The "P" Word: Procrastination & How to Get Your Brain to do Hard Things
Outsmarting Procrastination with Science: Strategies for Taking Action Now
Have you ever stared down a mountain of homework, knowing that you’ll feel better once you get started, but somehow, you just… don’t?
Whether it’s studying for an upcoming exam, doing the chores you’ve been putting off, or finally sitting down to outline that presentation, the struggle with procrastination is all too familiar.
But did you know that overcoming procrastination isn’t all about having more willpower?
It turns out, you can “outsmart” your brain to overcome procrastination, no matter how daunting the task may seem.
In this article, you will learn:
The science behind why we procrastinate
Practical, science-backed strategies that will help you take action
Let’s dive into the nooks and crannies.
Understanding the Brain: Why We Procrastinate
Understanding your opponent is crucial in sports like boxing, tennis, basketball, and others. By understanding them, you give yourself an advantage.
It works the same way with your brain. Even though you’re technically on the same team as your brain, you can imagine it as the opponent you want to outsmart, especially when it tries to work against you.
Let’s understand the brain.
You might think that the brain’s primary function is for thinking, but according to Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychology professor and neuroscientist, that’s not 100% the case.
By the way, when I say “thinking,” I mean solving problems, reasoning, reading something complex, or doing mental work that requires effort.
Dr. Barrett explains that there’s a reason we evolved a brain, despite it being an energetically expensive organ that consumes around 20% of our metabolic energy. Our brains evolved to regulate the body's systems—everything from the immune system to the skeletal muscles. This role initially evolved as a response to hunting and helped our ancestors survive by coordinating their bodily functions. Essentially, the brain acts as a sophisticated management system, ensuring that all of the body’s systems work together.
Now, what does this have to do with procrastination?
Fight, Flight, Freeze and the Procrastination Cycle
Consider procrastination as your brain’s response to a particular stimulus. Ironically, even though it harms us, procrastination is our body’s way of trying to protect us. It’s not just something that randomly happens with zero explanation. When you can identify the cause of the problem, you’re one step closer to solving it.
When you face a challenging task, particularly one that evokes negative feelings such as insecurity or incompetence, your brain might perceive it as an incoming threat. In response, it releases hormones that spur a fear response.
This “threat” may have been a rogue predator in the past. Nowadays, it might be an upcoming exam date or a looming report deadline.
When we feel stress or fear, how do we respond?
Fight, flight, and freeze are common responses to perceived threats, and this can lead to procrastination when we choose to avoid the perceived threat in favour of a less stressful task, like checking social media.
I remember one assignment I kept putting off back in high school. It was for an elective class that I wasn’t terribly interested in, but decided to take to fulfill my credit requirements. For the assignment, I had to research the moisture content in certain foods, like bread, and their relationship to nutrition. Not a topic that appealed much to me, but the assignment was worth 35% of my final mark, so I had to roll up my sleeves and get it done. To avoid the discomfort of having to start this terrible assignment, I kept putting it off. Sure, this gave me temporary relief… until the dread returned with a vengeance as the deadline loomed closer and the work piled up. I kept putting it off until days before the assignment when the panic set in. I finally started researching. The night before the due date, I pulled off a miracle and managed to write the 2500-word report in the nick of time, albeit with far too little sleep and far too much stress. Not a great coping mechanism.
Research on university students has found that they were more likely to procrastinate on tasks they perceived as stressful. Also, according to studies, procrastination is a common challenge:
Around 50% of college students procrastinate in a consistent and chronic manner
75% consider themselves to be procrastinators
80%–95% of college students procrastinate
Understanding procrastination and overcoming it can thus help many students reach their goals. A worthwhile pursuit, I’d say.
Ego, Perfectionism, and Procrastination
Beyond fight, flight, and freeze, one’s ego, or self-image, also plays a role in procrastination. That might sound odd at first, but let’s dig into it.
If you’ve always been told that you’re smart or capable, this probably sounds great so long as you keep getting that positive feedback. But here’s where it could go wrong.
What if you encounter a challenging class, project, or situation where there’s no guarantee that things will go perfectly?
A perfectionist might avoid tasks that could challenge their self-image, fearing that failure would tarnish their sense of self-worth. But much of life is uncertain. There’s no guarantee that a business you start up will succeed and make you millions. There’s no guarantee that you’ll land a spot in medical school or law school. There’s no guarantee that you’ll secure top marks in every class. What we can do is stack the odds in our favour and put in the effort so we can look back with no regrets.
“Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation,” a quote attributed to Zig Ziglar, is a relevant one that stands out to me.
Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.
-Zig Ziglar
Avoiding anything for fear of failure closes doors and virtually guarantees failure since you can’t succeed if you don’t try.
Understanding this connection between the brain’s neurological response to fear/stress and procrastination is key to overcoming it.
Now that you have some context, let’s get into potential solutions to help you overcome procrastination and finally start studying for that test or writing that paper.
Outsmarting Your Brain: Simple Strategies to Take Action
Now that we’ve discussed why we procrastinate, let’s explore practical strategies for getting started.
1. Get Curious About Your Emotions
Have you ever noticed how your body reacts before a big test or an important task?
Your heart might start racing. Your stomach might feel queasy. Your palms might get sweaty. These physical symptoms are often interpreted negatively as anxiety, which can make the task ahead seem even more daunting.
But is there another way to interpret these sensations?
It is possible to reframe these sensations.
Stanford University health psychologist Kelly McGonigal discusses this concept in her TED Talk, “How to Make Stress Your Friend.” She argues that stress, when viewed positively, can actually be a motivator rather than a barrier.
Instead of labelling a racing heart or sweaty palms as anxiety, consider that they might be signs of determination. Maybe your brain is gearing up for you to tackle something challenging, and those physical sensations are part of that process. By getting curious about your emotions and questioning whether they could be something other than anxiety, you can shift your perspective and reduce the resistance to starting the task.
For example, before freaking out, ask yourself:
Could this feeling be determination rather than anxiety? Could it be a lack of clarity about what needs to be done? Maybe it’s fear of disappointing someone?
Identifying the source of your emotions gives you a starting point for addressing them, rather than letting them hold you back.
This perspective shift can be incredibly powerful in helping you move forward, even when the task feels overwhelming.
2. The 2-Minute Rule
When faced with a daunting task, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Studying an entire textbook, writing a ten-page paper, or running a 5K might seem impossible. And if you expect to memorize an entire textbook or research and write an analytical essay by tomorrow, this is hardly realistic.
But what if you broke these tasks down into smaller, more manageable steps? That’s where the 2-Minute Rule comes in.
The 2-Minute Rule suggests that when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do. The idea is to make the first step so small and so easy that it’s almost impossible to say no.
Here’s how I recently used the 2-Minute Rule. I arrived home after a long red-eye flight that was delayed because of system outages at the airport. You better believe I was ready to take a good long nap. I shut the front door and wheeled in my carry-on luggage.
I was faced with two options.
Option 1: I could take a nap and unpack when I was up for it.
Option 2: I could put away whatever I could in 2 minutes, get that start, and do the rest later.
“Future Me” was grateful that I went for Option 2. I started unpacking and managed to get a solid chunk done in 2 minutes. Even better, I found that those 2 minutes gave me enough momentum to finish the task!
Instead of committing to studying for an entire afternoon, tell yourself that you’re only going to study for 2 minutes. Instead of writing an entire essay, commit to writing just one sentence. Instead of running a full 5K, start with a walk or a jog from one end of the street to the other.
These small steps might seem insignificant, but they lower the stakes and reduce the pressure you feel.
It’s just 2 minutes, after all. You can handle 2 minutes.
Once you’ve started, you’re more likely to continue. Often, you’ll find yourself thinking, “That wasn’t so bad,” and decide to keep going. The key is to take that first step, however small it may be, and build momentum from there.
3. Match Your Identity with Your Actions
The story you tell yourself makes a difference in how you see yourself, which plays a crucial role in how you approach tasks.
If you see yourself as someone who is “useless” when it comes to exercise or as someone who is “bad at math” or certain subjects, you’re less likely to take action in those areas. After all, if being “bad” at something is just a part of who you are, there’s no helping it, so why try?
But quitting is no way to reach your goals.
If you approach things from the level of your identity and then match your actions with the person you want to become, you will be in a much stronger position.
For example, imagine you want to get in shape. Naturally, you might be tempted to tell yourself, “I need to work out to get ripped.”
But in a seemingly strange turn of events, your brain might actually resist this so that you don’t work out.
How does that happen?
If you need to get ripped, that means you aren’t currently ripped now. If you aren’t ripped now, you probably don’t work out, because people who are in shape work out. That means you won’t work out today because that action (working out) doesn’t match your identity.
Let’s try something else instead.
Tell yourself, “I’m a person who values fitness and exercises regularly.” This small change in language can have a big impact on your motivation. If you identify as someone who values fitness, you’re more likely to take actions that match that identity—like going to the gym or taking a walk.
Similarly, if you’re a student, instead of saying, “I have to study because I’m bad at math,” or, “I need to study more to be a straight-A student,” try, “I’m a student who is committed to improving my math skills.” By aligning your self-image with your goals, you make it easier to take the necessary steps to achieve them.
A quick caveat - there are limits, and you can’t simply delude yourself into being a billion-dollar company founder or Olympic swimmer or neurosurgeon by telling yourself that you are.
The key here is that language and the way we talk to ourselves is important.
If you want to outsmart your brain, align your behaviour with who you want to become, not the end result.
Bonus Tip: The Underrated Key to Consistency
One of the most effective (and I believe underrated) ways to overcome resistance is to make the process fun.
Super cliché, but there’s a reason for that.
Think about a time when you were deeply engaged in a task—in the zone. Whether it was playing a game, solving a puzzle, or working on a project you’re passionate about, in those moments, the resistance seemed to melt away, and you were able to focus and take action without much effort.
The same principle can be applied to tasks that you might not naturally find enjoyable.
For example, if you’re studying for a test, try turning it into a game. Challenge yourself to answer as many questions correctly as possible in a set amount of time, or compete with a friend to see who can study the most effectively. By making the process more engaging, you reduce the resistance and increase your chances of sticking with it.
But what if the task is inherently unpleasant, and there’s no way to make it fun? In those cases, it’s important to shift your narrative. Instead of focusing on the outcome (e.g., getting a high grade or losing weight), focus on the process (e.g., being someone who values learning and productivity).
This shift in focus can help you stay motivated, even when the task itself isn’t enjoyable.
A Final Word: Long-Term Success Against the “P” Word
Outsmarting procrastination isn’t about tricking your brain forever. It’s about building habits that lead to consistency by understanding your brain.
Over time, as you experience small wins—whether it’s answering more questions correctly, running a little faster, or lifting heavier weights—your confidence and motivation will grow.
These small successes kick off a positive feedback loop. As you see yourself making progress, you’ll be more motivated to keep going. Eventually, the hard tasks that once seemed impossible will become second nature, just like brushing your teeth in the morning.
The ultimate goal is to cultivate a mindset and habits that make taking action a regular part of your routine. When you reach this point, you won’t need to rely on tricks or hacks to get started—you’ll do it naturally because it’s part of who you are.
Additional reading and info:
https://solvingprocrastination.com/procrastination-statistics/
P.S. If you’re looking for more personalized support in overcoming procrastination and achieving your academic goals, visit TopClassEdge.com. Francesca Cadhit and her team specialize in tutoring, academic coaching, and mentorship to help students in the Greater Toronto Area and across Canada/USA unlock their full potential.