Guide on wellbeing: procrastination 

Your essay deadline is approaching, but suddenly you notice feeling unusually highly motivated to clean your window blinds. Or maybe you decide to watch one more video on social media. Whatever shape it takes, procrastination is something we all know very well. 

You’re not lazy!

Procrastination is often accompanied by harsh self-criticism. It’s very common to think of yourself as lazy or inefficient when you notice that you’re avoiding work. However, this kind of harsh self-criticism is not only useless in terms of your productivity, but even actively harmful to both your health and your ability to get things done. 

The human body contains an autonomous nervous system. This system helps us stay alive through contributing to the production of different emotional states, which tend to lead to different actions. The threat system is an important part of the autonomous nervous system. We can divide this system into two parts: fight/flight and freeze/please and appease. In addition to the threat system, we also have a safety system, that produces pleasant emotions, such as feelings of wellbeing. The safety system directs us to connect with others. Procrastination is connected to the body’s natural defence measure that is caused by the experience of excessive pressure. 

Unclarity and uncertainty tend to make us feel under pressure. Another thing that makes us feel under pressure is harsh criticism, either from others or from ourselves. Our experience of how well our resources measure up to what we need to do can also create varying experiences of pressure. 

Starting a task becomes possible when we feel enough incentive to do it. It’s easier to start a task when it is clearly defined. The more pressure we experience, the more our stress levels rise, but if our assignment is clear enough and we feel like we have the capacity to do it, we can take action even if we feel slightly uneasy. 

However, if our experience of being under pressure continues to grow, and if the situation feels very unclear or hopeless, our body will activate our fight/flight reaction, which means that we may have a hard time focusing due to our stress levels. We may alternatively start experiencing a freeze reaction in our bodies, feeling stuck and procrastinating. And when we start procrastinating, we feel more stressed out, which makes it even more difficult for us to take action. 

Getting started

When we understand that procrastination is a part of the body’s natural defence reaction to feeling under pressure and that unclarity and harsh self-criticism only worsen it, it’s easier to understand how to deal with procrastination. When you notice yourself procrastinating, it’s useful to get a clear idea about the situation and to give yourself warm-hearted and constructive feedback. It’s also important to find that what you’re doing is actually meaningful to you, because the lack of meaning in what we do often leads to procrastination.  

It’s useful to prioritise your to do-list and to define your goals carefully. It’s important to be very specific about what you’ll need to do and how you’ll later know if the task is completed or not.  

If your to-do list just says “essay”, it’s highly likely that the sheer unclarity of the goal will lead to anxiety and procrastination. However, if your to-do list says “From 10:00 to 10:30: check essay instructions, skim course book and make a mind map of themes to include in the essay until I have a clearish idea about what I’m gonna be writing about”. The tasks on your to-do list are scaled down properly when you don’t find the prospect of starting them overwhelming. The smaller and clearer the task, the better. 

So if you feel super stuck; try to come up with a ridiculously small task that’ll take you in the right direction! And after you’ve completed that task, define the next step. 

Be more warm towards yourself

In addition to clarity, it’s also useful to have a warm approach and give constructive feedback towards yourself. Harsh self criticism, self-blame, judgement, and other cold and hard treatment all increase the odds of your nervous system becoming over-pressured. In order to decrease this pressure, it’s good to add warmth in the way that you talk to yourself. It’s obviously important to give yourself feedback about what isn’t working, but this feedback needs to be warm and kind-hearted for it to be useful. 

Procrastination often has its roots in some unconscious and illogical fear, such as “What if I fail? Will that make me unworthy?” It can be very useful to explore these fears with warm curiosity and patience. After all, they’re a normal human experience and nothing to be embarrassed about. 

If you notice that your procrastinating behaviour makes you feel overwhelmed by the situation, it’s important that you ask for help. The study psychologists at Uniarts Helsinki can help you when you feel stuck with your studies.