Procrastination, jokingly also called putting-things-off-itis, is the scientific term for chronic delaying behavior. What is merely an annoying habit for some can become a serious problem for others. Procrastination takes on real significance above all when we unnecessarily postpone planned and necessary actions, even though we know that this will have negative consequences. In contrast to everyday procrastination, this constitutes a serious issue that can impair private as well as school, academic and professional performance.

A woman is under time pressure because of procrastination

However, procrastinating has little to do with laziness: someone who is lazy avoids work and feels comfortable doing nothing. Someone who suffers from procrastination, by contrast, does not feel comfortable at all, even though they are doing something. Usually they fill the time they should actually be spending on the prioritized task with other activities. Chronic procrastinators look for these so-called substitute activities as a way out, so that they do not have to tackle the task that needs to be done.

A decisive characteristic that distinguishes procrastination from simply putting things off is the emotional distress involved. A distinction is made between two types of people:

  • Arousal procrastinators only complete tasks at the very last minute, because they need a certain amount of excitement as motivation in order to work productively and efficiently. They do come under time pressure, but then rise to peak performance and finally do finish the activities they are supposed to complete.
  • Avoidance procrastinators, on the other hand, suffer from a fear of failure and evade these negative feelings. That is why they steer clear of difficult tasks altogether. It becomes problematic when you fail exams at school, university or work, or put off tasks for so long that you are ultimately dismissed or deregistered from your studies.

Because of procrastination, a man only starts working at night

In addition, different types of procrastination can be observed, depending on the area in which they occur:

  • Everyday procrastination: This refers to putting off unpleasant everyday tasks, for example making a dentist appointment by phone or cleaning the toilet. These tasks often have no high priority or immediate negative consequences, which is why they are particularly likely to be postponed.
  • Administrative procrastination: This involves putting off boring administrative tasks, which nevertheless often have to be completed carefully and on time. In a professional context, this could concern invoicing or the annual financial statement; in private life, the tax return.
  • Academic procrastination: This form of procrastination mainly affects students, who can complete their tasks independently over a long period of time. They often put off assessed work because they only have to finish it by submission deadlines that seem far away. This is also known as student syndrome.
  • Functional procrastination, also called strategic waiting: With this type of delay, you hope that problems will resolve themselves over time, become less relevant or that your own options for action will improve. This tactical approach is often interpreted as prudence and associated with politicians and executives.

If we consider a task boring, strenuous or unpleasant, we will be less keen to tackle it than something we perceive as more exciting, easier or more pleasant. That is why our brain reacts to the reluctance to face an unwelcome task with avoidance and substitute activities. Avoiding something unpleasant and instead doing something that gives you more pleasure is completely understandable and entirely normal.

Procrastination at work is hard to overcome

In principle, we tend to favor substitute activities that have an immediately positive effect, because we want to feel good right away. In the short term, this brings quick gratification and unpleasant feelings such as anxiety subside. In the long term, however, the more regularly you procrastinate, the more you condition your brain to avoidance. If you feel overwhelmed and are afraid that you will not be able to do the task justice, this also encourages delay – because fear prevents you from even starting. In this way, procrastination impairs many people’s performance.

Meanwhile, the consequences can get worse and worse: work delivered late, failures and poor evaluations are associated with guilt and shame and fuel the fear of failing again next time. The more often you link challenges to these negative emotions, the harder it becomes to start the tasks, stick with them and see them through to the end. You should break this vicious circle early on in order to overcome procrastination and start achieving successes again.

Anyone who constantly puts off something important may do so for a wide variety of reasons. The causes of procrastination are very broad, but can be roughly divided into organizational and psychological problems. Claiming that someone is simply lazy or does not pull themselves together enough misses the heart of procrastination, because its causes lie deeper.

  • Overwhelming mountains of tasks: Both confusing mammoth projects and endless, unstructured to-do lists create mental blocks and the feeling of not knowing where to start.
  • Unclear goals: Many people affected by procrastination find it difficult to see the point of unpleasant but necessary activities, to imagine the positive future state after completing them and to keep the goal in mind.
  • Poor time management: If you have never learned to set sensible priorities and to plan your time ahead, this makes it more likely that you will suppress urgent tasks and waste time on unimportant substitute activities.
  • Lack of structure: According to several studies, people who do not have a structured daily routine are far more prone to procrastination than well-organized people.
  • Too many distractions: Disruptive factors in the work environment, for example messages lighting up on your smartphone, make it easy to switch to substitute activities. Some people are afraid of missing out, are easily distracted and waste a lot of time on social media and other apps.

Distraction from your smartphone encourages procrastination

  • Fear of failure: Many people who procrastinate are very afraid of not meeting their own standards or external evaluation criteria and of receiving negative feedback.
  • Fear of success: Even if it may come as a surprise at first – the fear of success can lead to procrastination just as much. Every success raises expectations and brings with it the risk of failing at the next task.
  • Personal predisposition: Several studies have also shown that procrastination is linked to certain personality traits. People who are less conscientious and have poor impulse control are therefore more inclined to procrastinate.
  • Perfectionism: Perfectionists often procrastinate too. The demand to complete a task perfectly frequently keeps them from even taking the first step.
  • Comorbidity: Last but not least, serious mental illnesses such as ADHD or depression can cause difficulty concentrating or a lack of drive and be connected with procrastination.

A student desperately tries to overcome her procrastination

Procrastination itself is not considered an independent mental illness, but rather a behavior pattern; there are, however, symptoms that can accompany it or result from it. If you predominantly agree with the following statements, this indicates that you are procrastinating to a worrying extent:

  • You keep putting off important tasks to the very last moment and cannot manage to change your behavior, even though you suffer as a result.
  • Chronic time pressure burdens your everyday life at university, at work or in your private life.
  • Because of your procrastination, you often get annoyed with yourself, put yourself down and feel like a failure.
  • You constantly have a guilty conscience because you are not doing what you should be doing.
  • Delaying behavior leads to dissatisfaction, unease, stress, tension and inner restlessness in you.
  • You are already experiencing negative consequences due to poorer performance, e.g. that you have to settle for bad grades, do not pass exams or are not promoted.
  • Your behavior increasingly strains your interpersonal relationships, for example because you do not keep promises and commitments.
  • Putting things off has financial consequences, because you miss deadlines for paying bills, cancelling subscriptions or settling debts.

The good news: Procrastination is a behavior pattern that you can usually break and change yourself. Those affected often simply have not learned to organize themselves well or to tackle unpleasant tasks despite their reluctance. As a result, they do not know how to use their time efficiently and stick to a task consistently. Benefit from eight practical tips that will help you overcome procrastination!

People who procrastinate usually find it difficult to prioritize important tasks. A simple method for arranging things according to their importance and urgency is the so-called Eisenhower matrix. For example, buying a birthday present may be urgent but still not particularly important. To better assess the value of tasks for which you still have plenty of time, it helps to set clear goals and to visualize them on a vision board, for instance, so that you keep them in mind.

To overcome procrastination, you have to prioritize tasks

Nothing invites procrastination more than a long-term project whose result is still a long way off. Even organizational talents can lose track here and misjudge the effort involved. It is all the more important to divide the project into smaller task packages that are easier to complete and whose conclusion leads to a sense of achievement far more quickly. A proven means for this is a work breakdown structure .

To overcome procrastination in the long term, it is essential to maintain your motivation. Just like your goals, you should therefore also make your progress visible, for example with the help of to-do lists , Kanban boards or learning journals . Make sure to keep short-term goals realistic so that you achieve most of them, and celebrate your successes! Small rewards after completed tasks can also be motivating.

A proven method for overcoming procrastination is restricting your working time. This involves strictly limiting your daily work or study time to clearly defined, short time slots. Start with 10 minutes a day, for example. Only once you have used them exclusively for the task may you extend the period. The binding start and end times artificially reduce the working time available, which has been shown to increase productivity and efficiency during the working period. At the same time, restricting your working time lowers the barrier to getting started.

Runner in starting position: to overcome procrastination, you have to take the first step

The problem with procrastination is usually that we take on too much and do not even start. It is more effective to set the hurdle so low that it barely creates any resistance. Make it easy for yourself to get started and first research instructions and templates for your task on the internet. Once you have managed to get going, you can also try out “Eat the frog”. This method says that you should tackle the most unpleasant task of the day right away. Even if it is hard: after such a sense of achievement, everything else will come more easily to you.

The first attempt does not have to be perfect. Allow yourself to start badly and to improve step by step.

An unexpected call or even just a glance at your phone is enough – and your concentration is gone. Sources of distraction in the work environment are fatal, because they serve up substitute activities on a silver platter and take you away from your focus. And once you are procrastinating, you rarely find your way back to the task. You can prevent this with digital detox : withdraw to a quiet place, for example, and switch off your smartphone or at least turn on airplane mode.

Failures, setbacks, negative consequences: sometimes procrastination is already so pronounced that everything seems to go wrong. In that case a gratitude journal can serve you well. Because when you write down what you have achieved (even if it is only a substitute activity), you start to see successes again. This can strengthen your self-confidence and help to break negative thought patterns. Those who believe in themselves and are aware of their abilities can overcome procrastination more easily and devote themselves more effectively to the tasks ahead.

Tiresome and redundant administrative tasks in particular create inner resistance in many people. They can hardly motivate themselves, because constantly repeating work steps manually is mentally draining, boring and takes up an unnecessary amount of time. Fortunately, modern digital solutions offer the possibility of automating many recurring tasks. This way you can quickly get tasks done that used to be left lying around because of administrative procrastination and use the time for more meaningful activities.

Automate tasks to overcome administrative procrastination

SeaTable is an AI no-code platform that makes it possible to structure large volumes of data, create apps and automate processes without any programming knowledge. Numerous features support you in organizing your work efficiently and overcoming procrastination. The various visualization options are particularly helpful:

  • With single select columns you can easily set priorities and sort tasks by importance and urgency.
  • Thanks to the calendar and timeline views , you always keep an eye on deadlines and can adjust priorities according to urgency.
  • In the tree view you can break large projects down into subtasks and present them in a structured way across several levels.
  • The Kanban view groups tasks by processing status and makes progress clearly visible.
  • With checkbox columns you can tick off completed tasks and mark successes directly.

You can also set up automations and AI features to make manual intervention in repetitive activities superfluous and to build efficient workflows. On top of that, SeaTable offers plenty of templates to get you started right away:

Prioritize your tasks with a structured to-do list.

Use template

With a work breakdown structure you divide projects into subtasks and keep track of everything.

Use template

With a habit tracker you follow your goals and see how many days you stay on track.

Use template

Use a study plan to cope with a large workload and manage your learning process.

Use template

You will rarely overcome procrastination by taking on a lot and wanting to complete a task perfectly. This puts you under unnecessary pressure and fuels fears of failure and self-reproach. It is more effective to prioritize your tasks, break them down into smaller subtasks and work on them in fixed time blocks, in order to lower the barrier to getting started and establish routines . Also try to deliberately eliminate sources of distraction in order to avoid substitute activities. The best way to motivate yourself is to start small, make your progress visible and keep your goals in mind. Digital tools can help you with this too.

What is the main reason for procrastination?

There is no single main reason. Frequently, organizational problems such as unclear goals, a lack of structure and wrong priorities meet psychological factors such as feeling overwhelmed, fear of failure or perfectionism.

When does procrastination require treatment?

Everyone knows what it is like to put things off occasionally in everyday life. A significant threshold is crossed when your behavior permanently leads to considerable suffering or impairment – for example through severe psychological strain or problems at university, at work and in your private life. If you feel that you can no longer overcome procrastination on your own, you should seek professional help.

How does dividing things into subtasks help against procrastination?

Small, concrete steps seem less overwhelming than large, abstract goals that are a long way off. This lowers the barrier to getting started and progress can be achieved more quickly. It is not perfect planning that gets you into action, but the first feasible task.

How do templates help you overcome procrastination?

Templates reduce uncertainty at the beginning by offering an exemplary solution for a difficult task. Instead of having to reinvent the wheel yourself, you can fall back on an existing structure and start with the actual task more quickly.

Can you overcome procrastination permanently?

Yes, you can get delaying behavior under control permanently. Procrastination cannot be overcome overnight, but there are many methods with which you can improve your time and self-management. By creating clear structures, small successes and a distraction-free working environment, you increase your motivation and reduce your susceptibility to procrastination in the long term.

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