The Real Reason You Keep Procrastinating

How long have I been putting off writing this article? Days. At least a week. The excuses have piled up like my dirty laundry.   

First I was under-caffeinated and brain-foggy. 

Then I was Goldilocks-caffeinated - but I started working on an art project instead.  

Finally I was over-caffeinated and jittery. 

I put it off, figuring I'd let the looming deadline create some motivation – and then I was just stressed. 

My brain was finding a million reasons to keep me from working on this.  

Then the real anxiety hit: 

Why can't I get started??? 

I'm not disciplined enough!  

I'm not motivated enough! 

I'm sure this sounds familiar to you. And you're not alone, because humans have been procrastinating since our brains evolved into the big thinking organs they are. We're capable of planning, reasoning, evaluating and executing on an extremely high level thanks to our frontal cortex. But we've also retained the prehistoric need for being fearful, vigilant and anxious thanks to our amygdala. That's the part of the limbic system that evolved much earlier to keep us safe, because eons ago, life was hard. We needed a survival mechanism to prioritize our "fight-or-flight" response. These days, that fear response isn't as important, and our frontal cortex usually has the final word on how we respond to situations. 

However, your amygdala doesn't just sit there and obediently oblige your frontal cortex. It's also responsible for your many moods, and it prioritizes your immediate mood over your future goals. Now, we like to think that our frontal cortex can take charge in any situation and out-think our emotions, but that's not always the case. When we face a difficult task (like a big work assignment or even a workout in the gym), our modern brain perceives the stress as a threat and the amygdala then takes charge by prioritizing that threat. A big work assignment may not endanger your life, but it can feel that way because your brain actually responds the same way to a real threat as it does to a perceived threat. So you put off the task because it makes you feel uncomfortable, which is a natural coping mechanism to relieve stress. Ironically, while you're sitting there feeling guilty about not starting the assignment or not going to the gym, your brain is actually doing exactly what it was designed to do: keeping you safe from discomfort.  

Procrastination is a tug-of-war between your 'emotional' brain (seeking instant relief) and your 'logical' brain (managing long-term goals).   

We need to get things done, but this hardwiring can be really difficult to overcome. So you get really determined and try to willpower your way through it. Unfortunately, that only makes the situation worse. Your activated amygdala releases hormones, including adrenaline, triggering a fear response, and this panic is strong enough to override your logical prefrontal cortex. That's why trying to out-think your emotions doesn't work. Because it's not a 'thinking' problem, it's a 'feeling' problem, and your nervous system is in fight-or-flight mode.  

Procrastination might seem like laziness. You're exhausted and overwhelmed by over-thinking the difficult task you need to do, so your brain takes the path of least resistance and you go do something easy instead. But that's not laziness. Laziness is apathy. Conversely, procrastinating is caring too much. Procrastinators typically have a high fear of failure so they put things off because they fear their work won't live up to their high standards. Taking the pressure off temporarily, however, only creates more stress in the long run because the unfinished task is still demanding your attention.  

Rather than increasing your stress by delaying the inevitable, you need to find a way to calm your nervous system and then re-frame the task. 

💡 Here's an effective way to take the pressure off:   

Break the big scary task down into smaller, less scary tasks. Making the first task so easy that it doesn't trigger a 'threat' response will help calm your nervous system, and then reorganizing the job into a bunch of little jobs will get you over the finish line. 

But what about the stupid little things that we all procrastinate about, like walking the dog or doing the dishes - or even just getting out of bed on time?

Turns out that Mel Robbins has you covered with her 5-Second Rule.

I like this because it's rooted in science.

It isn't about motivation, but rather about interruption - think of it as a "mental misdirection". In short, it's a metacognition tool that interrupts habit loops of hesitation, fear, or self-doubt by using a backward countdown of 5 seconds to activate the prefrontal cortex before the amygdala triggers avoidance behaviors. It works by creating a "starting ritual" that shifts focus from emotion to action within 5 seconds. Counting backward from 5 is a distraction away from the habitual "I'll do it later" thought to the "I'm doing it now" thought. 5-4-3-2-1- Launch!! 

👉 Get her book here

The Bottom Line 

Give yourself some grace and don't be hard on yourself. Because that actually makes the stress worse. Really. You're feeling crappy for no good reason. If you're going to procrastinate, at least do it right. Stop thinking about the thing you don't want to do (instead of incessantly ruminating about it) and go do something enjoyable. That is what's going to calm your nervous system and get you out of fight-or-flight mode so you can stop feeling and start thinking. 

Create Successful Habits  

When your brain gets an immediate reward of stress relief by avoiding something, it learns to repeat that action, which becomes a habit.  

This habit needs to be broken, and that's what I'm here to help you do. 

Contact me to learn more about The Neuroplasticity Success Program and how it can change unhelpful habits into successful ones! 

The missing piece isn't motivation. It's this.