What type of procrastinator are you?

Most of us are familiar with the battle against our inner bastard. Some put off doing their tax return until the last minute, others resolve to finally do some sport, only to postpone their decision again and again. And still others avoid unpleasant conversations. Our children finish their homework at the last minute or wait until it is (almost) too late to prepare for their exams.

But why do we procrastinate? After all, it causes a lot of stress, a guilty conscience and sometimes even tangible negative consequences.

There is a simple but very powerful mechanism behind procrastination. A task triggers unpleasant feelings: Pressure, insecurity, boredom, anger, shame. As soon as we put it off, we can escape these feelings for a moment and feel relieved. The more often we do this, the more we train the corresponding patterns in our brain. Over time, we have internalised the following: if you want to reduce your stress, put it off!

In order for procrastinators to help themselves, they need to understand why they are avoiding precisely this task.

Rationally, we know that this harms us in the long term. The problem is that our brain prioritises short-term consequences much more strongly. This is even more pronounced in children and adolescents. Only over time do the areas of the brain mature that allow us to postpone rewards, take the future more into account and assess long-term consequences.

But even then, very few adults manage to do something they don't like for a long time. Anyone who goes jogging regularly, invests money instead of spending it, eats healthily or is very organised will most likely have learned to enjoy doing these things at some point.

When procrastination becomes a problem

It can be a burden for all of us if we haven't managed to get everything done in the evening or some items on the to-do list just won't go away. This is normal and a sign that we are forced to prioritise due to our limited time. Problematic procrastination starts when you don't just put off any tasks, but the most important ones - and suffer massively over time.

Those affected do not manage to start preparing for exams or their final thesis on time and are therefore unable to complete their training. They lose their job or contracts because they don't finish on time. They put a strain on their relationships because you can never rely on their word.

Over time, the impression of not being able to get anything done and not being able to fulfil the requirements gnaws away at self-esteem. At workshops at the University of Freiburg, Stefanie Rietzler and I often observed how students with chronic procrastination problems withdrew from their relationships.

They stopped going to lectures, did not respond to emails from their supervisors who were waiting for their work and hardly visited their families to avoid unpleasant questions. They had promised so often that they would do better that they could hardly face others. This spiral often leads to depression, anxiety disorders and addictions.

What doesn't help: pressure and planning

Chronic procrastination is often met with a massive lack of understanding from those affected. «You just need to plan better!», «I don't know what the problem is. Of course you don't feel like doing everything, but then you just sit down and do it», «Now you divide it up into small portions and write it down in your diary» or «He just has to fall on his face, then he'll learn» are typical statements from parents, teachers and sometimes even therapists.

The more impulsive a person is, the more likely they are to procrastinate.

However, procrastinators don't usually have a pure planning problem: they usually know how to write a task in their diary and have done it a thousand times before. But they still do something else in the planned time slots. Appeals from outside, pressure and disappointment from partners or parents usually don't provide more motivation, but instead make the task in question seem even bigger, more stressful and more paralysing and increase the urge to escape from it once again.

In order for procrastinators to help themselves, they need to understand why they are avoiding precisely this task. Only then can they stop judging themselves for it and look for solutions that suit them.

Although any form of procrastination is ultimately about avoiding unpleasant feelings, there are three main reasons for it:

1. lack of significance

«Why do I have to learn that? Nobody needs that!», «They can't ask me to do that!», «Just thinking about the fact that I'll have to continue working in this job ...». Sometimes we procrastinate because we simply don't find a task worth doing: We have to fulfil expectations and work through assignments that we see as a nonsensical waste of time. However, as long as the end goal is important to them, many procrastinators manage to overcome this with the help of suitable methods: «I hate this subject from the bottom of my heart, but I want to finish it and that's why I'm doing what's necessary!» It becomes more difficult when both the task and the long-term goal are only associated with reluctance. Time and again, for example, we have had young people in our workshops who, for the sake of their parents, had decided to study a subject that didn't interest them at all.

2. uncertainty

However, a lack of intrinsic motivation is not the only reason for procrastination. People who follow their dreams procrastinate particularly often, including famous composers, writers, painters and self-employed people of all kinds. They often avoid the task not because it is not important to them - but because they do not feel up to it. Procrastination is a way of avoiding insecurity, helplessness, anxiety and even panic. Typical thoughts are «I can't do it!», «I've never been able to write before!», «It's such a huge mountain!» or «I can't hand it in like this!».

3. impulsiveness

Last but not least, research shows that one personality trait contributes very strongly to procrastination: The more impulsive a person is, the less successful they are at putting up with short-term inconveniences in order to achieve a long-term goal. Impulsive people mainly want to escape boring tasks: «I don't feel like ...», «This is so annoying», «I'll do something else for a moment, maybe it will be better afterwards».

What's it like for you? In the next columns you can read what helps the different types of procrastinators.