The cult of time management has no shortage of boosters, from professors to bosses to a chorus of self-help internet pundits. Being able to predict how long tasks take and assemble a schedule accordingly is indeed useful, but if you find yourself failing to execute your plan, it's probably not because you lack time management skills. Procrastination is a symptom of emotional dysregulation, not executive dysfunction.
Procrastination soothes unpleasant sensations. Facing down a daunting project or an ambitious goal can elicit feelings of fear and anxiety. We might fail to measure up to our expectations or achieve a goal deemed important for the future. We might worry we're on the wrong path and that the present work isn't worth doing at all. Even the prospect of success and the changes it may bring can be discomfiting. These feelings make it difficult to begin. Enter: procrastination.
You've just sat down to tackle your big project when procrastination strikes. Instead of working, you divert your attention to something more familiar with lower stakes and a clear investment-reward payoff (my go-tos include crosswords and tidying). It's easy to see what's not happening (primarily, your work) but let's consider instead what is happening. You've experienced a strong, unpleasant sensation, and responded by acting to replace the discomfort with something more pleasurable.
When understood thus, procrastination seems less a pathology than a rational response - like yanking one's hand away from the flames of a hot stove. In turning away from the cause of the unpleasant sensations, we win some temporary relief. And, as a bonus, when you rush work quickly at the last minute, you can claim the comfort of knowing the outcome wasn't representative of your true abilities (the full extent of which you have conveniently managed to avoid discovering).
This psychological framing of procrastination is liberating. It suggests that rather than lacking self-discipline, what we may need is greater self-awareness of our emotions, and more patience for the inevitable learning curve involved in attaining mastery over a subject.
Here are a few steps to help you overcome procrastination:
Notice the Emotion
The moment you feel yourself turning away from your work, try to mark the feeling you are avoiding. Once you can pinpoint the precise fear, you can begin to address it.
Explore the Emotion
Understanding your feelings is key, so that you can resist their force the next time they threaten to derail your work. Is there some larger concern underlying this anxiety? Is it connected to other behaviors or traits you've noticed?
Integrate Your New Understanding
As you return to work, you will almost certainly find that the same emotion comes up. Now that you've had the chance to explore it and reflect on where it comes from, consciously intervene and remind yourself that however vividly you may be experiencing this unpleasantness, it need not prevent you from making a good faith effort to complete the task at hand.
Repeat
Understand that it takes time to reprogram your instinctive reactions to unpleasant sensations. Instead of getting frustrated with yourself for sometimes yielding to procrastination, notice how the negative feelings which formerly overwhelmed you now exercise less control over you, and disappear a bit more quickly than before.
Conclusion
Procrastination is often symptomatic of deeper emotional battles. By understanding and addressing your underlying fears and anxieties, you can transform how you approach tasks and projects. It's not just about managing time effectively, but about managing your emotional responses and being on nodding terms with the fears and anxieties which threaten to hijack your attempts to get things done.
You need not vanquish your demons in order to beat procrastination. Rather, if you can watch them arise, impinge upon your consciousness, and fall away without being led astray, you are already winning.
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