First things first, you’re not lazy.
If you asked someone what procrastination is, they’d probably say something along the lines of ‘putting off a task because you can’t be bothered’. But that’s actually far from the truth. In fact, procrastination isn’t laziness, it’s your brain categorising the task ahead as a ‘bad one’.
You need to wash the dishes but your brain is screaming at you to watch your favourite show instead, sound familiar? Stripping it back, it’s essentially your brain trying to keep you out of pain. Watching your favourite show = pleasure. Washing up on the other hand? It might not actually cause you pain but it’s way less interesting and a lot more work than just sitting on the sofa watching tv.
So what happens? Your brain avoids the small ‘pain’ of doing the task now, even if it means a bigger ‘pain’ later (for example an even bigger pile of washing up as you’ve left it for days).
But trying to avoid the small ‘pain’ isn’t the only thing going on in your head. In fact, procrastination also comes from your brain over estimating how bad the task will be. It starts to build dread, making the task feel way worse than what it actually is. But nine times out of ten, once you get started you realise it’s not that bad, and for small tasks like washing up, it’s often done before you know it.
So if we know all this, why do we still procrastinate? Because habits are hard to break. Training your brain out of doing something it’s always done takes time.
The first step is recognising procrastination when it’s happening or about to happen. Catch yourself before you think ‘I’ll do it later’ and stop the cycle by breaking down the steps of the task. Okay, you need to clean the whole kitchen, not an entirely enjoyable task. Start with telling yourself to just clean the dishes. You’ve got a whole report to do for work, okay well start by just opening the document, maybe even drafting the first few lines. What happens then is you get the ball rolling, and once you’ve started, you’ll be less likely to stop. You’re essentially tricking your brain into thinking ‘this isn’t a big or daunting task, it’s an easy win’.
The real key to beating procrastination is to make the task seem so small to your brain that it can’t say no. Once the resistance stops, the momentum takes over.
And that’s when we wave bye to procrastination👋🏻
