To Stop Procrastinating, Interrupt Your Avoidant Thoughts
Changing your procrastination patterns won’t happen overnight, and most of the work is in noticing the thoughts that lead to procrastination, even if those thoughts seem benign.
If there is a task, project, or priority hanging over your head right now, why you think you haven’t tackled it yet? What emotions do you feel when you think about this task?
The fact is, procrastination stems from avoidant thoughts. And those avoidant thoughts are often rooted in powerful and complicated emotions: uncertainty, fear of failure, overwhelm, guilt, fear of rejection, boredom/lack of motivation toward a goal that is not your own, performance anxiety, shame, and panic, to name a few common ones.
“The tricky, nefarious thing about procrastination is that it doesn’t happen in one big chunk,” said Laura E. Knouse, Ph.D., during her ADDitude webinar, “Stuck in Procrastination Mode? Turn Intention into Action with ADHD.” “Procrastination really accumulates over zillions of little, tiny avoidance moments.”
The first step to overcoming procrastination is recognizing when you are faced with an avoidant moment. Red flag may include thoughts like, “I’ll be able to focus better on this later” or “I’ll just clear some easy things off my plate first.” But it’s not always easy to catch yourself in an avoidance moment, and it’s even harder to interrupt or challenge one once it’s begun.
In her webinar, Knouse explained how to slowly, surely, and compassionately coach yourself through those pre-procrastination moments in order to close the gap between intention and action.
1. Question Whether Your Thoughts Are Serving Your Best Interests
Procrastination is often associated with negative automatic thoughts — like feeling shame or embarrassment over falling short on your gym goals, then escaping into your phone to calm those thoughts, which further delays or prevents exercise time.
But not all procrastination involves negative thoughts. Avoidance can be driven by deceptively positive thoughts like, “Oh, this will be easy; I don’t need to start now,” or “I can watch just one more episode and then do those dishes. I worked hard today and I deserve it.”
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2. Expect That You Will Experience Avoidant Thoughts
Knouse’s research shows that people with ADHD are more likely than their neurotypical peers to experience avoidant automatic thoughts (AATs) that drive procrastination. Common avoidant thoughts include “I do better waiting until the last minute” and “Being impulsive is a big part of who I am.”
College students with ADHD, for example, experience AATs 62% of the time, while college students without ADHD experience them 35% of the time. This matters because a higher number of AATs is associated with greater challenges with inattentiveness, distractibility, and task avoidance.
3. Begin by Noticing Your Thoughts
Changing your procrastination patterns won’t happen overnight, and most of the work is in noticing the thoughts that lead to procrastination, even if those thoughts seem benign.
The next step is to identify ways to engage in the task despite an avoidance thought. You can decide ahead of time, for example, to set a timer for 20 minutes (or any chunk of time that you can manage) to work on the task. Or you may cue up a pump-up playlist like this one recommended by webinar attendees.
Coaching yourself through the task is also important. Think to yourself (or, better yet, say out loud): “You only have to do this for ___ minutes.” Be supportive and realistic with yourself about what you can do.
For more strategies to overcome procrastination and dismantle avoidance patterns, watch the full webinar replay at additu.de/030526
How to Stop Procrastinating: More Resources
- Read: What Stops Me From Starting?
- Read: How to Not Procrastinate When Task Avoidance Strikes
- Read: The Everyday Rationales That Let Procrastination In
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