What's happening
Procrastination is negative reinforcement in action. Avoiding the task feels relieving in the short term. The brain learns that avoidance gets you relief. The relief shrinks each time, but the lesson stays. So the avoidance grows.
The two things that interrupt the loop are noticing it (which makes the avoidance conscious instead of automatic) and a small action that interrupts the lesson (which teaches the brain that approach also gets relief).
A 60-second reset
- Notice. You've thought about this task four times today. You haven't started it. That's the moment.
- Name. Say it: "I'm procrastinating, not deciding." Procrastination is a feeling. Deciding is a verb. Don't let the feeling pretend to be the verb.
- Unload. Open Unstuck and write down two things. One: what's the real reason you don't want to do it? Two: what's the smallest version of starting?
- Next Step. Do the smallest version. Two minutes. Then close the app. Whether or not you keep going is a separate decision.
What not to do
- Don't promise yourself you'll "start tomorrow." You already know what tomorrow's brain is going to do.
- Don't reorganize the task to make it more pleasant. The reorganization is the procrastination wearing better clothes.
- Don't reach for a productivity book.
If this keeps happening
Chronic procrastination on most things is more often anxiety, depression, ADHD, or perfectionism than it is a discipline problem. A clinical conversation can name which one it is.
Understand the why
The reasons this reset works, explained in a minute each on ShrinkDaily, the daily learning layer of The Shrink Network.
Look up the words on Shrinktionary, the language layer of The Shrink Network:
For the reference on why this happens, see the Shrinkopedia entries on procrastination and executive function. A next read for later, not for right now.
Your next step in The Shrink Network
You are here: Unstuck, the reset layer of The Shrink Network. This site does one job: small, self-guided resets for the moment you're in. The rest of the network covers understanding, evidence, medication, patterns, and care.
Each site in the network has one job. No matter where you enter, we help you find the next step that makes sense.
Open Unstuck for the first 2 minutesWant to understand more first?
Every moment uses the same four moves. Read the thinking behind them on the Reset Method, or browse the full Moments library. For the longer read on this topic, see the Reminders and routines section of the Journal.