It’s common knowledge that many of us have a tendency to procrastinate. A study of 2019 professionals revealed that 88% of them procrastinated for at least one hour each day. Other reports suggest that 50% to 80% of students experience procrastination. As human beings, we are not perfect and we can’t be 100% focused, 100% of the time.

However, have you noticed yourself putting things off more frequently over the last two years? If so, you are not alone. The ongoing pandemic has led to upward trends in procrastination across the population, both here in Australia and overseas.

The abrupt change to working conditions, upheaval in routine, stress of constant news updates and increase in uncertainty have all played a role in our collective decision to put off hard tasks and decisions for another day.

While the pandemic presents an easy explanation for this phenomenon, it doesn’t mean that ALL instances of procrastination begin and end with COVID-19 and our attempts to navigate the new world emerging around us.

If procrastination is becoming a real problem for you in daily life, it’s time to get to the bottom of what might really be going on.

What is procrastination?

The Oxford Dictionary defines procrastination as the action of delaying or postponing something. This might be a one-off decision to put-off studying for an exam or a habitual choice to watch Netflix instead of working on a repetitive or difficult task. 

Procrastination is how we react to our discomfort in dealing with an unwanted activity. When we procrastinate, we give into an impulse to avoid doing what we should do and choose to focus on the immediate relief of avoiding something that seems undesirable or evokes negative feelings.

We know the decision to put off the task is not the right one, yet we do it anyway. While we may feel short-term relief, that feeling is soon followed by guilt, anxiety and other emotions as we realise that we still need to do the activity.

What’s happening in your brain when you procrastinate?

When faced with an unwanted task, the limbic system (which controls our fight or flight response) kicks into gear. Hijacking the prefrontal cortex (which controls planning and decision-making), the limbic system seeks to protect you from distress by pushing you to choose an easier or more enjoyable task.

When we procrastinate, we basically give into the overwhelming noise of our limbic system, which has leapt into action to manage a perceived danger. This drowns out the more sensible prefrontal cortex for a while. However, when the ‘danger’ passes, we are left with the reminder that we still have the task to do but now have less time to do it.

Are there different types of procrastination?

While there are several different models describing the main type of procrastinators (e.g. avoider, optimist, pleasure seeker), they all fall into the same two buckets – intentional and unintentional procrastination. 

As the name suggests, intentional procrastination refers to a deliberate and conscious engagement in delaying and postponing undesirable actions. Also known as behavioural procrastination, this sees you constantly putting off things in a maladaptive attempt to manage behaviour or emotion. In other words, you have no other way to cope, so you procrastinate.

Unintentional procrastination refers to situations where you don’t know what you are doing. An involuntary response to a tough situation, the impulse to avoid being uncomfortable leads you to do something else instead. So, instead of working on a big report, you turn on Netflix to have a quick break and find yourself still watching, five hours later.

What role does impulsivity play in procrastination?

Both types of procrastination involve an initial impulse. This is the moment when the limbic system attempts to take over as part of your fight or flight response, to protect you from a perceived threat. In that moment, the desire to avoid the discomfort of the task ahead and do something else to bring relief is almost overwhelming.

The key to managing procrastination is to tackle that key moment. Whether you habitually put things off or you unconsciously delay the inevitable, it all comes down to managing the impulse that’s urging you to choose short-term pleasure and relief over getting the job done.

How can you start overcoming procrastination?

The best place to start is to understand what’s driving the behaviour. If procrastination is becoming a way of life, it’s important to know why so you can start the process of moving forward.

One way to do this is to choose which procrastinator type you identify with:

  • Avoider – do you put things off, hide things away and try to pretend there’s nothing to worry about? Do you schedule things as far as you can, prioritise other things and constantly make excuses why the work isn’t done?
  • Optimist – do you misread how long things will take, overpromise and find yourself with too much to do? Are you often late and feel surprised to find that you have far less time available to you than you expected?
  • Pleasure Seeker – do you find yourself putting things off until you are ready and ‘in the mood’? Do you find yourself living in the moment, preferring more fun tasks and always leaving the hard stuff to others?

Once you understand what your procrastination looks like, you can work on overcoming it. If you are an avoider, this might involve breaking up tasks into smaller steps or finding an accountability buddy to help you stay on track. Optimists can benefit from using time tracking tools while pleasure seekers can reward themselves once the job is done to stay motivated.

How can you get on top of your impulsivity?

In the end, all the tools in the world won’t help you if you find it impossible to resist the urge of that initial impulse. That’s where professional expertise can make all the difference.

Offered by the experts at Impulsivity, The Time is Now. Stop Procrastinating, is an online course that tackles the real cause of procrastination. Helping you make sense of how procrastination affects you, the program is designed to help you understand your procrastination patterns, interrupt them and develop more productive work habits.

As a self-guided online course, you can do it at your own pace, whenever and wherever you like. Developed by a team led by Dr Yuliya Richard (a clinical psychologist specialising in impulsivity), the course uses scientifically-proven strategies to help you understand and overcome procrastination in your life.

If you really want to make a change and become more productive (as well as happier and less stressed!) it’s time to do something about it.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR ONLINE PROCRASTINATION COURSE

If you want to take charge of your life and manage your impulsivity for good, we can help. Offering a range of online courses, Impulsivity can guide you towards a healthier and happier life. Take our quick impulsivity test now to see if we can help!