and free yourself up to do the high-value work.