Hi – I’m a procrastinator.

Hi – I’m a procrastinator. I’m happy with it, and I don’t intend to change.

This article is not going to tell you to stop procrastinating and then you will be super Tony Robbins size successful. I’m going to tell you that you probably could ‘procrastinate’ more and be more successful. Yes, it sounds a bit strange but there are some tricks and hacks, and a little psychology, that can help you use your natural habit of procrastination to help you outsmart yourself and ‘hack’ your life for the better.

First up, let’s have a look at what procrastination is – the avoiding or delaying of a task. Be it writing an essay for school, a task around home, something at work, or even just going to the gym, there is a procrastination opportunity for everyone.

Let’s state the obvious, we mostly don’t procrastinate on things we enjoy. Imagine procrastinating watching TikTok by say, filing your tax return. That’s just not going to happen.

So why do we procrastinate? Well, there are a lot of articles out there that will give you some pretty big lists of reasons we procrastinate. But I think it is better to simply look at the mechanics rather than reasons.

The mechanics:

When it is time to get something done, our self-control is engaged to bring ourselves to do it. Our self-control is driven by our motivation which we need to decide to do anything. For everything we do we have motivation, otherwise, we simply would not do it. Yes, we are motivated all the time – it is only the action that varies.

Sometimes, as a result of the contemplation of a task, we experience negative emotions, such as anxiety, fear of failure, even fear of missing out. We don’t like these negative emotions, so our motivation changes from the task being contemplated to something else that doesn’t invoke these negative emotions. Voila, we have procrastination. When we are stressed and tired, our ability to resist negative emotions is weakened and we tend to procrastinate even more.

We procrastinate because we are not sufficiently motivated to choose to do a particular task over another activity – due to the weighting we apply to the value of rewards (illogically – but applied no less) the opportunity cost of not doing the dreaded task is less than the reward for procrastination. As my students will tell you ‘Life is an economic proposition’ and you choose to apply your scarce resources to one task over another because you value the outcome more.

This is something we can use. Let’s take a look at a few ways we can make procrastination work for us.

Take a critical look at the reasons why you are procrastinating. Grab a pen and paper and write down a list of reasons why you think watching TikTok is more valuable than writing your report. Is the task overwhelming in size or duration? Are you unsure how to start? Are you unsure of how to achieve the required outcome? Do you simply dislike the task – what exactly do you dislike about it? This first step helps us understand the triggers and allows us to take care of ourselves – especially our future selves.

The next step is to make a list of the rewards and penalties of doing/not doing the task. Make sure you include how you will feel later if you do/ don’t do the task – be honest no matter how difficult this may seem to be. Writing this on a piece of paper will help you engage your logical thought processes - this part requires deep introspection. This is hard to do and takes practice but, it can be a powerful tool to help you improve your life.

Now you have two lists – why you are procrastinating and how you are rationalising it. Already you have achieved something so take a break and reward yourself. This small act will help you turn the dreaded task into a tool for achieving rewards – it will help you reframe how you see the task and make it less negative.

After your little reward, the following step is to assign a value to the rewards and costs. Now that you have a list of rewards and costs you can assign weightings to them relative to each other. Now you can start to make informed decisions about what to do. By directly comparing them you can rationalise them much better. In isolation, they can seem larger or smaller than they are. You can understand your thinking quite clearly and start to identify fallacies you are using to avoid the task. This process might take a few tries, but it will be useful in reshaping your mental models and improve future decision making.

Let’s look at some strategies and see if you can make these work for you:

If the task is simply too overwhelming you make become overanxious about the outcome of a project, think you can’t complete it well or fear you will fail. You procrastinate to avoid a negative feeling. If that’s the case, it may help to break it into smaller sub-tasks that you know you can do. Make a list of the step you think you need to do and break them into small increments that you can achieve in a short period – this will help boost your self-efficacy. If you still struggle with a fear of failure, then ‘backwards schedule’. Starting by envisioning a successful outcome can help you with seeing the task as an opportunity for success, rather than an opportunity for failure.

If you struggle with delayed gratification and the task is simply too long in duration to wait for the reward, then ‘unschedule’. This is the process of setting up a plan that is made around the things that you need to do for yourself. Schedule in break times and other activities that you may use to procrastinate, then use the time that is left for productive work. This can also help you schedule in ‘sanity’ checks after breaks where you critically review your work and see if you are achieving your intended goal. Having your attention away from the task can help break thought cycles and allow you to look objectively at what is before you. This can also be an opportunity to ‘hack’ your thinking – procrastinate with the other tasks you need to do so you get the satisfaction of being productive. Use this satisfaction to pump yourself up to ‘win’ at your main task.

If you’re easily distracted and have a tendency to multitask (no, it’s not a good thing), then use your schedule to give yourself time to clear your working environment, and mind, of distractions. Schedule the menial tasks you need to do so you know you have time to get them done, that way you will not need to think about all the other stuff you need to do. This frequent switching of mental focus is tiring and can lead to mental fatigue. Schedule in time to remove distractions such as your phone and some time to communicate to others about your needs for time to focus. Interruptions are often welcome, but focused work is also essential.

If you’re struggling with something other than the task, your procrastination may be a symptom of something more serious, such as depression, anxiety or even attention problems. If you find that you can’t break the shackles of procrastination by yourself, seek help. Sometimes we find that negative behaviours are self-fuelling in that we do them, feel bad because we feel bad we do more bad behaviours. It can be hard to break this cycle alone so seeking help is a great first step to better mental health.

If you are inherently more productive at certain times of day, use your schedule to assign work times that coincide with your best productive times. This can mean that when you are mentally fatigued and your will to resist distraction is lower, you can rest your mind and avoid overtaxing yourself because you have planned for it. You can rearrange other tasks to optimise your mental and physical energy and the requirements of your tasks. Avoid burning up good thinking time with tasks that don’t require much thought.

If starting isn’t the problem and you’re simply hitting a ‘task’ wall – like running a long race – then chances are you are simply fatigued. You might not feel it or think it, after all, how much energy do you consume sitting at a desk? Focus takes energy and our brain consumes an amazing amount of energy. Take a break and do something to get the blood flowing to your brain, re-energise yourself and allow yourself a reward. If you are tired then you have worked and you deserve a reward.

The key to the process is to find ways to turn a dreaded task into something rewarding. If you can understand how and why you think in certain ways, how and why you work better at times, and how and why you avoid things you have negative feelings about certain things, you can ‘hack’ your thinking and improve your ability to achieve.

Two final tips. Giving yourself time to procrastinate means you will not feel so negative when you do, so start your planning process as soon as you are aware of the need to complete the task. Giving yourself time to reflect and plan well will result in a better result. By understanding the actual amount of time you have to do the task (after you schedule in all the other stuff you need to do) you give yourself a great chance of success and the time to avoid panic – a precursor to negative thoughts. Lastly, we feel better when we are honest, so be honest with yourself and recognise that our procrastination habits can be used for good.

Don’t worry about procrastinating less, 'procrastinate' better.