How Psychological Insights Can Help You Overcome Procrastination

Procrastination — or the art of putting things off — is something we all grapple with in our lives. It’s a kind of invisible barrier between our will and our goals. It’s a nagging, frustrating feeling that can make our life periodically miserable and much harder than it needs to be: with less flow and more grind.

“Procrastination makes simple things hard, hard things even harder,” said the aphorist Mason Cooley.

But contrary to popular belief, procrastination isn’t just a matter of laziness: it’s a complex psychological phenomenon, dancing on a thin line between our rational and emotional brain, between our wants and feelings. Therefore, I believe the key to overcoming procrastination lies in understanding its psychological underpinnings, and how they manifest literally as we sit in front of our desk.

Understanding procrastination

Wendelien van Eerde, a procrastination researcher at the University of Amsterdam, defines procrastination as the delay of tasks due to the emotional discomfort they cause.

“Procrastination is when you have decided it is in your best interests to complete a task now, yet you keep putting it off because of the emotional discomfort caused by the task,” she writes in Psyche. We simply delay tasks that make us feel uncomfortable because they elicit a kind of frustration and friction.

“The task might go undone, but at least the confrontation with the negative emotion is avoided,” she says. So instead of going through with work, we opt for distractions, which are easier and more enjoyable, providing a temporary relief in our mental state. This makes procrastination a classic avoidance behavior, she says.

But what is the underlying biology behind such an avoidance behavior? According to neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, host of the Huberman Lab podcast, it’s a phenomenon he calls “limbic friction.”

Limbic friction refers to the psychological and emotional resistance experienced when there’s a disparity between our conscious intentions and our deeper, visceral emotions. Rooted in the interplay between the prefrontal cortex (responsible for goal-orientated thinking) and the limbic system (which governs emotions), limbic friction represents the gap between the desire to accomplish something and the actual act of doing it. It’s a force that pulls us towards reflexive but often counterproductive behaviors, acting as a barrier to doing work.

Procrastination is rooted in the frustration, annoyance, anxiety, fear, or apprehension that the work itself elicits. These create the inner emotional friction that makes tasks seem insurmountable because they block our ability to have proper goal-oriented cognition. Therefore, overcoming limbic friction is bridging the divide between intention and action by alleviating these inhibiting emotions.

Getting rid of the negative affect

I believe the best way to overcome procrastination — and the underlying limbic friction — is not to let it surface in the first place. Preventing the increasingly negative mental states that precede and lead to procrastination is the most effective way of not getting stuck in the rat wheel of ever-present frustration.

During my last years at university, I built up an anticipatory dread for every school project I had to work on but had no interest in. The more apprehension I had conjured up against an essay, the more difficult it was to get through it. That’s because I had already told my brain that I was about to do work I would find torturous, which made even the innocuous act of sitting down at my desk frustrating in itself.

Tip #1: be mindful of the rising frustration.

When you’re given a project you are not enthusiastic about, don’t tell yourself in advance that you will hate your work. It will only cause you guaranteed misery.

Instead, be mindful of your negative thought patterns around your tasks and when you work at your desk. Whenever frustration, annoyance, anger, or discomfort is coming to the surface, just stop. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Then open your eyes and re-center your attention to whatever you were doing.

Do this immediately when limbic friction is trying to push you away from the desk. Don’t let the negative emotions amplify inside your head. Meditation, even for just a few continuous breaths, is surprisingly effective at detaching oneself from one’s feelings and having a chance to observe them from the surface. With practice, it becomes easier to let harmful emotions go.

Shifting your mindset

Productivity culture tends to be very toxic nowadays. It prioritizes relentless output over personal well-being and makes people feel easily devalued when their achievements don’t fulfill their or society’s lofty standards. Therefore, our mindset plays a crucial role in how we respond to challenges.

Negative self-referential thought is pervasive when we lack focus and drive, and we procrastinate as a result. When we’re in a rut, we question our abilities and self-worth. Our headspace is dominated by negative emotions such as fear, doubt, and insecurity, which encourages a so-called fixed mindset — the belief that our abilities are innate, limited, and unchangeable, and we cannot rise above our current level.

We beat ourselves down and seemingly accept that we are limited. We draw on past experiences to confirm our current biases. We instantly remember the last time we were stuck or failed, and we construct negative narratives about our lives. This decreases our motivation to get past workplace challenges, which results in even more frustration and procrastination.

Tip #2: cultivate a growth mindset.

People with a growth mindset believe that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication, effort, and learning from past experiences. Adopting a growth mindset can help us view challenges as opportunities for growth, rather than as obstacles. This mindset is dominated by optimism rooted in realism: we understand the reality of our difficulties, but we know we are capable of the effort to overcome them and improve our skills because of them.

Despite what many think, humans can continue to learn through neuroplasticity even in old age. Therefore, believing you cannot learn or change is not an excuse. It is biologically possible for your brain to do it, so have faith in your ingenuity and ability to grow and adapt.

Whenever you notice self-critical thoughts around your work, remind yourself of your work experience and positive qualities. Remember that you are only facing a temporary difficulty, and this is not something you should doubt yourself over. Even if you are uncertain of your abilities, remind yourself that you are competent and can learn. A bit of friction only means you’ll grow more.

Avoiding habitual non-work and distractions

A subtle but pernicious form of procrastination is what I call habitual non-work. It’s when we delay tasks not because they’re challenging, but because we’re in a routine of starting bouts of work by getting coffee or scrolling through social media first.

While these might seem harmless, they condition our brain not to be in a state of readiness when we should be working, which might make it more challenging to start work and avoid procrastination in situations when there isn’t any time to waste.

Instead of jumping straight into a task, habitual non-work also conditions our brain to associate the beginning of work with a high motivation threshold, making it harder to start tasks when motivation is low in future settings.

Lastly, if you manage to reach a state of flow in your work — characterized by consistent, effortless focus and high productivity, to the degree of losing yourself in the task — any interruption will snap you out of your reality. When your focus is interrupted, it will take an additional 15 minutes to get yourself back into the flow state, according to author and researcher Steven Kotler. Flow is precious, and interrupting work to check your email, send a text, or answer a distracting phone call is a hotbed for procrastination.

Tip #3: start immediately and prioritize focus.

As soon as a task is assigned, begin working on it. Don’t leave it for after lunch or coffee, or for tomorrow morning. Even if you just plan or outline the task, taking the first steps can create momentum. You don’t have to make significant progress right away; just show yourself that you are motivated enough to tackle the challenges in your path. You can take breaks later, but first, let your determined actions reinforce your beliefs. Over time, you will feel more motivated to begin work.

Because it is so difficult to reach a state of flow, prioritizing this state of increased focus and productivity is critical in making work seem more manageable and enjoyable. When you are ready to do focused work, mute your phone, put on headphones, or tell your friends at work not to disturb you for a while. Do whatever it takes to stay uninterrupted for at least 60–90 minutes. The cure for procrastination is its polar opposite: focused work.

Procrastination is so common nowadays that although the emotional discomfort, limbic friction, and negative self-talk it creates can be daunting, they are not insurmountable. By understanding its psychological roots, being mindful of our emotional responses, cultivating a growth mindset, and prioritizing determined focus over habitual non-work, we can gradually escape the toxic sway of procrastination. We can move from a state of continuous avoidance to a realm of focused work, and turn whatever task we encounter from a struggle to a productive and enjoyable venture.