It’s a story that tons of us are familiar with: maybe you had to read a book for your English class, or write an essay for your history class, or do a project in your biology class, it’s 11:09 p.m., and you haven’t even started. So after a brief panic, you end up staying up until 3:40 a.m. until it’s finished and you can hand it in next morning when it’s due.
The ubiquity of this story and ones like it have garnered the phenomenon a name: procrastination. It is such a common practice in modern society that significant research and studies have been conducted on procrastination, which is more formally defined as the deliberate delaying of doing work even if it harms you. It’s likely that you have encountered procrastination several times in your life, and it can become especially burdensome for burnt-out juniors and seniors who are in the midst of their admissions process.
Procrastination is actually caused by a physiological response to fear. Put simply, when we encounter a task that is particularly intimidating or one that conjures dread, studies have shown that the amygdala, the same brain structure that regulates our fight-or-flight fear response, is activated. The brain recognizes the task as a threat comparable to an actual physical threat and therefore signals you to avoid it at all costs, which causes the delaying of work present in procrastination. This is why procrastination can be so powerful: it is the brain’s physiological attempt at self-preservation. However, these intimidating tasks in actuality do not present a threat to safety, so how do you counter the symptoms of procrastination if they emerge?
The first technique for beating procrastination comes from psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik. She conducted a study where she asked groups of people to perform repetitive tasks. The participants were sometimes interrupted in the middle of a task and sometimes able to finish the task uninterrupted. Participants were far more likely to remember the interrupted tasks than the uninterrupted ones. Zeigarnik was able to conclude that unfinished tasks linger far more prominently in the mind than unstarted or completed tasks. So, if you are ever procrastinating on a big project, forcing yourself to spend 10 minutes beginning it might lead you to have more motivation and drive to close out the task.
Another technique that has been shown to be effective is to remove possible distractions. Our brain is wired to avoid boredom at pretty much all costs, so by removing distractions and leaving work as the only option available to you, boredom can actually increase productivity. It’s possible that to avoid procrastination, all you need to do is clear your desk and power down your phone to get the willpower to start the task.
Finally, the last strategy to curb procrastination is to make it infrequent. Procrastination has been shown to temporarily reduce stress levels, so it’s easy to fall into the habit of procrastinating whenever you have any big task to do. The brain is a creature of habit, so if you establish a habit of procrastination, it’s going to be more difficult to avoid. Inversely, if you eliminate procrastination entirely and establish a habit of working on intimidating tasks without delaying them, it will be easier to fall into a positive habit. Cultivating a habitual routine of curbing procrastination and working as soon as possible will make it overall easier to avoid procrastination in the long run.
While the habit of procrastination has likely negatively affected all of us, by understanding its causes and how to use psychology to escape the delay-of-work trap, the burden of procrastination can be weaned off of your schedule entirely.
