Procrastination Is About Emotion Regulation, Not Time Management

A new take on an old problem.

Photo by Alexey Savchenko on Unsplash

My Old Demon, Procrastination

I have struggled with procrastination for as long as I can remember. In middle school, I recall staying up late one night to finish an assignment about ancient Egypt. In addition to writing a report, I had to design and color my own sarcophagus. I don’t think it was some creeping fear of mortality that gave me hot flashes and cold sweats as I leaned over my pad of drawing paper that night. The truth was, I’d had weeks to finish this assignment, and I’d saved it until the last minute. The project was a major part of my grade, so I now had no choice but to keep working until it was done.

My procrastination problems continued throughout high school and college. I rarely studied for exams, and routinely wrote papers the night before they were due. In retrospect, it was only my good memory and knack for writing that allowed me to get decent grades in spite of my abysmal work habits. 

It wasn’t until I started therapy for my depression, in my sophomore year of college, that I started to address this issue in earnest. My therapist loaned me a book, The Now Habit by Berkeley psychologist Neil Fiore, that sent me down a decades-long rabbit hole of learning about productivity and time management.

Over the years, I’ve tried pretty much everything you might have heard of—reverse calendars, time blocking, the Pomodoro technique, GTD—and many of these techniques have helped me. (I would never have made it through grad school without my Pomodoro kitchen timer!)

And yet, like most people, I still find myself procrastinating on certain tasks, especially ones that feel tedious or boring. What’s going on here?

Procrastination Is About Emotion Regulation, Not Time Management

In a recent program for the Waking Up app, Carleton University psychologist Tim Pychyl argues that “Procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem.” In other words, procrastination isn’t ultimately a problem of prioritizing and scheduling tasks. After all, I can make a to-do list, decide on my “AAA priority” task, block out time for it on my calendar, and then still decide not to do it. Instead, procrastination is a misguided attempt to feel better in the moment by “giving in to feel good.”

Do You Suffer From Short-Term Mood Repair?

When we procrastinate, we’re prioritizing “fixing” our emotions in the short term over achieving our goals in the long term. Like many emotional problems, it’s a form of avoidance. We’re attempting to avoid feeling boredom, frustration, anxiety, and all the other unpleasant feelings we have around the tasks we don’t want to do. 

Why do we do this to ourselves? The answer may lie in human evolution. In order to keep themselves alive, our ancestors evolved to prioritize present-moment concerns over future ones. Researchers call this “present bias.” While being biased toward the present moment may sound like a good thing, this isn’t the same thing as mindfulness. In fact, we’re actually trying to avoid our experience in the present moment because basically, we don’t like it. This aversion to our present-moment experience, and subsequent avoidance of it is one of the core causes of suffering identified by the Buddha and other ancient philosophers.  

We could even see procrastination as a form of addiction. Every time we put off a stressful task, we’re rewarded with a surge of short-term relief—even more so if instead of the task we’re avoiding, we do something pleasurable, like having a snack or playing a video game. In this way, procrastination can be profoundly habit-forming, while, just as with a substance addiction, the negative consequences continue to build up all around us.

Just Get Started

So, how can we manage our emotions in a way that allows us to get the really important things done?

In his book, Solving the Procrastination Puzzle, Pychyl suggests just getting started. Once we get started on a task, we tend to view it much less negatively than when we are actively avoiding it. Before we get started, we dread the task. After starting, we realize it’s not that bad. We also gain a feeling of momentum, and view ourselves more positively for having made a bit of progress.

When I’m really dreading a task, my favorite way to get started is to set a timer for just 10 minutes and go. Once the timer goes off, I can continue working if I want to, but I can also stop.

But as every procrastinator knows, just getting started is easier said than done. Here are a few other strategies that may help:

• Use implementation intentions: In his book, Pychyl cites research on implementation intentions, thoughts that take the form of “If/when x, I will y.” Example: “I will start writing my rough draft on Tuesday at 8:00 AM.” or “Once the kids are asleep, I will read for half an hour.” These work by pre-deciding when you’ll start a task, instead of leaving the decision for the future.

• Take care of your body: Your willpower is a limited resource, like the battery life of your smartphone. In order to make sure you’re starting with a full charge, make sure you get a good night’s sleep and nourish yourself with healthy food. Pychyl notes that there’s a connection between low blood sugar, poor emotion regulation, and failures of willpower, so don’t let yourself get hypoglycemic.

• Tie goals to values: Research shows that connecting our goals with our core values can boost motivation. Before starting a task, think about your “why”—what is it that makes this important for you to do? How might it connect to your deeper aspirations for how you want to show up in life?

• Practice mindfulness and self-compassion: This is more of a long-term strategy, but there is now a mountain of evidence that practicing mindfulness and self-compassion can aid in emotion regulation. A good mindfulness-oriented therapist or meditation teacher can help you get on the right track. One particular strategy that’s worked well for me is reframing tasks I don’t want to do as acts of kindness toward my future self.

• Acknowledge your parts: This is one I’ve been experimenting with recently. When there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to do something—a rebellious teenager part, for example—I’ll just mentally acknowledge it: I understand you don’t want to do this, and that totally makes sense. But it’s important to me because x, y, and z, so I’m going to do it anyway.

Emotion regulation is a skill. Most of us don’t learn it in school, but we can get better at it with time and practice. It’s not always easy. Hell, I’ve been working on myself for years and still procrastinated on writing this essay! But like other valuable skills, the benefits of emotion regulation can compound over time. Imagine how much more you could accomplish over the course of your lifetime if you were able to take action on your most important goals with just 10% more ease and equanimity! 

Over To You

Have you struggled with procrastination? What strategies have you tried to get things done? What emotion regulation techniques have worked best for you? Let me know by replying to this email or leaving a comment below.

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