Train Your Brain to Stop Giving in to Procrastination!
Dreading starting a mammoth project? Or struggling to “push through” with a tough piece of work? Fear not – I have some tips for you!
When working on a tricky, concentration-heavy task, many of us find it difficult to make progress unless forced to do so by a pressing deadline. Even though we know weeks of time could be put in to making our projects the best they can be, the resistance to actually doing the work prevents us from utilising the hours we would love to. This heightened distractibility often leads to a looming deadline’s worst nightmare; procrastination. And no matter how much we understand that scrolling through Instagram, organising wardrobes or cleaning the house from top to bottom will not help us to reach our goals, we find ourselves helplessly giving into our urges to do anything other than the work we know we should be doing. Inevitably, this behaviour pattern means many of us leave our work until the last minute – with the pressure of the ticking hours until submission forcing us to grit our teeth through the pain of working in order to hand *something* in. And if we don’t have a deadline for a task – which is common when trying to work on your own side projects and businesses – the work can often be left in a half finished state for months. We vow the next essay, project or proposal will be different – we will not procrastinate and allow ourselves the actual time required to produce our best work. But unfortunately, these promises to our future selves are short-lived and with each new project, the undesirable procrastination cycle repeats.
Procrastination is not simply a behaviour we powerless to resist, but is a habit which can be broken. The reason many of us have a chronic procrastination habit stems from our relationship with our self-worth, and how we have linked our personal value to outcomes and achievements. Living in a state of mind where we judge ourselves based on our achievements means we generate a lot of pressure around the work we are tasked with doing. This pressure brings up feelings of discomfort, fear and shame when we sit down to work. And because our ancient brains detect these sensations as threatening, it directs us towards seeking a more pleasurable activity to avoid the pain of working. When (rather than if for the majority of us!) we give into our brain’s request and have a quick click through YouTube, our brain associates this activity with “Yes, we avoided the threat and now feel good!”. Over time, the more this pattern of behaviour is practiced, the stronger this association becomes until procrastination feels like an automatic reaction to working on a tough project.
Our brains are plastic and habits can be made and broken. With procrastination, it can take some time to work through, and there will definitely be times when we give in to the urge to scroll, but altering a few processes in terms of the way you think about procrastination and slowly training your brain to build up focus can really help. I have been writing my PhD thesis over the past 6 months and have been battling with procrastination throughout. I found the tips below really helped me to make progress (which I am very thankful for as a PhD thesis definitely can’t be left until the night before to throw together!).
Stop Calling yourself a procrastinator: Self image is everything when it comes to making and breaking habits, and if you see yourself as a procrastinator, your brain will want to prove you right. The brain is a prediction machine and wants to keep you safe, which means it is not the biggest fan of unpredictable behaviour. Therefore, if you try to stop procrastinating while still believing you are a procrastinator, your brain will want you to go back to acting in alignment with your beliefs. I started to move my belief around procrastination to thoughts like “I never look at my phone when I sit at my desk”. When I felt the urge to grab my device, I would say this to myself (in my head or out loud) and over time, I started believing it to be true. Practicing this behaviour repeatedly alters your brains self-image and will pull you towards not procrastinating.
Set Your Schedule the Week Before: Scheduling ahead of time is crucial in keeping you on track. I plan my work on the weekend in an electronic calendar for the following week using time blocking (see my Youtube on this here) – allotting specific hours each day for certain tasks. With this planning, I have found getting really specific helps. So break down vague tasks like ‘work on essay’ to small projects such as ‘read 3 papers on subject x’. These defined tasks mean you have a clear end point, allowing you to feel satisfied once they are complete and allowing you to progress without feeling overwhelmed. I only ever do the tasks which are scheduled and never bring things forward (so if I finish early, I get free time for me!). At the end of each day, I look at the tasks I completed and for anything I didn’t get through, I quickly update my plan for the following day – with no “I am rubbish for not doing everything” self-talk!
Observe Yourself When You Want To Procrastinate: This is actually a really interesting way to stop procrastinating and one of the key methods which helped me. When I felt like I wanted to avoid my work, I would sit back and think “that is interesting – why don’t I want to do this particular piece of work?”. I would then talk myself through the different potential reasons which – for the majority – I could justify as being either inaccurate or down to self-doubt. Armed with these answers, I could more often than not talk myself out of procrastinating and get on with my work. For me, this technique allowed me to really recognise that procrastination is not an automatic behaviour which I am powerless towards, but a thought which I can combat with other thoughts. When the urge to procrastinate now crops up, it feels so much less powerful and I can brush it off as “that is a normal thought to doing hard work, I am not going to act on it”.
Have a Procrastination List: On your work station, have a blank piece of paper and a pen at the ready to write down the “important” tasks which your brain alerts your attention towards when you are trying to get on with hard work. Whenever something pops up, write the thought down on the paper to read after your allotted working time is up. It is crazy how many excuses your brain gives for you to stop working! I would have everything on there from “I’m hungry” right after I had already eaten to “I need to check the weather for tomorrow to see if I can run in the morning”. Writing down all these brain notifications is not only interesting, but if there is a genuine task you need to do (like email a work colleague something important), you have a list of tasks you can complete after your work session. Also, if the procrastination urge is really strong, you can use this list to quickly jot down several reasons why procrastinating now will bring pain to your future self. We seek short term pleasure (like procrastination) without a thought for our future self, so a quick reminder can help you power on!
Work Using a Timer: I do all my work using a Pomodoro timer – a method which centres around working for a set period of time with a set break. The standard timings are 25 minutes on with a 5 minute break. I find the hardest thing with work is starting, so giving yourself a short window to work makes it much easier to get going and build momentum. Over time, the more you practice these short stints of work, the less distractible your brain will be during your ‘focused time’. You are, in effect, training your brain to work without distraction and you will see that soon 25 minutes on can become 30, 40 or 50 minutes without any desire to procrastinate. I use the “Focus To Do” app for my timers but you can also just use a regular timer. In your breaks, try to not do anything which you know will take more than 5 minutes. For me, I still avoid my phone unless absolutely necessary and instead, get up for a quick walk around, make a tea and check in with others in my house (if they are also on a break!).
Remove the Drama: Honestly, this way of thinking has been a GAME CHANGER for stopping my procrastination. I used to build up so much mental drama around doing certain pieces of work, making it so tough to actually start and make progress. But I no longer allow myself react to those drama filled thoughts. If one crops up (which they still do most times I try to write), I say “I am not rising to you – no drama”. Then when I go to start my work session, I state very plainly what I am going to do; “I am going to make graphs for this figure”. No judgement, no “this work isn’t good enough” talk – just plain and simple “I am going to do x”. Another way to think about this is imagine someone else has set you your work for the day and you have to do it for them. This also removes judgement from tasks and allows you to make progress for your imaginary boss (who is actually you on the weekend when you set your schedule!).
Set Up Your Space: I have saved this note until last because alone, I do not think having a tidy space to work in will stop procrastinating. All the thought work and brain training trump any organised system you could have. But that being said, making your space a pleasant place to be makes working a much nicer experience. I always make sure my desk is clear and my water bottle is constantly filled (hydration is so important for keep your brain focused!). I also play really soft music with no words (like chilled jazz or lo-fi beats) and I have recently been lighting a candle for those tasks I need to do later in the day when my brain is nowhere need as switched on. Like I said, a distinct work space which is organised is a nice to have rather than a procrastination “cure”, but lets make it an environment you enjoy being in!
I hope some of these tips help you make progress with your projects and get those goals!
Brains hugs,
Julia (@julia.ravey.science) xoxox
For more science and productivity tips, see my YouTube!
