We’ve all been there. It’s the eleventh hour before a project is due and you are frantically trying to get work done, kicking yourself all the while for waiting so long. Why oh why did you procrastinate for so long?
Why People Procrastinate
People procrastinate for several different reasons, but they pretty much come down to how a task makes them feel – overwhelmed, insecure, anxious, resentful, etc. Procrastination isn’t a character flaw, rather, it’s an “…emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem.”
Human beings are hard-wired to think about the here and now. We tend to prioritize the present over the future. The lizard part of our brain was designed to address clear and present needs – like avoiding getting eaten by a lion or figuring out where our next meal will come from – rather than addressing our long-term needs. And to make matters worse, we’re less able to make productive, future-oriented decisions when under stress.
So, how do we short-circuit our lizard brain to get our work done?
Tips to Beat Procrastination
Do one small thing
This is my personal favorite. Sometimes a project can seem so overwhelming in scope or importance that you become almost paralyzed at the thought of working on it. Try doing one small thing – a little research, a short outline, breaking down the project into a list of tasks, etc. Sometimes all we need to get started is to just start – no matter how small the step may be.
Create mini deadlines
Try setting a mini deadline for yourself. This can be anything from having a draft done by a certain date to just working on your project for 15-30 minutes. Sometimes it helps to know you won’t be working on a project forever if you can see a light at the end of a (short) tunnel.
Don’t be so hard on yourself
Give yourself a little kindness when you procrastinate. Case in point:
“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. They concluded that self-forgiveness supported productivity by allowing “the individual to move past their maladaptive behavior and focus on the upcoming examination without the burden of past acts.”
The Upside of Procrastination
I know I’ve been going on and on about how to not procrastinate, but I would also like to say that procrastination isn’t entirely a bad thing. Sometimes we need to let our mind wander around.
(Caveat – this works for tasks that are more problem-solving or creativity oriented. Procrastination doesn’t get your house cleaned.)
Letting your mind wander allows the brain to work on a task in the “background” while you go about your day. Have you ever had a great idea while washing dishes or taking a walk? That’s your brain working on a task in the background.
This blog post is an example of a silver lining to procrastination. I was procrastinating on another project when I decided to Google procrastination. I found a trove of articles and saved them for later use. And that is how this blog post came to be.
So, give yourself a little break and let your mind meander around. Your next five minutes of procrastination could start the seed of your next great idea.