How I tackled my 5 Stages of ProcrastinationĀ
Procrastinating? Donāt worry. I wonāt make you feel guilty about your procrastination while reading this article. Itās because weāre all procrastinators to a certain extent.
I want you to sit down, relax, take a moment and reflect on yourself and your procrastinating tendencies. Itās going to be a looong read that will maximize your procrastination streakāyouāre welcome.
This article is for those who struggle with getting started on their tasks. Itās also for those who want to build better work habits, no matter how early or far along they are in their careers. Itās for those who believe that procrastination is a stigma, an undesirable personality trait, or worse, a medical condition.
By the end of this article, youāll be able to pinpoint whatās ultimately driving your procrastination. Youāll probably relate to some of my past and present predicamentsāand even commiserate. Iāve laid out what worked or didnāt work for me.
Hopefully, youāll be able to chart out an action plan to tackle yours. Take notes, come back again in a few weeks or months, and reevaluate some key points.
I might be wearing my heart on a sleeve by writing this article, but then again, human experience is surprisingly similar ā this could be anyoneās story. Itās the power of a story that can actuate change. Itās testimony that we can change and grow.
So here goes my visceral account of procrastination and its effects on personal productivity and work management.
Takeaway: Awareness is the key to tackling procrastination. If you can get specific about whatās going on when procrastinating in each situation, the insight will help you fix the problem.
The question is, what are you dreading? Are you bored? Is it the lack of know-how? Do you want to wait out the task? Letās find out.
Procrastination 101
What is procrastination? Itās the action of delaying or postponing something, intentionally or habitually. Procrastination can be seen through different lenses.
Situational procrastination
In terms of work management, procrastination may occur primarily due to task difficulty. Itās also called āsituational procrastinationā when the task itself drives the procrastination. Procrastination may also take place in the absence of fixed deadlines or timeframes. For instance, some jobs can be postponed, while others canāt.
You can postpone working on your carās engine, but itās not like you can procrastinate attending to your patient in the ER. Can you? Should you? I sure hope you canāt. ?
Conclusion: procrastination is more prevalent within education, design thinking, and the creative sphere, such as the arts or marketing.
Emotion-focused procrastination
In terms of motivation, procrastination is deeply emotional. It shows a lack of willpower caused by decision fatigue. When you are low on mental energy because of all the choices you had to make throughout the day or week, your brain will want to stop depleting its willpower in two ways. You will either act impulsively or do nothing at all.
Instead of making that tough phone call youāve been avoiding, youāll spontaneously call a friend to catch up. Or, youāll mindlessly scroll through your social media feed for hours, mentally postponing making the call. Either way, you will feel mentally drained.
From a clinical psychology perspective, procrastination is often associated with anxiety, depression, and stress, but it is not a mental health issue in itself.
Recent studies (Prem et al. 2018) define procrastination as a āform of self-regulation failure characterized by the irrational delay of tasks despite potentially negative consequences.ā Self-regulation refers to our ability to manage emotions well.
So, procrastination is a misfire of our brainās central executive functioning. According to Smarts: Are We Hard-Wired for Success, there are 12 executive skills within executive functioning. These are self-restraint, working memory, emotion control, focus, task initiation, planning/prioritization, organization, time management, defining/achieving goals, flexibility, observation (bigger picture), and stress tolerance.
Nobody excels at all 12 of them. Most individuals have 2-3 really strong skills, 2-3 incredibly weak ones, and the others are somewhere in between.
So, procrastination could be linked to:
- poor time management ā when you think your task will take 1 hour, but it takes much longer;
- task initiation ā not knowing how to start on your task;
- self-restraint ā not being able to control the urge to do something fun;
- focus ā getting easily distracted by notifications;
- stress tolerance ā panic-inducing deadlines, etc.
Takeaway: Thereās much to be said about procrastination. But if you understand that itās mostly an emotional issue, then you can make some positive changes! Take it from me, who went from being a master procrastinator to a quite functional procrastiworkerāmore on this later.
My five stages of procrastination
My argument is that our procrastinating habits are often a blend of situational (external) and emotional (internal) factors. Youāre never just one type of procrastinator. If you look at my five stages, youāll think Iām both a sloth and a busy beeāa shameless slacker and an overachiever with perfectionistic tendencies.
Indeed, there are deeper psychological underpinnings, but I try my best to articulate what Iāve experienced and strategies or āahaā moments that helped me become more functional.
Takeaway: youāll notice how I (mis)appropriated words and mottos throughout my stages. Our actions are deeply rooted in our thinking processes, and we use aphorisms to encapsulate life truths.
What are yours? As youāre reading this article, identify statements you tell yourself in moments when you choose to procrastinate. Some might sound like the following:
- āThatās just how I am.ā
- āI will start working on that assignment/task when I feel better.ā
- āIāve pulled that tough deadline off beforeā Iāll do it again.ā
- āIt wonāt happen again. Next semester/time, Iāll work on my assignments/tasks early.ā
- āI have plenty of time to do it later ā itāll be fine.ā
- āI put the pro in procrastination.ā
- āIāve had such a long day. Iāve earned the right to procrastinate a bit.ā
Stage #1. HEDONISTIC DELAY
When procrastination is a form of pleasure.
My mental picture: an unwilling toddler who wonāt eat their veggies yet demands candies.
Boredom, task difficulty, or lack of know-how lead to task aversion.
As is always the case, I had been a procrastinator long before I even knew the word. But with its discovery, I proudly appropriated it. My personal revelation was that I was a procrastinator.
True in the literal sense of the word, ātowards-tomorrowā (Latin, āprocrastinusā), I jokingly altered the well-known quote āWhy put off tomorrow what you can do today?ā into āWhy NOT put off tomorrow what you can do today?ā.
My cheeky rationale was that āTomorrow, you might not need to put in the work anyway,ā just because once or twice a task had sorted itself out, and I didnāt have to do it. For sure, that could happen once or 1% of the time. Obviously, I now know that in the other 99% of cases, you have to deliver on your promises. Otherwise, people will give up on you and find other collaborators.
Looking back on that rationale, it was probably a distorted view of the cost-sunk fallacy: āIf I start working on it, it has to be perfect; otherwise, it would have been for nothing.āĀ My explanation for this āall-or-nothingā mindset was that I didnāt want to be a modern-day Sisyphus. This thinking process is obviously way overboard. Later on in life, I had to fix this cognitive distortion (unhelpful thinking habit).
I was pretty spontaneous and flexible back in high school. KiddingāI was just unorganized, and my daily routine was a joke. The only structure was my school routine and my twin, who had to be both my savior and personal calendar. I had little structure in my schedule and no order. A lot was going on, but I had no calendar to keep track of them. So I was constantly at the mercy of my poor memory. I thought thatās how some people are.
Back when I was a teenager, I had this naĆÆve outlook on life that work magically gets done. That assignments and exams shall passābecause time passes, right? Till then, indulge in what makes you happy.
Instant gratification
This thinking processāthe āpleasure principleāāreflects the prioritization of short-term mood.
Its opposite, delayed gratification, promotes abstaining from giving in to immediate pleasurable experiences in exchange for valuable and meaningful rewards in the long run.
Essentially, I would prioritize my feelings in the present ā whatever I wanted to do and made me happy at that specific moment (#yolo, carpe diem) ā at the expense of my long-term development.
Itās a natural tendency to engage in enjoyable activities and avoid unpleasant ones, but it becomes a serious problem when you canāt control the urge to self-gratify. Too much instant gratification turns individuals into dopamine junkies, constantly seeking out fun activities and quick fixes. And when they donāt get their dopamine rush, their psychological response is tension and anxiety.
Thankfully, back in high school, my idea of instant gratification mostly involved reading books and encyclopedias, learning languages, playing guitar, and volunteering in the local community. Plus, I started freelancing, tutoring, and working on personal projects. These donāt sound too hedonistic, do they? Still, the pleasure principle works the same.
Bartering for the dopamine rush
But I wasnāt always artistically and socially productive. I was guilty of binge-gaming MMORPGs and binge-watching one too many TV series and anime. āItās OK to watch another episode. This TV series is so much funāitāll lift my mood and get me extra excited about that assignment/project. Iāll be able to finish it in no timeā.
This phenomenon is called mood repair. I would take it a step further and make excuses for my binges. I even misappropriated the proverb to soothe my conscience, āAll work and no play makes Jack a dullāuninterestingāboy.ā The problem is that Jack had been super lazy the whole day. I kept prioritizing pleasure over progress by wasting time bingeing for hours on end.
Mood repair makes you feel much worse later when you have to deal with a super tight deadline, or worse, dealing with the aftermath of your failed efforts. Years later, I had to imprint this on my mind, that
āNo work all day makes Jack a dullālazyāboy.ā
Task aversion
Instant gratification usually piggybacks on task aversion. Task aversion refers to the unwillingness to do frustrating, boring, or tiresome tasks. In short, the more unappealing the task, the more likely you are to avoid itāby procrastinating, of course.
I wasnāt naturally inclined to STEM disciplines, especially Maths, yet I had to follow Maths & IT-focused curricula. You can imagine the dread and resistance I had put up.
At the time, I didnāt know what structured procrastination was. It was a kind of childish rebellion against the fact that I was failing Maths. I just didnāt want to put in the effort because the task was too daunting.
I kept telling people that Maths was neither my forte nor my cup of tea. Why torture myself when I was acing all my other school subjects and pursuing other interests? But task aversion occurred in almost all kinds of tasks. I would put off long boring assignments until midnight before class. Worse yet, I used to finish easy assignments during the 10-minute break before class.
What worked?
- Fixed deadlines. Fortunately, you canāt postpone midterms and exams.
- Structured procrastination coupled with a reward system. When toddlers avoid eating the food they dislike, parents give them a morsel and then leave them to play for a while. Soon after, they come for another bite. āFine, watch that episode, but finish this task first. You can then reward yourself with another episodeā.
- āBite the bullet.āĀ A simpler approach to Eat the Frog method, which at the time would have been like CrossFit for a couch potato. āBite the bulletā was a quick mental trick. Like a mental race gun, I would tell myself, āReady-set-go!ā and start working on my assignment just as I would sprint at a race.
- Exercising self-control. Saying no to hitting ānext episode.ā Thankfully, Netflix wasnāt accessible to me back then, so bingeing took an effort.
- Change of perspective: I tried to make the hedonistic lifestyle look childish and meaningless. I told myself I was better than that. Eventually, I would have to value progress over pleasure, right?
Value progress over pleasure. You canāt live on junk food forever.
What didnāt work?
The Getting Things DoneĀ® method. This might have been the first productivity system I heard about. It was overkill, though. This productivity system could not contain my messiness because I was too inconsistent at the time. Plus, I was not aware I could change or grow. So, failing to implement GTD entrenched my belief that my lack of organization was indeed a natural trait.
My advice is to give GTD a try when you have a few productivity habits going strong or when you have a good routine.
Stage #2. FEAR OF FAILURE
When procrastination is a form of crippling anxiety.
My mental picture for the 2nd stage: a startled kangaroo dazzled by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
That moment when the reality of the imminent deadline sinks in.
When I got to college, I was ecstatic. Philology and modern languages, reading books, and learning languages meant that my structured procrastination go-tos had become my mandatory tasks. I was now in my sweet spot, or so I had thought.
The psychological underpinnings for procrastination were an acute sense of self-doubt and low self-esteemāmore on these issues in the 3rd stage.
As mentioned before, motivational procrastination may occur due to depleted willpower, which causes you to act in two extremes. Think of depleted willpower like a kangaroo when faced with an imminent collision:
Non-action
The blinding lights cause roos to dart erratically in front of the car. I call this non-action. Non-action is the failure to act according to the situation you are in. Youāre hopping frantically, doing stuffā just not the stuff you should be doing.
College was like a clean slate. But instead of creating structure and order, I took up a lot of new interests, hobbies, new projects, and more clients. I had become a dabbler, and my workload was jam-packed. Still, I would say yes to new challenges and act on a whim without planning ahead. Unknowingly, I would double-book and overbook my time. Before my deadlines, Iād suddenly decide to go out with friends, start another online game, or binge-watch another show.
I had poor time perception and a terrible estimation of how long a side project would take me to complete. Because I wasnāt keeping track of my time whatsoever, I had a form of time blindnessāalso called time agnosia. I had difficulty planning and prioritizing tasks & activities and measuring how long something would take me. I was almost always late or in a constant rush, and I would often lose track of time.
Luckily, I started integrating two essential time management practices: a digital calendar and the Pomodoro technique (working with a timer in 25-minute increments followed by 5-minute breaks). Kanban was also great for visualizing work in progress. I started to bring some structure to my daily schedule by setting alarms and remindersāespecially early in the morning.
I wish I knew then what I know now ā that there are project management tools for creatives to help me organize my tasks and projects. But back then, I didnāt know much about time budgets and efficient task workflows. Thankfully, these came with experience later on.
Note: if youāre a freelancer, consultant, or professional in niche industries, search for tools that make your work easier. I found that what you need to streamline your business is invoicing and time tracking in your software of choice, which works in almost any industry, perfect for architectural projects or serving the engineering profession, or in law, consulting to writing projects. Plenty of solutions on the market offer collaboration, billing, and task management on top of keeping track of time.
Inaction
In contrast to the erratic behavior, the kangaroosā unfortunate instinct is to freeze when faced with bright headlights. I call this inaction. Inaction is idleness, inertia, and apathy. Because I was doing a ton of different things, I was constantly using up my physical and emotional resources.
I found myself daydreaming and ideating but not taking much action to complete the urgent and super important tasks. Honestly, I let my brain wander because I didnāt want to take action. I was avoiding most of my responsibilities. At that point, I had signs of sleep deprivation, but I was compensating with power naps and way too much coffee.
My projects demanded my focus and attention, yet there I was, planning the Next Big Thing. That happened because I thought future-me was superhuman.
āIāll procrastinate today, ācause tomorrow Iāll be well-rested and excited about finishing that book translation project.ā
You probably know how that turned out. Poor Skippy-Roo was once again startled by the truck-of-doom called āDeadline.ā So, Iād watch another TV show until the wee hours of the night.
What worked?
- Having a to-do list. This is as obvious as it gets. But at the time, I didnāt have people around me who used to-do lists, let alone promote productivity.
- The Pomodoro technique. No words can stress its immense help. I can tell apart my productive life as ābefore and after Pomodoro.ā
- Fixed deadlines. Fortunately, exams and project deadlines kept me in check. Still, I had a few workarounds with clients and deadlines.
- Structured procrastination. It was deeply enrichingābut please donāt take it as my personal encouragement for you to keep procrastinating. Do what needs to be done. If the endeavor is too daunting, work around it by chipping off some easy tasks to work on.
- Owning a wristwatch. Iām not joking. I had to set time-marker cues for better time management and minimize delays. Examples of such cues: āI have to finish task #2 no later than 5 p.m. to still be on timeā; āA 10-person cue means I have 20 minutes to finish listening to this lectureā; āIāll be folding the laundry during these two songs.ā
- Creating more structure. I worked on developing fixed routines for ongoing college assignments and freelancing gigs.
- Mind dumping. Journaling was a great emotional outletāit still is. I would jot down all my distractions and fleeting thoughts to improve my focus and attention. Plus, writing down the tasks I completed that day gave me a sense that present-me wasnāt that lazy.
- Change of perspective: I didnāt want to become roadkill. Kangaroos are most vulnerable at dawn and dusk. Similarly, I had to avoid time frames and days when I knew for a fact I would not be able to finish my work.
Pro tip: donāt schedule (academic) work during family holidays or winter break if you know for a fact you wonāt be productive.
What didnāt work?
Dan Ariely (2002) suggests setting deadlines publicly. I would confidently set my own deadline and announce it to my family and peersāeven professors!āhoping for the best. But without an external deadline, I couldnāt stick to my own deadlines.
This precommitment failure made me feel terrible about my procrastinating tendencies. Thankfully, I stumbled upon the mood repair strategy of āself-forgivenessā (Wohl et al. 2010), which involves forgiving yourself for all your procrastinating mishaps. It worked wonders at the time.
Stage #3. PERFECTIONISM
When procrastination is a byproduct of perfectionism.
My mental picture for the 3rd stage: Mozartās midnight creative bursts.
That moment when you are in the zone, and you feel like a mad genius. (Kudos to Joe Sparrow for the awesome animation!)
Imagine youāre a composer, and the evening before the performance, you are out drinking with your friends. With growing concern on their faces, your friends remind you that you havenāt yet finished writing the introduction to your opera. You are amused by their anxious concern and keep on drinking. You get home and start working on the piece near midnight. But because youāve been drinking, you ask your spouse to keep you company, so you donāt fall asleep. Still, you doze off till 5 a.m. but somehow manage to finish it by 7 a.m. to send it to the copyist.
This is a true story. In the wee hours of 29 October 1787, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would compose the overture for Don Giovanni, one of Mozartās masterpieces and one of the greatest operas of all time.
Mozart was both a musical maestro and a master procrastinator.
He missed deadlines or finished his commissions only partially. He would submit his works in the nick of time, leaving little time for copyists to process his work. As a rule, his compositions were written as close to the deadline as possible.
His father scolded him in a letter dated December 11, 1777, āIf you will examine your conscience closely, you will find that procrastination is your besetting sinā (Life of Mozart vol. 2, by Otto Jahn).
Fixed deadlines
Thatās not to say Mozart was lazy. He even excused himself, āBelieve me, I do not love idleness, but rather workā (May 26, 1781). A prolific composer, he wrote 626 pieces over 30 years, all while performing abroad and tutoring music students. What helped him greatly in his creative pursuits was having fixed deadlines set by his clients (counts, royals, friends, and even his pupils).
But Mozart was averse to writing, not composing. It was written in haste, not composed in haste. He explains his reluctance to write, stressing that his ideas were not ready to be put on paper. He had perfect pitch and an eidetic memory, so he naturally polished many of his compositions in his mind, not on paper.
Obviously, we are not creative geniuses like Mozart. But we too take great pride in our work, and we want it to be flawless. We churn ideas in our heads, and even though our ideas are solid, we still feel the need to work on them just a bit longer until they are perfect. Weāve got plenty of time, right?
It probably happened to you: youāre full of ideas and enthusiasm about your project. You know exactly what you want to achieve in your mind, and you canāt wait to put in the work and flesh them out. But you somehow delay starting to work on the project because you canāt just write something average. You are then plagued by self-doubt, discouragement, and mental exhaustion.
Point in case, my 80-page Bachelorās thesis written in 2 weeks or Tim Urbanās 90-page thesis, which he wrote in 3 days thanks to the panic monster. Now, thatās a panic-inducing deadline:
A witty take on the nerve-racking effects of procrastination.
Procrastinating perfectionists tend to be self-critical, drowning in a whirlpool of self-deprecating thoughts, questioning whether theyāve got what it takes. If only they shared their progress or struggles with others, they would perform much better with less stress.
But thatās the thing, perfectionistsāand procrastinatorsārarely want to share their work in progress because itās not yet polished. They personally donāt like it, so they assume others would hate it, too.
This sneaky cognitive distortion is called āmind reading.ā Itās when you think you know what other people are thinking. You assume theyāll think youāre incompetent or a fraud. Youāve guessed itāmind reading is an offshoot of the impostor syndrome.
Stakeholder input
Coming back to Mozart. Besides fixed deadlines, he too understood that stakeholder input and feedback mattered. āHe had procrastinated and thrown away his time after his usual habit, until now he is forced to set to work in earnest, in compliance with Count Rosenbergās commandsā (November 11, 1785).
In hindsight, I wish I had done that. The truth is, I over-researched my subject matter. The paper had double the necessary word count. The scope of the paper was way too wide. Had I checked in with my supervisor, I would have had a not-so-traumatic experience.
Check in with your supervisor or project leader, submit outlines and earlier drafts, or at least an informal report. Chat about what youāre working on, and agree on doable milestones.
I remember sprinting through the campus to submit my thesis 15 minutes before the deadlineāand sleeping 26 hours afterward. Thatās when I told myself, āThis wonāt ever happen again.ā
Because I had set unattainable research aims, even though my BA thesis received its recognition, I wasnāt satisfied with it. The pursuit of perfection is like climbing a ladder that has no end.
What worked?
- My thesis supervisorās word of advice. āAlexa, good on you for finishing it! But be carefulāyou might not be able to pull it off in time in the futureāā¦ Her words haunt me to this day, which is awesome! Because those words still keep me in check seven years later.
- Setting granular tasks. What I mean by granularity: tailoring tiny-sized tasks that I could achieve in one Pomodoro session. My task list was absurd: write 100 words ā times a hundred. It sounds silly, but hey, it worked for me. I also had a rough checklist of the specialized literature, topics, concepts, and examples to cover. I made it so easy to achieve that I had to do it. In a way, I practiced small-scale consistency.
- Hermit-style work (isolation). I canceled all my plans and self-isolated before this was even a part of our collective memory of COVID-19. A new and limiting environment with no distractions was an immensely effective strategy for a social butterfly like myself. The key is to be in a place where you can only do one of two thingsā either work on your task or stare at the blank walls. BonusāI find long train rides productive for that sense of progress in .
- Eliminating distractions. Switch off notifications, or leave your phone in another room. Use web extensions to block social media apps.
- Change of perspective. Understand the absurdity of perfection ā it is never satisfied with itself. There will always be a new heightāyou will always want to do more and do better.
It feels great when you get positive feedback, right? So, check in with your supervisor early on. (Kudos to Joe Sparrow for the awesome animation!)
What I wish Iād known then
By all means, just finish it. Done is better than (Still) In progress. Postponing the task wonāt lift the burdenāgetting it done will. Plus, chances are youāre already working to a high standard, so stop giving yourself a hard time.
I wish Iād known that I was unconsciously engaging in self-handicapping behavior. This behavior tries to protect self-esteem by finding external sources (procrastination in this case) to blame for possible failures.
When itās successful, itās a kind of humble bragāāAh, look at that, I started working on that paper 3 hours before the deadline and got an A. I couldāve gotten an A+ had I put in more timeā¦ā
When it doesnāt go so well, itās a lame excuseāāAh, look at that, I got a C- because I had only 3 hours before the deadline. I couldāve totally aced it if I had more timeā¦ā
Now, whenever I am tempted to make such excuses, I try to tell others, but mostly to myself:
āIt is what it is. Let bygones be bygones. Now I want to focus on my <Next Big Thing>ā.
Stage #4. āPROCRASTIWORKā
When procrastination is a way of juggling priorities.
My mental picture for the 4th stage: dashing frantically to keep spinning plates in motion.
The close call of meeting your deadline at the last moment. In the meantime, the tasks you should be working on arenāt even set in motion.
Coined by Jessica Hische, procrastiworking means avoiding the work you should be doing by focusing on other productive tasks. Procrastiworking could be meal planning when you should be cooking or working on the design of your presentation instead of laying out all the data.
When I stumbled upon the concept of procrastiworking, I was pursuing a Masterās degree abroad and freelancing full time. I had mostly figured out how to get things done by working on my highest impact task first. It was a time of peak performance and high energy.
For once, I was productive and making good money in the process. I was finally no longer procrastinatingāor so I thought. I was frantically busy keeping track of tasks, appointments, responsibilities, and dependencies. Studying through the day, working through the nightāplus some fun in between.
I was actually excited about this newfound productive state. And I kept telling others, āYou know youāre busy when youāre procrastiworking on an equally important task.āĀ To make it worse, I was smiling through the phrase. But in the back of my mind, I knew I was putting off the Big Thing.
Now I see procrastiworking as a circus act: masterfully spinning plates, dashing from one plate to the other to keep them in motion, dazzling the audience. People might applaud your multitasking skills, but you are frantically dashing from one task to the other, splitting your focus and depleting your resources. And maybe, the plate you should be working on is not even in place for performance.
Because I was constantly working, I lost the drive to work on what really mattered, on honing my craft. A lack of perseverance made me procrastinate ā I had reached a point in my personal project that was challenging and needed my focus, but I was unwilling to work through the discomfort.
Faced with situational procrastination, I hated working on some urgent tasks. I procrastiworked so that I could finish most of my low-impact, small projects. I wanted to clear my schedule for the entire day so I could finally tackle the monster project.
It was a kind of time blocking I did intuitively, but not because I wanted to focus and engage in deep work. I simply wanted to minimize the dread, anxiety, and panic. I wanted to finish the project in one sittingā which can rarely be the case. Try finishing book translations in one sittingā¦
Although I had bouts of procrastination due to panic-inducing deadlines, I had the legitimate excuse that I had too much on my plate(s). Yet the plates had been spinning for a while. I was close to burnoutāthatās when I decided to stop freelancing.
What worked?
- Eat the Frog method. Focusing on high-impact tasks and jumping right ināfirst thing in the morning.
- Prioritization. I used the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to determine the level of importance of my tasks to minimize the impractical little tasks I was working on. I knew I wasnāt going to stop procrastiworking, but I wanted to reduce my overall workload at least.
- Improved daily planning. I made a habit of daily planning the night before. I time-blocked some days to focus on tasks one by one and by the level of importance. Back then, I kept a physical BuJoā bullet journaling as a productivity system was effective at that stage when I had lost the drive to work on personal projects.
- Time tracking. Coupled with the Pomodoro technique, time tracking helped me stay motivated. How? My time entries were proofāto myselfāthat I was not slacking aroundāmy freelance gigs were not paid hourly, sadly. Time-tracking significantly upped my work rhythm.
- Change of perspective. I realized that being busy wasnāt necessarily something to brag about. It was just an excuse for my scattered endeavorsāmost of which werenāt bringing much value. Plus, I was leaving no room for lucky opportunities or time for friends and family.
Stage #5. REVENGE PROCRASTINATION
When procrastination is a kind of entitlement.
My mental picture for the 5th stage: midnight Maccas run.
Revenge procrastination feels as if youāre ruling the world. Just donāt forget you have to wake up early the next day.
My current procrastination stage, the 5th stage, is not new under the sun. This phenomenon is widespread among full-time employees or working parents. It is especially problematic now in a WFH environment brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The term ārevenge bedtime procrastinationā is the literal translation of the Chinese ābĆ ofĆ¹xƬng Ć”oyĆØā, a refusal to sleep early in order to regain some sense of control over daytime life. Itās a kind of childish defiance against a tough workday filled with tasks and responsibilities. When youāre #adulting hard, and you feel entitled to some āme-time.ā
In a nutshell, to say you engage in revenge procrastination, you know you are depriving yourself of sleep for no valid reason and are well aware of the negative consequences over time.
It reminds me of midnight Maccas runs when you know you should be sleepingādefinitely not eating fast food late at night. A āMaccas runā (McDonaldās drive-thru) is very popular for Australians. Itās when teenagers and young adults spontaneously gather their friends to grab a bite at McDonaldās. Itās almost like a ritual, and it usually happens at night. Have I done it? One too many times.
Going out of your way for a Maccas run. How a commenter put it, āis a McFeast that worth it?ā. So, āis bedtime doomscrolling that worth it?ā
Revenge procrastination is a more functional kind of hedonist delay. You know you should be sleeping early to be well-rested for work, but youāve been slaving all day, and want to do something fun, or relaxing, or something just because you can.
Youāre staying late for no reason, and youāre spontaneous about it. You might even call your friends (who might be engaged in the same revenge procrastination) to do something entertaining together. I think this happens because you know you can.
Iāve always been a night owl, so working through the day leaves a lot of (perceived) free time in the evening. My body needs rest, but my mind canāt accept that. My brain thinks I should be doing somethingāanythingā but sleep.
Plus, you are well aware of the consequencesā you know youāll be a zombie the next day. But you do it anyway: āItās 2 a.m., but Iāll watch another episode. Itās fine, tomorrow my work schedule is not that tightā. Or āLet me check my social media feed for a second.ā
Like a Maccas run, you know revenge procrastination is reckless, but you assume that future-you has good physical and mental endurance. So present-you will just grab an extra cuppa.
How is a Maccas run reckless? In most cases, the designated driver usually has a provisional license (called a p-plate in Australia). What makes it exciting is that p-plate drivers have certain restrictions. For example, they canāt drive around past 12 a.m. The idea that you might be pulled over is exciting. This kind of reckless behavior seems harmless. But just as fast food negatively affects the body, so does revenge procrastination.
Also, you go for a midnight Maccas run because youāre hungry or because you probably havenāt eaten properly throughout the day. Similarly, you engage in revenge procrastination because your workload is too heavy or boring. You feel like you havenāt got your daily dose of fun or wholesome activities.
The solution: schedule throughout the day some activities that bring value and fulfillment. Donāt wait for the sundown to do them. This is usually the case for parents who wait to put their kids to bed before doing something recreational.
What has been working so far?
I canāt really say Iāve overcome it just yet. But Iāve been adopting a few strategies to help me reduce my workload and endeavors. Some have been more successful than others:
1. Commitment inventory
People. I take inventory of the time I spend weekly with the people in my life. Whenever I plan my weekly scheduleāusually every Sunday)āI allocate a fixed number of hours I can spend with people. Time allocation usually depends on how busy I am with work. I also try to allow some pockets of free unscheduled time. I try my best to pepper those interactions throughout the day. For example, a brunch during my work break, a chat during a brisk walk, or a Zoom call that fits both our timezones.
Projects. Similarly, I have a fixed number of hours I can spend on work. So, one tough spring afternoon I decided to reduce my endeavors to half. I decided that from then on, for every project that I took on, I had to make sure I could put in the necessary hours. For every yes, there had to be a no somewhere else. Choose your opportunities and tasks wisely. Ah, it stings a bit at firstā but it gets better in time. Start saying no.
Tasks. I use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix Ć la Marie Kondo. From experience, this combo works really well. I try to declutter my diverse master list, especially by getting rid of the things Iāve been meaning to do that have no actionable plan. I am explicit about not working on certain projects, endeavors, or ideas. Itās similar to Warren Buffettās 25/5 Rule. I try to keep it minimal because I see tasks listed on my matrix as promises to myself or to others that I must keep. So, to minimize possible snafus, I keep the matrix super simple.
2. Bedtime routine.
I try to have a consistent bedtime routine. I charge my phone away from my bed so that itās uncomfortable to use it in bed. Plus, I use Samsungās Digital Wellbeing feature, which includes a grayscale screen (it makes ādoomscrollingā less fun) and a ādo not disturbā function.
3. Realistic daily planning.
I have to remind myself why Iāve put the 4th stage behind me ā back then, I was more energetic and excited about work, and had the physical resources to hustle. But nowadays I get tired more easily. I have the will to do the things I have planned outābut Iām more aware of my limitations and how poorly I can sometimes estimate and manage my time.
I have recently written an article on cognitive load and burnout, which unpacks why some of the simplest tasks seem daunting if youāre mentally exhausted.
7 Procrastination Lessons Iāve learned
Remember the unhelpful phrases we tell ourselves? Letās address them in light of everything weāve tackled so far.
āThatās just how I am.ā
Again, procrastination is basically an emotional issue. What I realized is that these procrastinating tendencies and psychological motivations are deep-seatedāand I might have to put up a fight for years to come. But now Iām better equipped than ever, and I plan on getting better at combating procrastination.
I now understand that my fear of failure, perfectionism, and fear of negative feedback donāt necessitate one another. Even though I might be influenced by a combination of these three, I am not doomed. A growth mindset goes a long way.
āI will start working on that assignment/task when I feel better.ā
If what you need is physical rest, by all means, take a power nap. Remember that the best mood repair ingredient is motivation. Iāve learned that motivation is threefold.
Thereās the extrinsic (external) motivation that I get from working alongside people. My work affects them, so a part of me wants to maintain a good relationship with them andāwhy notāaccept their compliments and affirmation with a smile? Money is also a good external motivator, but definitely weaker than the others.
Goal-driven motivation works well for me. I thrive on project-based work. I tend to choose short-term projects because Iām driven by the foreseeable end result, especially regarding creative work. For example, I set goals for short-term endeavors like video productions of all kinds, writing articles, and translation projectsāeven my practice sessions must have specific songs in the setlist that have a concrete outcome.
I know that the most effective kind of motivation is intrinsic (internal) motivation. Itās when my work and my interests enthuse me. Itās when I find enjoyment in my tasks, even if I were to be the only person alive on the face of the earth.
And itās OK if my tasks get done by combining these three. I try to be careful I donāt lose my drive and motivation. I see productivity as building momentumā motivation surges as youāre putting in the effort, not beforehand.
Motivation explains why some people practice structured procrastination, namely working on small, low-impact tasks to get their engines started. I, for instance, like to procrastiwork. I work on mid-impact tasks first to make sure I get some work done as Iām recalibrating between tasks. There are high achievers out there who eat the frog and start with their high-impact tasks first.
āIāve pulled that tough deadline off beforeā Iāll do it again.ā
This phrase is arguable because of these two things:
- You never know what tomorrow holds in store. Iām amazed at how unpredictable a regular workday can get. I try to leave pockets of free time just to plan for the unplanned, but even so, my daily schedule gets all jumbled up at times.
- I try not to assume that future-me will have the physical and mental resources to keep working under intense pressure. Itās because I want to be a functional individual and balance work-family activities. Tiredness is a reality.
19 y.o. Sophie in Ghibliās Howlās Moving Castle.Ā One wise gal.
So, what I do is remember past failures. There were times when I failed epically because I had procrastinated. Itās why I try to hold onto my supervisorās word of advice (even if it doesnāt always go according to plan).
In addition, I celebrate small victories. But not the kind of victories in which I had to pull all-nighters and managed to finish in the nick of time. No, itās like a pat on the back for managing to eat the frog on a Monday morning or successfully employing the 80/20 Rule without freaking out about my social esteem.
āIt wonāt happen again. Next semester/time, Iāll work on my assignments and tasks early.ā
This is a cognitive distortion at its finest. The āfalse-hope syndromeā is when you believe things will be different next time. The truth is, without major personal growth (self-change), future-you will still procrastinate.
The false-hope syndrome tricks your brain into misattributing your failure to terrible circumstances, bad professors, or impossible deadlines. Word of adviceā count your losses and move on.
Also, donāt set too many impossible goals. Take a moment and assess your goals one by one. Are they attainable? For example, a 4.0 GPA might be a āstretch goalā. Go ahead if you want to, but know there is no 100% certainty you will achieve it.
Iāve come across the OKR methodology. It encouraged me to see my goals in terms of professional and personal growth, not as performance indicators. So, for instance, I still aim for a 4.0 GPA, but 3.7 is desirable, and 3.3 is good enough. This way, Iām aiming for excellence, not perfection.
āI have plenty of time to do it later ā itāll be fine.ā
More often than not, itās not fine. Itās the Parkinsonās Law conundrum all over againāIāve laid out in The Complete Guide to Time Tracking.
Iāve made significant progress towards better time management. But somehow, this sneaky belief that thereās plenty of time to do something later is still rooted in my brain. So, whenever I hear myself say it, I take a piece of paper to jot down some of the tasks involved and the amount of time I know itāll take me.
My trifecta for productivity thatās been working great ever since Iāve implemented itā daily planning, the Pomodoro technique, and time tracking.
Tracking my time in Paymo gives me an accurate picture of my efforts.
Now, having used time-tracking tools for my endeavors, I have a pretty good estimate of my work rhythm. I then open up my digital calendar and time-block work sessions. I do this to get an accurate picture of what my brainās been telling me versus the objective reality of time.
āI put the pro in procrastination.ā
I used to wear procrastination as a badge of honor to excuse some reckless all-nighters. To change it, I needed to dissociate my performance from my sense of self-worth. Generally speaking, people arenāt as critical as youād think. Plus, they have their own work and goals to achieve, so they donāt have the time or energy to scrutinize yours.
Now Iām a reformed procrastinator. Everybody knows life is significant and wants to make it count. My one actionable step in this regard is to stop being proud of my procrastination tendencies.
āIāve had such a long day. Iāve earned the right to procrastinate a bit.ā
I know Iām bartering physical rest off.
Donāt get me wrong, I like my job description and daily grind, but thatās just it. Even the word grind implies tiresome repetition.
Right now, I want to strike a balance between my personal and professional life. At this point, some trade-offs regarding my need for dopamine are necessary in order to replenish my physical and mental resources. So, Iām working towards better processes regarding my commitment inventory, bedtime routine, and daily planning.
Concluding thoughts
Do I still procrastinate? For sure!
But just because I know 100 nuggets of wisdom, implementing them isnāt any easier. I still show resistance when I need to bite the bullet. I still struggle with task aversion, so eating the frog takes extra effort. My time perception can get hazy.
Iāve had stages in which I needed a sense of control and funā(1) hedonist delay and (5) revenge procrastinationā some in which I questioned my skills and know-howā(2) fear of failure and (3) perfectionismāand stages in which I hustledā(4) procrastiwork. My assumption is that other states will come with a combination of these underlying factors but of different intensity and maybe with keener insight.
Still, I strongly believe that awareness, insight, and understanding, coupled with the necessary resources, can actuate shifts in thinking patterns and behaviors and build good habits. What I havenāt quite succeeded at is establishing internal deadlines and sticking to them.
What do I want to improve on? My top three systems would be the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 Rule), time-blocking (in light of Parkinsonās Law), and Eat the frog method.
In light of my testimony, take a moment to make a plan against procrastination. A year from now, youāll be thankful youād started tackling procrastination, even if the territory is uncharted or if you are only sure of that one step ahead. Over time, the fog of war will clear up. What matters now is putting one foot in front of the other.
Iāve put together a comprehensive productivity guide with tips, insights, actionable steps, and resources if you want to read up on productivity. Iām not shaming you for procrastinating some more.
PS: Youād probably think I procrastinated while writing this lengthy article. Not really. I wanted to share my ups and downs, especially the workings of my procrastinating brain. But, itās true I procrastiworked as I was mentally working on my next piece. So, stay tuned for other productivity and work management insights.Ā
Alexandra Martin
Author
Drawing from a background in cognitive linguistics and armed with 10+ years of content writing experience, Alexandra Martin combines her expertise with a newfound interest in productivity and project management. In her spare time, she dabbles in all things creative.