Module 5 · Motivation & mind · Research-supported

Procrastination is about feelings

Putting things off is usually escaping a feeling, not laziness.

6 min read · Level: Beginner · Free — no account needed to read

The problem it solves

If you want to do something, why do you keep putting it off?

The concept

Procrastination is rarely laziness. Research links it most strongly with how unpleasant a task feels right now — boring, confusing, anxiety-provoking — and with how far away its rewards are. Putting it off relieves the bad feeling for a moment.

That makes procrastination a form of short-term mood repair, at the expense of your future self. The feeling (dread, doubt, boredom) is the emotional trigger; avoiding it is the payoff.

Helpful responses target the feeling: make the start smaller and clearer, name the feeling, start anyway for two minutes, and forgive yourself for past delays rather than piling on guilt.

Why it matters

Students who forgave themselves for procrastinating before one exam procrastinated less before the next — self-criticism tends to add to the bad feeling that drives delay.

Research-supported: Good studies support it, but there are fewer of them, the effects are modest, or they come from a narrow set of situations.

See it happen

Noor has put off her tax forms for weeks. Each time she thinks of them she feels a knot of anxiety and does something else.

The ordinary first approach

She is just bad at organising herself.

With the idea

She names the feeling (“I’m worried I’ll get it wrong”), opens the forms for ten minutes to list what she needs, and stops there.

What changed

She addressed the feeling and made the start small and clear.

Easy to get wrong

• Calling yourself names for procrastinating, which adds to the bad feeling.
• Waiting until the feeling goes away before starting.
• Keeping the first step vague, which makes the task feel bigger.

Try it now: Name it, then start small

1. Pick something you’re putting off.
2. Write the feeling it brings up, in one word.
3. Do the smallest, clearest first step for two minutes.

Apply it to one of your habits

For one habit you keep putting off, what feeling comes up just before you avoid it?

Reflect

• What feeling do you most often avoid by procrastinating?

Go deeper — evidence & sources

• Steel (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
• Sirois & Pychyl (2013). Procrastination and the Priority of Short-Term Mood Regulation: Consequences for Future Self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. doi:10.1111/spc3.12011
• Wohl, Pychyl & Bennett (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.029