“I’ll Get to It …. Later”. The psychology of Procrastination
It’s Sunday. You had promised yourself you would have started earlier, instead your week vanished into cleaning out your inbox, categorizing pictures, watching random YouTube videos, scrolling never-ending Instagram feeds and alphabetizing your spice rack. Now it’s midnight, that big deadline is tomorrow and the panic hits.
Yes – We have all had that moment.
But procrastination isn’t about being lazy or disorganized. It’s often about how we deal with discomfort, fear, and pressure. Let’s break down what’s really going on—and perhaps how to get unstuck.
Why We Procrastinate
Putting things off isn’t just poor time management—it’s our brain trying to protect us. Here’s how:
1. Avoiding Emotional Discomfort
Avoiding emotional discomfort reflects the tendency to escape or distract oneself from unpleasant emotions such as anxiety, sadness, shame, guilt, anger or fear.
This coping strategy is a mechanism that helped our ancestors survive and adapt to their environment. For example, emotions like fear or anxiety signal perceived threats—whether physical, social, or psychological – and probe our need to escape or resolve the emergency. Therefore the brain activates avoidance behaviors – like procrastination – as a short-term solution that aims to minimize the pain.
Every time you opened your laptop to work on that deadline, you felt a knot in your stomach. It was triggered by the anxiety that your work might not turn out as good as you wish. As the discomfort grew, instead of working on your task, you found yourself reorganizing your desktop and then opening Netflix.
Distraction, denial, or procrastination are very effective strategies to provide temporary relief. In fact, they are so effective that everytime we apply them, we reinforce avoidance pathways in the brain, increasing the likelihood of procrastinating in the future!
In sum, we often avoid tasks not because they’re hard—but because they feel bad. Stress, anxiety, and self-doubt trigger avoidance. It’s our brain choosing short-term relief over long-term benefit.
Reasons why we tend to avoid emotional discomfort
Threat avoidance: Emotions like fear, anxiety, or shame signal danger—whether physical (a predator), social (rejection), or environmental (uncertainty). Avoiding situations that trigger these emotions helped early humans stay safe and reduce harm.
Social cohesion: Feelings like guilt or embarrassment can have an impact on our social dynamics. Avoiding the emotional discomfort associated with social disapproval helped individuals maintain their place within the group, which was vital for survival.
Energy conservation: Avoiding mentally or emotionally taxing experiences in uncertain situations may have allowed for conservation of cognitive and emotional energy, especially when immediate threats or decisions demanded focus.
Short-term stress regulation: Emotion avoidance could temporarily reduce overwhelming stress, allowing an individual to regroup and regain control, which might have been crucial in life-threatening contexts.
2. Tomorrow Always Feels Easier
Alex has a blog post due in five days. He tells himself, “I’ll be more focused tomorrow.” Then tomorrow becomes the next day… and the next.
This is a mental shortcut called delay bias: We overestimate our future motivation and underestimate today’s potential. It feels safer to imagine doing hard things later, even when we know that “later” never really arrives.
Delay bias favor immediate rewards over larger, delayed ones. At brain level, immediate gratification activates the dopaminergic reward system, leading to a stronger emotional pull toward short-term benefits. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning and self-control, supports delayed gratification. When the prefrontal cortex is overwhelmed – due to stress, fatigue, or low motivation – delay bias becomes more pronounced.
Overcoming delay bias involves strategies to make long-term rewards feel more tangible. Techniques like goal visualization and breaking long-term goals into smaller, immediate milestones help align short-term behavior with long-term intentions.
3. Fear of Getting It Wrong
Perfectionism is often fear in disguise!
Perfectionists often set excessively high expectations for themselves and become overwhelmed by the pressure to perform flawlessly. This fear of not meeting their own standards can lead to task avoidance, as starting or completing a task becomes associated with anxiety and self-criticism.
Neurologically, perfectionism and procrastination are linked through the interplay between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning and decision-making, may become overactive in perfectionists as they obsess over details and possible outcomes. Meanwhile, the amygdala, which processes fear and emotional threat, can trigger anxiety when the risk of imperfection looms. This emotional discomfort often results in avoidance behavior. We procrastinate action because doing nothing feels less scary than doing something imperfectly. Essentially, if we don´t deliver the job, ….no one can say it was not good enough.
4. Feeling Overwhelmed
Feeling overwhelmed is a common trigger for procrastination, as the brain struggles to process multiple demands or complex tasks simultaneously. When individuals face a large workload, unclear priorities, or high expectations, their cognitive resources—especially attention and working memory—can become overloaded. This leads to a mental freeze, where initiating action feels emotionally and mentally exhausting.
You have been asked to “develop a full marketing strategy” in your new job, but you have no clue where to begin. So instead of starting, you stall—waiting for clarity that never shows up.
Neurologically, the amygdala—responsible for detecting threats—interprets overwhelming situations as stressful, activating the stress response system. This triggers the release of cortisol, which can impair the prefrontal cortex, the brain region responsible for planning, organization, and decision-making. As a result, people may find it difficult to focus, prioritize, or break tasks into manageable steps. Instead of tackling the source of stress, the brain seeks relief through avoidance, leading to procrastination.
This avoidance offers short-term comfort but contributes to increased stress and guilt over time, reinforcing the cycle. The more overwhelmed a person feels, the more likely they are to delay tasks, which in turn makes those tasks feel even more unmanageable.
How to Move Forward
Once you understand the emotional roots of procrastination, you can start using strategies that actually work:
1. Shrink the Task
Don’t write “Finish report” on your to-do list. Write:
- Open Google Docs
- Add title
- Write bullet points for intro
By breaking tasks into tiny steps, you lower the emotional barrier to starting. Progress, no matter how small, builds momentum.
2. Try the “Two-Minute Launch”
Set a timer for two minutes. That’s it. Use that time to start the task—no pressure to finish. Often, just beginning is enough to dissolve the resistance. The first step is the hardest; the second comes easier.
3. Focus on Today, Not the Finish Line
Instead of obsessing over the entire project, focus on what you can do right now. One page, one email, one slide. Big goals are achieved by consistent effort—not grand, heroic bursts of productivity.
4. Build in Rewards
If you dread a task, attach a reward to it. “Once I finish this section, I’ll grab a coffee or watch a show.” The brain loves incentives. Small rewards can make hard tasks more tolerable—and even enjoyable.
5. Be Kind to Yourself
Slipped up again? Didn’t follow through today? That’s okay. Self-criticism doesn’t motivate—it discourages!
Final Take: Start Small, Stay Gentle
Procrastination is less about time and more about emotions. It’s a tug-of-war between your short-term comfort and your long-term values.
You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to begin.