The Cycle of Procrastination

The procrastination cycle refers to the pattern of behaviour we typically repeatedly go through when we delay certain tasks or activities, which ultimately increases the likelihood of the same procrastination patterns in the future.

The cycle starts with us having to engage in a certain task, activity or goal. Procrastination arises from a pattern of unhelpful rules and assumptions that we may have about ourselves, others and the world. These may be thoughts such as “It has to be perfect” or “people will judge me”. When these come up, they lead us to feel or detect some kind of discomfort or anxiety about working on the task or goal.

If struggle to tolerate this discomfort, we will then be likely to use procrastination as our way of avoiding this discomfort. We will generally come up with excuses in a way to escape the discomfort. So, we may be saying things like “I have time to do it later” or “I’ve got to clean the house first”. As a result, we may engage in procrastination activities that might be pleasurable or distracting for us. There may be positive or negative consequence as a result of the procrastination that will then make us more likely engage in procrastination next time we are faced with a similar task or goal. And so, this cycle will continue.

The good thing is that we can reverse this cycle. The key is to interrupt the cycle. You can do this by doing things like:

• Adjusting your unhelpful rules and assumptions
• Learning to tolerate the discomfort.
• Learning to challenge the procrastination excuses.
• Putting into action practical strategies to stop procrastinating.

If you would like to find out more about procrastination, do keep an eye out for the upcoming social media content on the topic this month. As always if you or a loved one is struggling with procrastination or require assistance in another area, please reach out for support.