Procrastination: Why we do it and how to stop

Our ancient ancestors regularly faced life-threatening situations that drove them to choose between a fight or flight response. Thanks (I guess?) to these life-threatening moments, they developed and passed down this powerful physiological response that has ensured our survival for several millennia.

We often don’t fight off wooly mammoths or leap off cliffs for our survival these days, so our fight-or-flight response has some funny ways of showing up in the modern world. One of the ways in which our flight-or-fight response shows up today is in the form of procrastination.

I know it sounds bizarre, but it will make sense in just a moment. First, we need to take a closer look at fight-or-flight, how it works, and why it happens. 

The amygdala: procrastination’s best friend

The flight-or-fight response is controlled by the amygdala—two almond-shaped clusters of nucleons in our brains. It’s the amygdala’s job to process our emotions, memory, and decision making. 

Here’s a quick overview of what happens in our bodies during fight-or-flight: A threat presents itself—or at least we think one does—and immediately our amygdala takes over, throwing us into a fight-or-flight response. Our body releases epinephrine, or adrenaline, into our bloodstream. Cortisol, adrenaline’s best friend, also fires off and tells our heart to pump harder, and lungs to breathe deeper. Non-essential bodily functions take a back seat allowing important ones to go into high gear. Then, we can either kick butt or run away as fast as we can. 

This physiological response, or amygdala hijack, allowed our ancient ancestors to survive in threatening high-stake situations. In essence, our modern-day brains perceive unpleasant tasks as threats throwing us into a light version of fight-or-flight. 

How procrastination works

Our amygdala perceives a threat, let’s say a business proposal or presentation in today’s case, and decides if we’ll stick around and fight or flee. If we flee, we choose to put that task off until later—and then a little later still—until we have no choice but to finally get cracking. What happens then is that we’ve given ourselves so little time to complete the task, that the time crunch becomes the threat instead of the project itself, so our response becomes to fight. 

I told you it’d all make sense

How to overcome procrastination

Whenever we procrastinate, we make a decision based on fear. We choose avoidance over confrontation. Understanding that this choice is based on fear can help us establish steps to overcome our instinct to procrastinate. Here are some steps you can take to minimize procrastination and become more effective and productive:

Positive outcomes

Think about the times you’ve faced a similar challenge and how it wasn’t so bad once you got started. Drawing a blank? No problem. Instead, focus on all the positive outcomes of making steady progress toward completing a task. Consider how less stressed you’ll feel if you make gradual progress toward a goal, or how enjoyable it is to not have to scramble to complete something. 

Plan of attack

Some things in life are scary because you’re not prepared for them. So, when it comes to a task, project, or goal, you can take the fear out of it by creating a plan of attack or a strategy for completion. 

A plan or strategy shouldn’t be too involved or detailed. It’s merely an outline of small steps you can take to help you move from start to finish. This will motivate you by helping you to take small steps toward completing your task, making it less intimidating.

Once you have your list, schedule a time for it on your calendar, and just show up. By doing so, you’re giving yourself an opportunity to at least try. The first and hardest part of doing something is showing up for yourself; after all, if you don’t show up, no progress can be made.. 

Challenge

I find it fun when I challenge myself to beat a record or a time limit on a task. For instance, I told myself it would only take me two hours to write this, and guess what? I was utterly wrong. The point is that I made the task fun by competing against myself, making it less of a perceived threat and more of a game.

Incentivize 

When faced with a particularly daunting task, or just one that’s really no fun, try giving yourself an incentive. I tell myself that if I finish a certain amount of work, or stay focused for a specific amount of time, that I can watch my favorite show or have some ice cream. It may sound silly, but it’s effective. 

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, or can you?

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form and reorganize neural connections, especially in response to learning or experience. 

Remember, the amygdala is a set of neuron clusters responsible for memory, emotions, and decisions. Its responsibility is not to understand why something is a perceived threat but to simply alert you of it if past memories support a fight-or-flight response. 

When you take steps to associate timely task completion with positive emotions, you’re essentially retraining your amygdala. Thanks to neuroplasticity, your amygdala can be rewired over time to learn that what was once a perceived threat—which did not conclude in pain, injury, or death—is indeed safe. As your amygdala relearns how to react to certain stimuli, you’ll procrastinate less and become more proactive, and productive.

You can beat procrastination because science said so

Now you know that procrastination, although often perceived as an unfortunate character trait, is just an evolutionary response. So, the next time you feel that a perceived threat is getting in the way of your productivity, remember that it’s perfectly normal. All it takes is a little positivity and small steps to rewire an evolutionary trait and finish up that to-do list. No big deal, seriously!