Procrastinate procrastination!

You know that guilty feeling around not being determined enough or not having enough willpower to do what we are supposed to do?  Brain studies show why this happens and how we can procrastinate procrastination.

There are 2 operating systems in our brain, the conscious one (which represents between 0.0005% and an optimistic 5% of our brain activity) and the unconscious one (which dominates with 95% or more of our brain activity).

Decision making and willpower, also called delayed gratification, are cognitive processes happening in the pre-frontal cortex, the part of our conscious brain which is essential for self-control, making us overriding initial impulses, resist a temptation and choose a more desirable behaviour.

The challenge is that it`s our unconscious brain that drive many of choices and behaviours, with us not even being aware of it!

Our non-conscious brain is designed to keep us safe (avoid danger), use the least amount of energy possible (it is energy efficient) and seek pleasure and minimize pain: all these automatic “survival drivers” have a huge impact on the conscious brain which is where we exercise willpower and decision making.

The result is that we postpone a task because we value it less than the options offered by the drivers or instincts of our non-conscious brain. This happens in many forms:

• Postponing until it`s perfect (perfect is “safe”)– as perfectionists we never stop working until we feel it`s good enough (will it ever be?). While procrastinating, we keep working hard and deal with the unpleasant feeling of not completing the task (sounds tiring right?).

• Putting things off because we perceive there is a danger, a risk or some unpleasant situation associated with it (such as failure). This slows us down or can even make us freeze.

• Not feeling motivated- the less is the task aligned with our intrinsic motivators, or our inclinations or even our personality traits, the harder (more energy) it can be to start and/or complete it.

• The lack of prioritization – we give the same importance to everything and end up being distracted by other tasks (pleasure seeking) and not doing the most relevant one.

• The addiction - we get so hooked in one activity or behaviour that this addiction (whether it is work, social media scrolling, exercising…) becomes more important than any other tasks thus we postpone all the rest.

So, what can we do to overcome procrastination?

The key is to trigger motivation and dopamine. Here are some tricks:

• Remind yourself the why behind the task you are procrastinating. Link completing the task to a compelling reason (the bigger the better)

• Visualize yourself doing it and completing it: feel and experience the satisfaction or the relief.

• Break down the activity in smaller tasks and each time you complete one, check it off (dopamine kicks in).

• Bundle the task you are procrastinating with one that you enjoy.

• Find aspects of the task which are positive and focus on those instead of the negative ones.

• Team up to share the effort or find a buddy as an accountability partner.

• Change the environment:  eliminate temptations and distractions around you. If you identify certain patterns that trigger your procrastination), break out those patterns (if you find hard to work in certain place, try a different one).

• Take the first step (putting on our running shoes, writing the first word or sentence of that report, etc.). The brain will still resist but if we activate our energy we create momentum and it will be easier to keep going.

• Get to know your inner procrastinator and refer to it as a third person so that it becomes a separate entity from you, invite it to get out of the way.

• Change the language you use there is a big difference in energy and motivation when we say “I am doing this right now” versus “I have to do this” or even worse “I should do this”.

Last but not least some procrastinators find motivation in the task`s deadline and this might work at times (though it does not guarantee good quality as no time is left to review and fine tune the work). The challenge is that there are very important things in our life (i.e. a change to healthy habits, a change to a fulfilling career) with no formal set deadline other than what I call the “invisible deadline” (our life calendar) so let`s decide wisely on what we procrastinate.