Procrastination comes up in a lot of different fields and a lot of different activities. It can even be mistaken for laziness in some cases. So, what exactly is it? Why do we do it? And how not to do it? Is it laziness? Over the next few weeks, I will try to find answers to these questions.
I tend to procrastinate a lot in certain situations. I wonder why when I say I love art and creativity, and writing falls into that, but why do I procrastinate if I love to do something? Then my insecurities get triggered and I wonder “Do I like it as much as I thought I did?” and thoughts like “Why is it so hard, if I do love it?” Then my thoughts tend to spiral and lead me to procrastinate more and more. Then I enter the procrastination cycle.
So, what exactly is going on and why do I keep doing it over and over again? And why is it worse for some people and not others? Do they have better discipline? Are they better people? The answer to the last two is no, fortunately.
The simplest definition of procrastination I found was the act of avoiding situations or events that cause unpleasant feelings. In short, to avoid dealing with these unpleasant emotions, we do an activity – any activity- that will supply short-term relief. That relief is rewarding and leads us to do it again and again and since we never learn to manage and understand those negative feelings, then we get stuck in the cycle.
In my earlier example, what kind of unpleasant feelings can creating art cause, you ask? Plenty. There are fears… of rejection, of wasting time and money, of not achieving the result seen in the mind, among others. Parts of the process can be boring. Or on the opposite end the belief that we lack the skills needed with the medium or technique can be too frustrating or too difficult. Even fear of the unknown can affect our behaviour this way. Fearing the blank canvas or the blank page is an example of this and an example of how something unstructured can cause feelings of unease and uncertainty that we then try to avoid with procrastination. We can also have uncertainty about the results of our endeavors. Which if you remember my post on stressors (see here) is one of the four main stressors and the brain will activate the fight or flight response (or even freeze in some cases). We could also be working on a commission that is not interesting to us and lacks the personal meaning we can come to associate with our own work that we do for fun. And this is just an example for creative endeavors which is usually a hobby or fun thing to do.
What about things that are not fun to begin with and that you don’t like to do? Our brain will protect us from the unpleasantness and try to find excuses so that you don’t do it. “I’ll do it later”, “it isn’t that important” or “I don’t feel like it”. It gets harder to do and, I know for me, I had to have a time pressure to make me do them at all and “force” myself to finish the task. In a way my procrastination allowed me to percolate the ideas in my head and by that time I usually new what I had to do. A quick approaching deadline (usually pulling an all-nighter) especially for subjects I wasn’t interested in, but that really isn’t sustainable or desirable at all and I almost did fail a couple of classes because of this behaviour.
I thought it was because I was lazy and didn’t study hard enough when it was in fact my brain’s way of protecting itself from unpleasantness. Our brains are actually wired to do this, because short term survival was more important than long-term thinking. So why are some people more prone than others? In some cases, procrastination can be linked to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. It can also be a sign of low self-esteem, and perfectionism. People that have more difficulty regulating their emotions are also more prone to procrastination.
Conclusion
Procrastination is usually linked to tasks or situation that are boring, frustrating, difficult, ambiguous, unstructured, overwhelming, not intrinsically rewarding (process is not fun) and lacking in personal meaning. These situations usually trigger unpleasant emotions and our brain protect us from these situations by coming up with excuses not to do them and give us more “pleasant” activities to do instead not taking into account the long-term impact this behaviour can have. And because we are acting in a way we know is wrong, there can be guilt and shame accompanying this behaviour and that will increase our stress and make the unpleasant feelings even worse the next time. So, what can we do?
Next week, I will investigate ways you can change this behaviour. Try to figure out when you procrastinate most? Is it for situations that you find boring? Or scary? Or are you afraid you won’t live up to a perfect ideal? Knowing what triggers your procrastination most can help apply the tips and tricks I will share next week. Leave a comment if you procrastinate too much and why you think you do… A final note, procrastination is normal. We all do it sometimes. It is when it gets in the way of our life and what we really want to do that we need to do something about it.
“The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.”
– Rita Emmett
Resources
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-procrastination-2795944
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/basics/procrastination
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/resources/study-related-issues/procrastination
Very interesting subject. We all procastinate at times.
I love your quote it is so true.
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