Procrastination Part 2
Part 1 Recap
I told you we’d get there! And there really wasn’t any procrastination to blame on this one, just a lot of information to digest. Now, when I left you I had pretty much broken down the psychology of procrastination. Admittedly, I’ve simplified it to a rather large degree, but I’ve given you the gist, hopefully it was clear enough (and if not, send us an email or comment! I’m open to learning too!). At any rate, we’re back today with the ‘what do I do about it’ part that I may or may not have hinted at here or there…before that though, I’d like to remind myself of where we were before we get to where we’re going.
Procrastination is a near universal phenomenon that creates a miscommunication between parts of your brain responsible for, broadly speaking, emotion and discipline. It causes one to put off or otherwise delay or avoid ‘doing the thing’, whatever that thing may be. This miscommunication results in a self-sustaining cycle of avoidance that reinforces and rewards the avoidance behavior which can easily lead to habit formation where the avoidance response is almost automatic. This habitual avoidance can often lead to real life consequences and bring about feelings of frustration, helplessness, and anxiety giving even more reason for the mind to want to avoid ‘doing the thing’.
I said earlier that procrastination and laziness are not synonymous, and that’s true. However, procrastination can often be used as an excuse to be lazy and to make the choice not to improve is very different from not knowing how or being able to improve. Once you know you can improve something, you then have the choice. What you do with that choice…well, that’s a post for another day. Today’s post is about a specific skill that most anyone can learn that will work in some form or fashion for most people. There will be a bit of generalization used but I did it for clarities sake so if there are questions or comments feel free to leave them on the blog or email us!
Two Wrongs One Result
About that skill, small disclaimer; there are, generally speaking, two ‘reasons’ a person might feel the need to procrastinate and while the skills learned will work over time, it’s not a fit all fix everything solution and will only help. The learning will probably be the most useful part of the practice we do today. Now! Onward once again! If we were to break down the reasons that we procrastinate, the ‘triggers’ that start the natural and self-fulfilling neurological loop, they would generally fall into two separate categories:
Category one, rewards; does the activity have a positive reward for completing it? Is that reward more or less enticing right now that whatever distractions are going on? Congratulations, your brain would rather do that and avoid the negative (boring, long, painful, effortful) feelings so it doesn’t have to feel bad. Procrastination cycle initiated.
Category two, anxiety; does the activity cause some form of anxiety or other negative emotion? Congratulations, your brain doesn’t like that and wants to avoid feeling bad. Procrastination cycle initiated.
So, what does that mean for the skill? Well, fortunately it works for both, but you can see why it has such a variable effect and may need a lot of practice, people are different (one might even say unique). Ultimately, your brain doesn’t want to feel bad and so it’s telling you to avoid, avoid, avoid, while also telling you to hop to and be responsible. Quite a conundrum ain’t it?
Breaking It Down
Don’t be too mad about the length of this thing so far, the knowledge was useful in and of itself, but really, it’ll help you in the next step so that you can apply that knowledge to overcome the impulses; a bit of mind over matter if you will. Now that you know procrastination is, at its root, an impulse thing you can hack it a bit to get the result you want (the skill). This is where the understanding comes in because the very first thing that you need to work on is identifying when you are, indeed, procrastinating. Sounds easy, right? And it is. When you’re thinking about it, when you’re reminded to be patient and pay attention, when you can recognize the signs when it’s happening. That’s the hard part but it’s essential, and it’s also another reason why it’ll take some people a lot longer to see improvement but the more you think about it, the more you practice it, the easier it’ll get to notice patterns and ultimately understand your ‘triggers’.
That’s not the only skill you have to practice though; I think I called it a process? Either way, it builds upon itself and the skills are all useful. Identification by itself is useful, but it doesn’t automatically make you any better at dealing with or overcoming the avoidance impulses that start the self-fulfilling spiral of procrastination. So, you’ve figured out that doing that thing (starting a paper, writing a report, emailing that person, being responsible) is causing you to procrastinate. Very good, we love to see it. Now, what are you going to do with it? Well, this is where a second step starts – it’s a familiar one applied anew; you need to identify why you’re avoiding that task specific, why does it cause bad feelings? What are those bad feelings? Remember, they should fall into one of two categories: rewards or anxiety. Again, this is a skill, and it may not be easy for you to readily identify your emotions let alone the specific ‘bad feelings’ behind procrastination. It may take time, or you might already know. Either way, practice will get you there eventually.
Step three is more application focused because now…you have options. You’ve identified the ‘bad feelings’ and which category they fall into, now you’re going to use that information to make a plan of action (POA) for overcoming your own personal reasons behind procrastinating. For those whose ‘triggers’ fall into the ‘reward’ category one of the options is to simply convince yourself that the reward is worth the effort, which takes discipline, but it does work, especially if you’re usually pretty good about ‘rewarding’ yourself for being disciplined (candy, dinner, structure, whatever works) which can improve motivation and overcome the hesitation. Another option is to come at the problem from a different angle; break the issue down, brainstorm how annoyed you are, pretty much do anything tangentially related and you’ll soon find yourself concentrating on the task which can naturally lead into doing the actual thing. Both options are applicable and you should find one that works but both should be tried and practiced before learning anything more complicated.
Alternatively, if the ‘bad feelings’ cause some form of anxiety we now have to consider your personal relationship with your specific flavor of anxiety. Some of you are likely made anxious by only select things which more or less cause the same degree of stress, for some of you you’re much more likely to have a more visceral reaction to your anxiety which can cause a range of effects and be complicated by any number of additional related anxious ‘triggers’ (deadlines, negative feelings of self and ability, fear, distaste, etc.) which can very easily lead to an almost impossible identification of the specific thing causing the anxiety leading to a natural increased need for identification skills which is why you may benefit from assistance (come see us) in practicing this identification skill but either way, once you are able to identify the specific ‘trigger’ you will be able to break the cycle of negative inputs causing your procrastination and allowing your focus to shift from the anxiety (emotion) to doing the thing (responsible). Otherwise, working to figure out the root cause of the anxious or negative feeling will help to disassociate the task from the anxiety allowing you to do the thing.
Recap
What?! That’s it? Yeah…I told you I wasn’t a divine being and that the knowledge might be worth more than the skills at first. But really, it is that ‘easy’; or rather, it’s not complicated but I would never call it easy. Practice will help and the more you practice the better you should get at it. So, to recap:
1. Identify reason for procrastination.
2. Identify ‘bad feelings’ associated with thing (reward, anxious)
3. Apply Skills:
a. Reward
i. Change ‘reward’ balance
ii. Change focus of ‘beginning’ (research, brainstorm, etc.)
b. Anxiety
i. Identify Specific Anxiety and reassure/reframe
ii. Disassociate task and negative feeling
4. Repeat and Practice
That’s it. Procrastination is universal, the reasons infinite. Learn your reasons. Overcome and do the thing.
Tune in next time! I promise the resources link is coming!
Aaron Rushing, LCSWA
Strong Foundations Counseling, PLLC
Office: (336) 609-6844
Fax: (336) 217-9259
admin@strongfoundationspllc.com