Procrastination: The pain is in the anticipation

Do you ever procrastinate? (If you’re human (or even superhuman) odds are you do on something!)

Get this: Your brain lights up with pain when you simply think about whatever it is you prefer to avoid. AND... That pain in your brain goes away when you actually do it. (How awesome is that?)

Remember: Procrastination is like an addiction. It gives a temporary hit of feeling good but has devastating long-term consequences.

“We procrastinate about things that make us feel uncomfortable. Medical imaging studies have shown that math-phobes, for example, appear to avoid math because even just thinking about it seems to hurt. The pain centers of their brains light up when they contemplate working on math.
But there’s something important to note. It was the anticipation that was painful. When the math-phobes actually did math, the pain disappeared. Procrastination expert Rita Emmett explains: ‘The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.’
Avoiding something painful seems sensible. But sadly, the long-term effects of habitual avoidance can be nasty... Procrastination is a single, monumentally important ‘keystone’ bad habit. A habit, in other words, that influences many important areas of your life. Change it, and a myriad of other positive changes will gradually begin to unfold.”

—Barbara Oakley, Ph.D. from A Mind for Numbers 

Barbara dedicates several chapters to understanding and dealing with procrastination. She references a couple books we have Notes on to help us create better habits. Check out our Notes on The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and The Now Habit by Neil Fiore for more goodness.

For now, know that you CAN change your procrastination habit and that it’s wise to invest the energy into knocking out that keystone destructive habit. Practice disciplining yourself to reduce distractions and take the actions you’ve deemed important.

Every time you take a step forward you’re building your “git ‘er done” muscle. Let’s do the lifting and build our skills!