the two reasons we procrastinate....

As you might know, I am finishing up a Psychology degree and have to pick a topic for a research project. The class has been a little overwhelming for me since it requires a lot of reading of academic journals and sometimes they can get a little over my head. Although it has been time consuming, I am blown away by what I have learned in not only why and how we procrastinate. As I mentioned last week, I decided to do research on procrastination. I did so because I continued blow off my calendar on specific things and wanted to know a little about how my mind was working. Also, I wanted to learn something that would not only help me in my life, but I could use for coaching clients. We all procrastinate but some of us have a chronic problem with certain tasks.

There are two reasons why we procrastinate on certain tasks. Either we dislike the task, such as cleaning the master bath, or it may be from fear. Fear, in meaning that our primal brain has interpreted that the task is fearful, and we should stay away. Now, the primal brain does not differentiate between fear and uncomfortable and we know there is a difference. We can be uncomfortable doing a lot of things in life that we would not consider fearful. Now that you know this, watch your primal brain stir you away from your to do list. It is almost comical. It finds fun things to do such as movies, scrolling on social media, or maybe snacking. ANYTHING to do other than tasks that are not fun or uncomfortable. I like to refer to the primitive part of the brain as the toddler brain. Toddlers want what they want. They do not have experience with using their prefrontal cortex. Sometimes we do not either LOL. We need to override the toddler and remind them of our “intelligent” choices. For example, maybe you have decided not to eat ice cream every night and you are having a conversation in your mind, back and forth, should I or should I not. This is the primal brain trying to convince your prefrontal cortex how delightful the ice cream is. When we do not eat ice cream, we are using our prefrontal cortex. Sometimes we are on automatic and let the toddler just keep on making the decisions. Let that sink in. I know I have done this eating popcorn. Did I actually eat that entire bowl just now? Wow, I did not even realize. Remember, the primal brain wants to protect us. It is the part of the brain that tells us to fight, flight, or freeze. It means well but we have evolved. We have shelter, food, and protection 99% of the time, and need to remember this. We do not need to stay in the cave!

Research has shown that if we identify when and why we are not doing the task, then we can find ways to fix it. For example, I dislike cleaning master bath. I will put it off over and over. But I enjoy walking into a clean bathroom. So, how do I turn this around? I decided to pick out a favorite podcast that I like that comes out each week. Then, I am not going to listen to that podcast until I clean the master bath. This hopefully will be encouraging. Another suggestion that I know works for me in choosing what foods I should eat, is thinking about the results; if I eat the plate of French fries, I will regret it, and beat myself up, and it will make me feel sluggish. This has always helped me to think about the outcome. The look and feel of a clean bathroom makes me happy so quit moving it out lol. If the task makes us uncomfortable (fearful to the primal brain), it could be that we are unsure how to do, or maybe too much energy involved, or it may require a lot of time. If we break it down in small chunks and do for in sections could help. Also, there are recommendations to schedule at least 5 minutes on the task and most often we find it is not as bad as we thought.

Remember, there are only two reasons that we do not do the task. We either dislike it and need to find ways to make it a little more fun or it makes us uncomfortable so we need to just lean in for a few minutes at a time. Most often, it is our thoughts around the tasks! Look into your thoughts and there lies the solution.

Have a fantastic week!