Procrastination

Procrastination is an interesting concept in our culture. Psychologists have identified various drivers of procrastination, from low self-confidence to anxiety, a lack of structure, and, simply, an inability to motivate oneself to complete unpleasant tasks. Research has also shown that procrastination is closely linked to rumination, or becoming fixated on negative thoughts.

Perceptions of procrastination range from being the topic of jokes to being associated with mental illness (Svartdal, Granmo, & Farevaag, 2018). But what is the truth about this ubiquitous behavior?

As a college instructor, I deal with student procrastination every semester, often resulting in end-of-term complications.

I’ve been guilty of it myself. Although I’m much better than I used to be, I’m still curious about procrastination.

How does it affect well-being and physiology?

More importantly, how can we overcome this tendency? Is there an app for that?

To get these answers, let’s explore procrastination, beginning with the psychology of procrastination.

What Is Procrastination According to Psychology?

Procrastination has existed throughout history and across cultures, appearing in folk tales and songs. In 44 BC, the Roman politician Cicero denounced Antonius’s chronic slowness and procrastination as “hateful” (Steel, 2007).

Is procrastination merely slowness? According to Klassen, Krawchuk, and Rajani (2008, p. 916), “procrastination consists of the intentional delay of an intended course of action, in spite of an awareness of negative outcomes.”

Reviewing the history of procrastination, Steel (2007) stated that although it has existed throughout history, it increasingly assumed negative connotations with the start of the industrial revolution.

We know that technologically advanced societies mandate various commitments and deadlines, whereas agrarian and undeveloped societies do not (Steel, 2007).

Bearing in mind the connotation of procrastination as negative, we can assume there are associated consequences.

Physiological consequences of procrastination

Procrastination is linked to higher levels of stress and lower well-being (Jaffe, 2013; Stead, Shanahan, & Neufeld, 2010; Hairston & Shpitalni, 2016). Specifically, “[a]nxiety and depression are positively correlated with self-report and behavioral measures of procrastination” (Stead et al., 2010, p. 175).

Hairston and Shpitalni (2016) link procrastination to negative affect and self-reported sleep disturbances.

Other adverse effects of procrastination include “increased stress, lower task performance, reduced wellbeing, regret and suffering, and risk of mental and physical illness” (Svartdal et al., 2018, p. 2).

Considering the overall cultural condition of time poverty, why do people avoid tasks, preferring to peruse the internet or occupy themselves with Candy Crush?

Types of Procrastination

Some researchers classify two types of procrastinators: passive and active procrastinators.10

• Passive procrastinators: Delay the task because they have trouble making decisions and acting on them
• Active procrastinators: Delay the task purposefully because working under pressure allows them to “feel challenged and motivated”

Others define the types of procrastinators based on different behavioral styles of procrastination, including:11\

• Perfectionist: Puts off tasks out of the fear of not being able to complete a task perfectly
• Dreamer: Puts off tasks because they are not good at paying attention to detail
• Defier: Doesn’t believe someone should dictate their schedule
• Worrier: Puts off tasks out of fear of change or leaving the comfort of “the known”
• Crisis-maker: Puts off tasks because they like working under pressure
• Overdoer: Takes on too much and struggles with finding time to start and complete tasks

Causes According to Research

No single cause can be attributed to procrastination.

The following is not a comprehensive list of the causes of procrastination; however, it reflects common correlations.

Neuroticism

Neuroticism is similar to worrying, trait anxiety, or negative affect (Steel, 2007). Subcategories of note include irrational beliefs, cognitions, or thoughts; low self-efficacy and self-esteem; self-handicapping; impulsivity, sensation seeking; and depression.

Steel’s (2007, p. 81) research shows that the correlation between procrastination and neuroticism “appears to be due almost entirely to impulsiveness.”

Impulsivity

Impulsive people procrastinate, preferring to focus on the desires of the moment (Steel, 2007; Svartdal et al., 2018) rather than the drudgery of tasks. This form of procrastination stems from the pursuit of “immediate gratification, neglecting or ignoring longer term responsibilities” (Steel, 2007, p. 70).

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness includes variables such as distractibility (self-control), poor organization (structuring and planning life), low achievement motivation (goal setting, enjoyment of performance), and a gap between intention and action (Steel, 2007).

According to Steel (2007, p. 81), “procrastination does appear to be representative of low conscientiousness and self-regulatory failure.”

Lack of self-confidence or low self-efficacy

Stemming from a fear of failure, both low self-efficacy and low self-esteem are associated with procrastination (Steel, 2007). Low self-efficacy is seen as irrational doubts about our ability to do well. Low self-esteem is the belief that “any failure to perform to standard suggests inadequacy as a person” (Steel, 2007, p. 69).

Discomfort dodging (task aversion)

Discomfort dodging includes putting off a task “because some parts of it are associated with uncomfortable and, possibly anxious, feelings” (Knaus, 1979, p. 5). The goal of discomfort dodging is to avoid bad feelings.

Perfectionism

In his 1979 book Do It Now, William J. Knaus included a chapter on the association between perfectionism and procrastination. He states that perfectionism is unrealistic and linked to fear of failure. Others (Dexter, 2020; Phillips, 2019) also cite perfectionism as a source of procrastination.

However, Steel (2007, p. 81), an expert in the field, gives procrastination less credit, citing, “procrastinators are actually less likely, not more, to be perfectionists.”

Academics

Researchers suggest that procrastination can be particularly pronounced among students. A 2007 meta-analysis published in the Psychological Bulletin found that a whopping 80% to 95% of college students procrastinated regularly, particularly when it came to completing assignments and coursework.4

According to researchers, some major cognitive distortions lead to academic procrastination.5 Students tend to:

• Overestimate how much time they have left to perform tasks
• Overestimate how motivated they will be in the future
• Underestimate how long certain activities will take to complete
• Mistakenly assume that they need to be in the right frame of mind to work on a project

Present Bias

The present bias is a phenomenon observed in human behavior that may result in procrastination. The present bias means that we tend to be motivated more by immediate gratification or rewards than we are by long-term rewards. This is why it feels good at the moment to procrastinate.

For example, the immediate reward of staying in bed and watching TV is more appealing than the long-term reward of publishing a blog post, which would take much longer to accomplish.

Depression

Procrastination can also be a result of depression. Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and a lack of energy can make it difficult to start (and finish) the simplest task.6 Depression can also lead to self-doubt. When you can’t figure out how to tackle a project or feel insecure about your abilities, you might find it easier to put it off.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Procrastination is also pretty common in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. One reason is that OCD is often linked with maladaptive perfectionism, which causes fears about making new mistakes, doubts about whether you are doing something correctly, and worry over others’ expectations of you. People with OCD also often have a propensity toward indecision, causing them to procrastinate rather than make a decision.

ADHD

Many adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) struggle with procrastination.8 When you’re so distracted by outside stimuli, as well as internal thoughts, it can be hard to get started on a task, especially if that task is difficult or not interesting to you

Procrastination is not new and does not discriminate.

Hannah Lamarque (2017) describes some famous procrastinators that few would expect.

1. Bill Clinton

This former president was notorious for failing to follow through and being cursed by distraction. So notorious was his latent reputation that in 1994, Time Magazine published an article about it. Further, his vice president, Al Gore, characterized him as “punctually challenged” (Lamarque, 2017).

2. Leonardo Da Vinci

One of the greatest and most well-known artists of all time also contended with procrastination. It’s hard to conceive, considering his body of work, but Da Vinci struggled with focus. The Mona Lisa, one of his most notable masterpieces, took 16 years to complete.

Other works such as the Virgin of the Rocks took 13 years. So intense was Da Vinci’s proclivity for procrastination that his benefactor threatened bankruptcy to motivate him.

It’s reassuring to know that procrastination is an equal opportunity malady. To offer a hand to those who struggle with it, let’s review some expert advice.

Reasons for procrastinating

 The following are the key reasons for procrastination in practice:

• Prioritization of short-term mood (i.e., preferring to feel better now even if this will lead to feeling worse later).
• Task aversiveness (i.e., finding a task to be frustrating, boring, or unpleasant in another way).
• Anxiety and fear (e.g., due to concerns of being criticized for your work).
• Feeling overwhelmed (e.g., due to having so many things to do that it’s unclear where to start).
• Perfectionism (e.g., due to refusing to publish work that has any flaws).
• Disconnect from the future self (e.g., viewing the consequences of your delay as something that someone else will experience).
• Delayed outcomes (e.g., due to discounting of rewards that will only be given in the far future).
• Low motivation (e.g., due to low-value outcomes).
• Expected effort (e.g., due to hard tasks).
• Inertia (i.e., the tendency to keep procrastinating once you’ve started).
• Abstract goals (i.e., ones that aren’t clear and well-defined).
• Cognitive biases (e.g., a bias that makes you unreasonably pessimistic about your odds of success).
• Time-management issues (e.g., failure to prioritize tasks).
• Problematic traits (e.g., impulsivity).
• Underlying behaviors (e.g., rebellion against an authority figure).
• Underlying conditions (e.g., depression).
• Low energy (e.g., due to lack of sleep).
• Low capacity for self-control (e.g., due to exhaustion).
• Problematic environment (e.g., one that’s filled with distractions).

In the sub-sections below, you will find more information about all these reasons.

Note that people can procrastinate for different reasons. For example, one person might procrastinate solely due to underlying anxiety, while someone else might procrastinate due to a combination of perfectionism, abstract goals, and delayed outcomes. There are also different types of procrastination, which are sometimes categorized based on their main cause, for example in the case of depression-based procrastination.

Many of the causes of procrastination are interrelated. For example, depression can cause a lack of energy, lack of energy can exacerbate anxiety, and anxiety can increase task aversiveness, which can cause procrastination due to prioritization of short-term mood. Similarly, the effect of anxiety on procrastination can be influenced by various factors, such as people’s self-efficacy and mindfulness.

Furthermore, the relationship between these issues and procrastination is complex for other reasons. For example, while some types of perfectionism and fear generally increase procrastination, others generally decrease it (by increasing the motivation to act). Accordingly, the exact way in which these issues influence people’s behavior can vary across situations.

Prioritization of short-term mood

People sometimes procrastinate because they prioritize their short-term mood over their long-term achievement and well-being. For example, a student might delay doing an important assignment that they find stressful because this helps them feel better in the short term.

This primarily happens when people postpone doing something that they expect will cause them negative emotions. However, this can also happen when people postpone something to create, increase, or prolong positive emotions, usually by engaging with appealing alternatives (e.g., digital entertainment),

This phenomenon is a form of mood repair. It’s closely associated with the concepts of hedonistic delay (postponing things due to prioritization of enjoyable activities or lack of caring), instant gratification (preferring things that are immediately satisfying even if this is disadvantageous in the long term), and the pleasure principle (tending to seek out pleasurable activities and avoid unpleasant ones).

Task aversiveness

People sometimes procrastinate because they perceive their tasks as unpleasant. For example, someone might delay making an unpleasant phone call, to delay the negative emotions that this phone call will involve.

Task aversiveness depends on people’s subjective perception. For example, introverts might find a certain social task unpleasant, while extroverts might find it enjoyable.

A task can be seen as aversive (i.e., unpleasant) due to many issues, such as being frustrating, boring, monotonous, or involving uncertainty (e.g., because its instructions are incomplete or unclear).

Anxiety and fear

People sometimes procrastinate because they are anxious about or afraid of something. For example, someone might delay checking their bills because they feel anxious about seeing how much they need to pay. Similarly, an author might delay getting feedback on their book, because they’re afraid of being criticized.

People can be anxious about or afraid of many things, such as failure or being negatively evaluated by others. These concerns are often—though not always—irrational, for example, because they’re unjustified or exaggerated.

Feeling overwhelmed

People sometimes procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed. For example, someone might delay cleaning their house, if there are so many things to do that it feels like they’ll finish.

People can feel overwhelmed for many reasons, such as that a task appears too hard or involves too many parts, which can lead to problems such as not knowing where to start or feeling paralyzed by the apparent enormity of what needs to be done.

Perfectionism

People sometimes procrastinate because of their perfectionism. For example, a researcher might not accept the possibility of having any flaws in their paper (even if those flaws are inconsequential), and consequently keep going over the paper’s draft, even after it’s good enough to submit.

This is sometimes associated with a desire or intent to pursue a better option later, for example when someone delays starting to exercise at home because they plan to eventually join a gym, even though it would still be better for them to start exercising now.

Disconnect from the future self

People sometimes procrastinate because they feel disconnected from their future selves. For example, someone might delay improving their diet, because they view the consequences of a bad diet as a problem that someone else (i.e., their future self) will need to deal with.

This phenomenon is known as temporal self-discontinuity or temporal disjunction and can exacerbate other issues, such as the prioritization of short-term mood.

Delayed outcomes

People sometimes procrastinate because they discount the value of future outcomes. For example, someone might delay working on a project whose rewards they will only receive in a month because those rewards are so far away that they don’t feel motivated.

Delay reduces people’s perceived value of outcomes, a phenomenon is known as temporal discounting (also as future discounting and delay discounting), which reduces people’s motivation to act. This applies both to positive outcomes (e.g., rewards) and negative outcomes (e.g., punishments).

Greater delay can lead to greater discounts, but this association tends to plateau, since the further in the future an outcome is, the less an additional delay matters (a phenomenon known as hyperbolic discounting, which is contrasted primarily with the time-consistent exponential discounting). For example, this means that the difference between a 1-day and a 1-week delay generally leads to greater outcome discounting than the difference between a 1-week and a 2-week delay.

In addition, delay can involve other issues, such as making outcomes feel more abstract. It’s also associated with related phenomena, such as the present bias, which causes people to prefer outcomes that are closer to the present more than outcomes that are far in time.

Low motivation

People sometimes procrastinate because their motivation to act is low. For example, a student might delay studying for a test if they don’t care about getting good grades.

Various issues can reduce people’s motivation, including:

• Low-value outcomes.
• Delayed outcomes.
• High sensitivity to delay of outcomes.
• Low expectancy of achieving positive outcomes (e.g., due to low self-efficacy).
• Perceived inability to influence outcomes (e.g., due to feeling helpless, and that only luck matters).
• Underlying conditions (e.g., depression).
• Difficulty in associating tasks with their outcomes.
• Motivators that are extrinsic and controlled, rather than intrinsic and autonomous (e.g., being pushed to get good grades by parents rather than an internal desire).
• Low achievement motivation (i.e., a weaker innate drive to pursue one’s goals).

Expected effort

People sometimes procrastinate because taking action requires an effort that they’re reluctant to exert. For example, someone might postpone a task because they expect it to take a lot of hard work, which they don’t want to do.

The more effort people think is required, and the more reluctant they are to exert effort, the more likely they are to procrastinate.

Inertia

Inertia is people’s tendency to keep doing what they’re already doing, which can lead them to keep procrastinate once they’ve started. For example, if someone goes out to socialize when they should be studying, inertia can make them likely to keep procrastinating, since to study they’ll now also have to return home, which requires extra effort.

In addition to practical considerations, inertia as a cause of procrastination can involve other mechanisms, such as reduced motivation to act, for example, if the task is out of sight, which makes its outcome feel less important. It can also involve inaction inertia, whereby skipping an initial opportunity to take action decreases the likelihood of taking action under similar future opportunities, for example, to avoid making unpleasant feelings of regret surface by engaging with a task that reminds someone of previous failures.

Abstract goals

Unclear goals can make people more likely to procrastinate than goals that are concrete and well-defined. For example, goals such as “get fit” or “start exercising” are vague, and are therefore more likely to lead to procrastination than a concrete goals such as “be able to run on the treadmill’s medium setting for 30 minutes straight”.

Concrete goals are especially effective when they’re associated with a plan of action (i.e., an implementation intention), such as “go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right after work, and spend at least 20 minutes running on the treadmill each time”.

Cognitive biases

Various cognitive biases can lead to procrastination. For example, the pessimism bias can lead to procrastination if someone incorrectly assumes that their project is likely to fail, which discourages them from getting started.

The following are examples of other biases, heuristics, and related phenomena that can cause procrastination:

• The optimism bias can lead to procrastination if someone incorrectly assumes that they won’t run into any issues while working, which makes them wrongly comfortable to delay starting until right before the deadline. This ties into the planning fallacy, which occurs when people underestimate how long it will take to complete a future task, despite knowing that similar past tasks took longer to complete than expected.
• The bandwagon effect can make someone more likely to procrastinate if they see their peers doing it.
• Moral self-licensing can make someone more likely to procrastinate if they just acted in a way that they perceive as positive, for example when they feel comfortable delaying going to the gym because they followed their diet properly earlier today.
• Analysis paralysis (or choice paralysis) can cause someone to postpone deciding if their indecision means that they get stuck overthinking the situation whenever they try to choose. This can be exacerbated by many issues, such as choice overload due to having too many options to choose from.
• The projection bias (and the associated empathy gap) can encourage procrastination cycles, for example, if someone feels motivated right before they fall asleep, and are sure they’ll also feel as motivated tomorrow, which causes them to fail to adequately prepare for their upcoming procrastination

Time-management issues

Some time-management issues can lead to procrastination. For example, someone might procrastinate on an important task if they fail to prioritize their tasks properly, and consequently fail to realize how important it is to finish that task on time.

These issues are often driven by underlying issues with emotion regulation. For example, if someone is afraid of a task because they doubt their ability to complete it, then they might convince themselves that the task is easier than it is, to protect their feelings in the short term.

Problematic traits

Some personality traits can increase the likelihood of procrastination. For example, two such key traits are impulsivity (the tendency to act on sudden whims without thinking ahead), and distractibility (difficulty in maintaining attention and the tendency to be easily diverted from matters).

In addition, various other problematic traits can make it more likely that people will procrastinate, including proneness to boredom, sensitivity to outcome delay, laziness, and lack of perseverance. Other traits, such as extraversion and neuroticism, may also matter, primarily by influencing how people procrastinate.

Underlying behaviors

Some underlying behaviors and desires can drive people to procrastinate. For example, a student might procrastinate on studying as a way to engage in self-handicapping, by placing barriers in their way so that if they do badly they can attribute it to procrastination rather than their abilities.

Other underlying behaviors may be involved in procrastination, such as:

• Self-sabotage is when people procrastinate to hinder their success and well-being, for example, because they don’t think they deserve it.
• Sensation seeking is when people procrastinate because they want to add challenge and excitement to tasks, especially by working on them under intense time pressure before an upcoming deadline.
• Seeking distraction, when people procrastinate to give themselves a manageable problem that they can focus on instead of more threatening issues in their lives.
• Seeking control, when people procrastinate to feel in control of their life and schedule.
• Rebellion is when people procrastinate as a way to rebel or get revenge, for example against an authority figure they resent.

In addition, other behaviors may also make people more likely to procrastinate, such as multitasking.

Underlying conditions

Some underlying conditions can make people more likely to procrastinate. For example, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) can make it harder for someone to concentrate on work, and consequently more likely to be distracted away from it. Similarly, depression can also cause someone to procrastinate, by making them feel tired, making it harder for them to concentrate, and reducing their interest in activities.

Low energy

Low levels of mental and physical energy can lead to procrastination. For example, someone might delay washing the dishes when they get home because they’re tired from having worked hard all day.

Low energy levels can be caused by various issues, such as lack of sleep, burnout (a form of emotional exhaustion), depression,

Low capacity for self-control

Self-control (also known as self-discipline and willpower) reflects people’s ability to guide their behavior to pursue their goals, especially in the face of things such as temptations. Accordingly, being able to exert self-control is crucial to successfully self-regulating one’s behavior and avoiding procrastination, and procrastination is sometimes said to be due to akrasia, which is a state of mind where someone acts against their better judgment, due to a lack of sufficient self-control.

Various issues can lead to low self-control, such as genetic predisposition and exhaustion. Decision fatigue due to previous decision-making and depletion due to the previous exertion of self-control may also play a role, but this is controversial.

Problematic environment

Various aspects of the environment and situations in which people operate can make people more likely to procrastinate. For example, a student may be more likely to procrastinate if there are many available distractions and temptations in their environment (e.g., access to social media platforms, such as Reddit), or if they’re in a noisy environment that makes it hard to concentrate.

Many aspects of one’s environment can make procrastination more likely, such as clutter, problematic timing of shifts at work, unclear directions, unstructured work, and poor organizational fit. Many relevant aspects are social, such as whether work takes place as part of a team, what sort of peer influence a person experiences, and whether a person receives emotional support from others.

Overcoming procrastination

Understanding why you procrastinate can help you overcome procrastination, by helping you identify the most appropriate anti-procrastination techniques to use in your particular situation.

Specifically, to stop procrastinating, you should do the following:

1. Set specific and realistic goals. For example, if you want to start exercising, a good goal might be “manage to run for 1 mile straight by the end of the month”, while bad goals might be “do some running” (unspecific) and “run a marathon by the end of the month” (unrealistic).
2. Assess your procrastination. First, identify situations where you delay unnecessarily, to figure out how you procrastinate (e.g., by browsing social media). Then, think about those situations to also figure out where and when you procrastinate (e.g., on starting or finishing tasks, in the morning or evening, at home or the library). Finally, figure out why you procrastinate (e.g., due to perfectionism, fear, or abstract goals), based on the information you saw in this guide.
3. Create an action plan based on relevant anti-procrastination techniques, while accounting for the goals that you set and the nature of your procrastination problem.
4. Implement your plan, and then monitor your progress and refine your approach, primarily by figuring out which techniques work for you and how you can implement them most effectively.

The following are key anti-procrastination techniques you can use as part of your plan:

• Break tasks into manageable steps (e.g., sub-tasks you can easily complete).
• Commit to a tiny first step (e.g., working for just 2 minutes).
• Permit yourself to make mistakes (e.g., by accepting that your work will be imperfect).
• Make it easier to do things (e.g., by preparing everything you need in advance).
• Make tasks more enjoyable (e.g., by listening to music).
• Make it harder to procrastinate (e.g., by eliminating potential distractions).
• Delay before indulging the impulse to procrastinate (e.g., by counting to 10 first).
• Set deadlines (e.g., by deciding that you’ll complete a certain task by tomorrow evening).
• Plan how you will deal with obstacles (e.g., by deciding that if X happens, then you’ll do Y).
• Identify and address your fears (e.g., by considering what advice you would give to a friend).
• Increase your motivation (e.g., by marking streaks of days on which you achieve your goals).
• Increase your energy (e.g., by taking necessary breaks).
• Improve your environment (e.g., by adding reminders of your goals).
• Use social techniques (e.g., emulating a role model).
• Use time-management techniques (e.g., alternating consistently between work and rest).
• Create starting rituals (e.g., counting down from five to zero).
• Start with your best or worst task (e.g., your easiest or hardest one).
• Develop self-efficacy (e.g., by reflecting on your successes).
• Develop self-compassion (e.g., by reminding yourself that everyone makes mistakes).
• Treat underlying conditions (e.g., ADHD).

For more information about these techniques and how to use them effectively, see the guide on how to stop procrastinating.

How to Overcome Procrastination: 3 Techniques

One of the cinema’s favorite nannies, Mary Poppins, sings the tune Well Begun is Half Done to encourage Jane and Michael to do their chores, paving a path to the first of three recommendations.

1. The 5-minute rule

When the brain is overwhelmed by a task, it can result in anxiety and avoidance. Bariso (2021) suggests a simple technique he calls the five-minute rule.

He advises committing to the task for five minutes with the stipulation that you can quit after that time if the task is overwhelming. Also known as chunking, this method breaks tasks into feasible portions.

Because task initiation often creates a roadblock, this method helps procrastinators clear the first hurdle. Thank you, Mary Poppins.

2. Visualization (mental rehearsal)

Visualization is an ongoing process that can be productively directed (Peper, Harvey, Lin, & Duvvuri, 2014). Imagining the successful completion of a task makes the realization more likely. This process is familiar to athletes and artists.

These five steps can guide the process.

1. Think of past behavior or conflict that ended in disappointment.
2. Understand that under the circumstances, you handled it the only way you could.
3. Consider, “How could I have handled this with the wisdom I have now?”
4. Now, think back to that same situation. Immerse yourself in it as if it is recurring, using all of your senses. Be as specific as possible. This time, imagine yourself behaving masterfully.
5. Congratulate yourself for programming your future.

3. Mindfulness

In Unwinding Anxiety, Judson Brewer (2021) discusses both procrastination and the worry loop that leads to it.

Brewer describes the standard habit loop as trigger, behavior, and result. Avoiding a project can feel better at the moment than starting it. He suggests using mindfulness to build awareness of feelings associated with procrastination.

In the future, try doing a task early or on time, noticing what that feels like. The positive feelings associated with timely task completion can be used to build a new habit loop.

Procrastination Coaching and Therapy: 2 Tips

Knowing that there are ways to overcome procrastination, here are two tips for the therapist who has to deal with this phenomenon.

1. Appreciative Inquiry

The appreciative inquiry was developed by Cooperrider and Srivastva (1987), with the help of graduate students at Case Western University in the 1980s. The concept is based on “powerful assumptions about human change that are positive and life generating by nature” (Binkert & Clancy, 2011, p. 287).

This strengths-based and solution-focused paradigm is premised on human potential and social constructionism. Adherents believe that clients can reinvent themselves through language, using three fundamental principles:

1. “what people focus on becomes their reality;
2. the language people use creates their reality; and
3. in every individual, something works” (Orem, Binkert, & Clancy, 2007, p. 40).

The coaching application is realized through asking life-enhancing appreciative inquiry questions, watching for pivotal moments as clients begin to view themselves in a new light, and helping the client move forward, taking parts of their past that are positive and comforting (Binkert & Clancy, 2011).

2. Motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing (MI) is an optimistic approach to change based on research, experience, and the belief that clients are more likely to change when they believe they can (Souders, 2019).

Drawing on the strength of self-talk, MI techniques encourage change talk. Grounded in self-determination theory, MI attends to three basic psychological needs:

• Autonomy
• Competency
• Relatedness

Self-determination theory techniques are also used by professional sports coaches, such as Pete Carroll (Stetka, 2016).

This interdisciplinary method helps clients reduce ambivalence often associated with change. Its application is common in psychology and fields such as medicine and criminal justice.

This SlideShare was originally developed to help criminal justice practitioners implement MI. It explains concepts such as change talk, rolling with resistance, and using the acronym OARS.

Using CBT to Overcome Procrastination

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is another effective tool to motivate change in clients.

In CBT, the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and feelings is explored and discussed. Research shows that anxiety and avoidance may explain procrastination. As reviewed earlier, procrastination is a behavior used to avoid uncomfortable feelings (Dexter, 2020).

This therapeutic approach focuses on the present and is goal oriented. It utilizes cognition to treat emotional and behavioral disorders and operates with the premise that changes in thoughts can be highly effective for treating deep-seated issues (Orem et al., 2007).

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy has been proven effective as a tool to improve self-esteem and self-worth (McKay & Fanning, 2016), sometimes associated with procrastination. Using the power of self-talk to recognize and tame the inner critic, this method ignites the client’s rational, healthy voice (Sutton, 2021).

5 Helpful Worksheets, Apps, & Games

Below are three worksheets to help clients work through issues related to procrastination as well as a collection of apps and games.

1. Reward Replacement Worksheet

Using procrastination as their behavior change goal, clients can use the Reward Replacement Worksheet to analyze the costs and rewards of procrastination and consider behavior change.

2. Problem Solving Worksheet for Adults

This Problem Solving Worksheet helps clients identify a problem, break it into smaller steps, and set a course of action, listing the pros and cons of each option.

3. Building New Habits

Building New Habits walks clients through the habit loop, including reward implementation, and creating motivation for positive action.

4. HabitHub App

HabitHub, a habit and goal tracker app, motivates clients to complete to-do lists with easy-to-understand color schemes for daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.

Task reminder options range from many to few. I have incorporated this app for health and wellness routines as well as work-related tasks. Yes, there’s an app for that.

Available for Android.
Available for iOS (coming soon).

5. Triskelion eLearning game

Triskelion from Gamelearn is a role-playing simulation course for overcoming procrastination and maximizing personal productivity and time management skills.

Students learn to plan and prioritize projects and discover techniques that can be used daily to manage tasks, improve efficiency, and achieve goals.

Request a demo.

12 Questions, Tests, & Questionnaires for Clients

As we have seen through motivational interviewing, powerful questions can lead clients to revelations, evoking new thoughts about their potential. Below are six examples from Catherine Moore, author of 100 Most Powerful Life Coaching Questions (2019):

1. What will success look like?
2. How will you know you’ve achieved your goal?
3. How might you turn these steps into a plan?
4. How will you prepare for each step?
5. How do you plan to motivate yourself when obstacles arise?
6. What are some ways to motivate yourself to get started?

I’ve added four questions of my own:

7. What one word describes how you feel during or after procrastination? Explain.
8. What type of tasks do you tend to procrastinate on the most?
9. If your self-talk is negative, do you know where that voice comes from?
10. Think of a time you felt amazing about the work you do. How did it feel? Why?

These questions allow the client to reflect on emotions that when overlooked, create non-productive habit loops, keeping in mind that what gets rewarded, gets repeated.

Procrastination can be prevalent among students. This questionnaire from the Oregon State University’s Academic Success Center website, cleverly named Procrasti-Not, is geared toward students and holistic. The questions seek to identify which life domains are more prone to procrastination.

Top 2 Books on the Topic

Thoroughly getting on top of a topic means extending your knowledge, and reading our recommended books are just what you need.

1. Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastination and Get More Done in Less Time – Brian Tracy

Eat That Frog is touted as one of the most popular time management books in history and is available in 42 languages.

The author embraces the premise that hitting your most undesirable task first thing in the morning means you start the day having accomplished a great thing.

Further, Tracy addresses perseveration that leads to procrastination.

Find the book on Amazon.

2. Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind – Judson Brewer

This book reviews the state of anxiety in current times and how anxiety drives bad habits (procrastination being one) and addictive behaviors.

Brewer presents a solution-focused program for overcoming anxiety.

Find the book on Amazon.

A Take-Home Message

Surprisingly, it has been my pleasure to explore procrastination. I’ve discovered apps, worksheets, questions, books, and other valuable resources that I’ve already implemented to improve work hygiene.

In 1979, Knaus described distractions such as “chain-smoking, overeating, sleeping, playing solitaire, doing pushups” (1979, p. 21). Forty-two years later, technological advancements have situated the temptation to procrastinate in the palm of our hands – no pushups necessary.

Students have been the target of many procrastination studies, but they’re not alone.

We are all different, and when addressing the gap between intention and action, it’s vital to create a plan that suits your personality type.