Procrastination

What is it? Why is it? What Can we do With it?

What are we talking about?

Procrastination is often dismissed as simple laziness, but it is more accurately described as a struggle with emotional regulation. A tug of war if you will in the space between our ears. Certainly I find this to be true when I would love to do a thing and yet I push it forward for tomorrow. Knowing full well that tomorrow never comes.

It is the act of delaying a task despite knowing that the delay will likely result in negative consequences.
While we often blame poor time management, the root cause is usually our brain’s desire to avoid the immediate stress, boredom, or anxiety associated with a specific goal.

Where does it come from?

Basically, ever since we got smart this putting things off has been a part of our lives.

Humans have been complaining about procrastination for thousands of years. Around 1400 BCE, an Egyptian scribe wrote to a colleague: “Friend, stop putting off work and allow us to go home in good time”.
Ancient Greece (~700 BCE): The poet Hesiod warned his brother in Works and Days, saying, “Do not put your work off till tomorrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn”.
Ancient India (~500 BCE): The Bhagavad Gita describes a “Tamasika agent” as someone who is “lazy, depressed, and procrastinating,” viewing it as a serious moral failing.
Ancient Rome (1st Century BCE): The statesman Cicero famously called procrastination “detestable” during a time of political crisis, warning that delay could be fatal for the Republic.

English debut: The term “procrastination” began appearing in English in the 1540s.
By the 18th century, it was famously dubbed the “thief of time” by poet Edward Young in his 1742 work, Night Thoughts.
This “thief of time” is much more relevant in our modern times. It has become very easy for our prefrontal cortex (read on) to lose the battle and get it’s dopamine hit from social media.

Why does it rule us sometimes?

Your brain is essentially stuck in a tug-of-war between two main areas:

1. The Amygdala (The Emotional Driver): This is the brain’s “threat detector”. When you think about a stressful task, the amygdala flags it as a danger and triggers a “freeze” or avoidance response to protect you from that stress. In chronic procrastinators, the amygdala is often physically larger, making them more sensitive to these “threats”.
   As far as I’m concerned, my amygdala must be as large as Mount Everest.
2. The Prefrontal Cortex (The Rational Planner): This part handles logical thinking and long-term goals. It knows you need to work, but it is much “younger” and weaker than the emotional limbic system. When you’re tired or stressed, the prefrontal cortex loses the battle, and you end up scrolling social media for a quick dopamine hit instead.
   Even if I’m neither tired nor stressed the fear of failure makes me avoid writing until I get sick of running away from it.

In his book Feel-Good Productivity, Ali Abdaal sums it up beautifully…

The rule of Procrastination

When I procrastinate writing (which is often), it’s because I’m suspended between two ideals. On the one hand, there’s a genuine desire to write my book – To create something beautiful! To help people! –
and on the other, there’s a little voice in my head, saying, ‘Anything I write is going to be garbage anyway so there’s no point in doing it!’ Or, ‘I’m just not a good writer, why am I even trying this?’
Ali Abdaal

How can we work with it?

Overcoming this habit requires shifting from a mindset of “perfect performance” to “starting small.”
Strategies like the “five-minute rule”—committing to working on a task for just five minutes—help lower the barrier to entry.
(✏️Ed. bump it to 15 minutes for writing related tasks.)
By breaking large projects into tiny, manageable steps, we can bypass the brain’s fear response.
Ultimately, working with procrastination isn’t about working harder; it’s about learning to sit with discomfort long enough to get started and using momentum.
Consider this: The best antidote to inertia is action.

Again Ali…

Nobody cares what you write.

The mindset of ‘no one cares’ can be totally transformative. It’s one of the simplest methods I’ve identified to reduce my anxiety-related procrastination.
Feel-Good Productivity

Here are several psychological techniques to help you move forward:

1. Emotional Regulation Techniques:
   Name the Emotion:
   When you feel the urge to avoid a task, pause and name the specific feeling (e.g., “I’m feeling overwhelmed” or “I’m afraid this won’t be perfect”).
   Verbally labeling emotions can reduce activity in the brain’s threat center, the amygdala, helping to calm avoidance responses.
   Beyond that we procrastinate for different reasons. Like Ali, my procrastination is based on anxiety or FOF. (Fear of failure) Understanding your source is key to working with it.
2. Practice Self-Compassion:
   Research shows that being kind to yourself after procrastinating reduces future delays.
   Self-criticism triggers more stress, which leads to more avoidance.
   This is about a healthy mindset – all day long. You can talk to yourself in one of two ways.
   Choose this path; “I am not a procrastinator, I am a writer!”
3. Time Travel (Visualization):
   Project yourself into the future and visualize the relief and positive feelings you will have once the task is finished.
   Someone wrote – “We don’t want to write, that’s hard, we want to have written.” ✏️Ed. possibly it was Stephen King.
4. Behavioral Strategies to “Lower the Bar”
   1. The Five-Minute Rule: Commit to working on a task for just five minutes.
      By lowering the entry barrier, you interrupt the procrastination loop and allow momentum to build naturally.
   2. Implementation Intentions: Use “If-Then” planning to pre-decide when and where you will start.
      For example: “If it is 10:00 AM on Tuesday, then I will open my laptop and write the first paragraph”.
   3. Swiss Cheese Method:
      Instead of tackling a huge project, spend 10-minute “chunks” of time punching holes in it—like skimming a reading or jotting down five ideas—to make it feel less daunting.
5. Cognitive Restructuring (CBT)
   1. Challenge Thought Distortions:
      Identify negative thoughts like “I’ll never finish this” and reframe them with facts. Replace them with realistic statements such as, “I don’t need this to be perfect; I just need to get the first draft done”. Was it Ernest Hemingway who said ‘Everyone’s first draft is shit’?
   2. “Done is Better Than Perfect”:
      Perfectionism often leads to paralysis. Lowering your expectations for the first attempt can decrease the pressure and anxiety that cause you to delay.

Wrapping it up.

Let’s look to Marcus Sullivan…

How to Set Goals With Kaizen & Ikigai

When someone is in the throes of a procrastination session, then introducing them to a “hot new time-management technique” doesn’t really help them much. Such tips may increase the efficiency of a person who is already hard at work. But they may not be applicable to someone who is so crippled by procrastination that he can’t even get started.
Marcus Sullivan

Amen Marcus. I spent years reading them all…
From Atomic Habits through On Writing to an article Zen Productivity.
Were they, are they, helpful? Hell yes.
You can gain much knowledge and insight through reading all you can find on the topic.

But, but, but…
Knowledge alone is not knowing and definitely not action.
In my experience it takes self-reflection to figure out how to begin, gain momentum and keep that momentum going.

This has been my experience with writing but procrastination is a general topic. We’ve definitely only scratched the surface on this topic. Procrastination is very individual and deep.

So What are the takeaways here?

1. There is no way out of procrastination other than action.
   There is no magic bullet, book or essay. Whatever you are avoiding, you alone must find your way to just begin. No matter how uncomfortable it feels.
2. Break it down.
   If your daunted by a novel or a task that will cost you 6 months of your time and energy; block your calendar for 15 minutes / 4 days next week and start gaining momentum.
3. Get rid of the dream.
   Whatever goal your striving for, accept imperfection.
   In writing for example just sit down and bleed onto the page.
   Drafting and revision are two separate tasks. Gat the essay or story out of your system because you can’t revise a draft that doesn’t exist.
   Get rid of perfection.

Thank you so much for reading along.
Let us know what your experience with procrastination was / is in the comments below.
~A.J~