13: Procrastination
In this episode, we’re diving into procrastination and work avoidance—those moments where you know exactly what you should be doing, but you find yourself doing literally anything else. Maybe you’re deep-cleaning your kitchen, maybe you’re lost in the seventh layer of TikTok, or maybe you're just... frozen. We’ve all been there. And we want to talk about it with some honesty, some science, and a lot of grace.
We aren’t just talking about productivity. It’s not about pushing harder or grinding more. Procrastination has roots—emotional, neurological, sometimes even physical. And avoiding work doesn't mean you're lazy or unmotivated. Most of the time, it means there's something deeper going on. Today we’re going to unpack that with research, real stories, and practical strategies.
We start by setting the foundation. Procrastination isn’t about being lazy. According to the American Psychological Association, it’s the voluntary delay of an intended action, even though you expect that delay to make your situation worse. That’s the wild part—we know it’ll hurt us, and we do it anyway. Why?
Because procrastination is about managing emotions, not time.
A 2013 study by Sirois and Pychyl showed that procrastination is really about avoiding negative feelings. Maybe you feel overwhelmed, maybe you're afraid you’ll mess it up, or maybe you don’t even know why the task makes you anxious—it just does.
When we procrastinate, we’re choosing short-term mood repair over long-term goals. It's like saying, I know this thing needs to get done, but right now, my brain just needs relief. So we scroll, snack, or rewatch that comfort show we've seen eight times. It makes sense neurologically—your brain is trying to soothe itself.
If you've ever felt frustrated with yourself because you can’t just "power through," you’re not alone. The limbic system—our emotional brain—wants instant gratification. It’s wired to avoid discomfort. And guess what’s uncomfortable? Starting hard things, doing uncertain things, or finishing something that might be judged. So your brain says, “Let’s just not do that right now.” The prefrontal cortex—the part that handles planning and decision-making—has to step in to override that impulse. And sometimes? It just doesn’t.
It also helps to know that procrastination isn’t just a “young person” thing, but it can show up differently depending on your age and life stage. For example, in your 20s, your brain is still developing the part that manages long-term goals and discipline. In your 30s or 40s, it might be more about burnout or perfectionism, or people-pleasing. It evolves. So if your procrastination has changed over time, that makes sense. Perimenopause. It means you’re human.
Let’s talk about work avoidance. It’s that weird thing where you really do care about something—you want to make progress—but instead, you find yourself avoiding it. And sometimes, the more you care, the more you avoid. That’s where fear creeps in. Fear of failure, fear of being judged, even fear of success. If I actually finish this project, then what? What if it’s not good enough? What if people see it and think I’m a fraud?
Dr. Ellen Hendriksen, a clinical psychologist, explains that procrastination can stem from fear of not measuring up. It’s like your brain says, if I don’t try, I can’t fail. So instead of doing the thing, we wait until the pressure is high enough that we have to do it—and then if it’s not perfect, we can blame the timeline instead of ourselves.
This isn’t just about big life goals. It can show up in really small, everyday ways too. Avoiding emails. Putting off paying a bill. Not responding to a text. These aren’t always rational decisions—they’re emotional ones. Your body is trying to protect you from discomfort. And sometimes, work avoidance is actually a cue that you’re over-capacity. That you need a break. That your inner system is like, “Hey, we need to rest before we move forward.”
Okay—this part is always eye-opening. There’s a framework that identifies five main types of procrastinators, and knowing your type can help you get unstuck.
The Perfectionist. This person sets super high standards and avoids starting because they’re afraid the result won’t meet their ideal. The antidote here is learning to start messy. A helpful trick is the 70% rule—if it's 70% good, it's more than good enough to move forward. Remember: you can’t edit a blank page.
The Dreamer. Big ideas, lots of vision, but gets overwhelmed when it’s time to take action. The trick here is chunking. Break down that beautiful dream into tiny steps. Ask, what can I do in the next 5 minutes?
The Worrier. This person avoids because of fear—fear of not being good enough, fear of rejection, fear of the unknown. Reframing helps here. Instead of asking, “What if I fail?” ask, “What’s the best possible outcome?” Or, “What would I do if I knew I couldn’t mess this up?”
The Crisis-Maker. You know who you are—you swear you work best under pressure, and you probably do... but at what cost? The stress, the anxiety, the all-nighters. Try giving yourself a mini-deadline and add a reward for finishing early. Make it fun.
The Busy Bee. This is the person who’s always doing something—but not the thing that actually matters. It feels productive, but it’s just another form of avoidance. A good strategy here is prioritizing using the Eisenhower Matrix or the 1-3-5 rule—one big task, three medium ones, and five small ones each day.
procrastination isn’t laziness—it’s a combination of overcommitting, perfectionism, and waiting for the perfect time to tackle something big. Most of the things I procrastinate aren’t simple tasks—they’re full-on projects. And because I rarely have a huge block of uninterrupted time, I keep pushing them off, thinking, “I’ll get to it when I can really focus and knock it out all at once.”
But that perfect window? It rarely appears. So the project just lingers. And when I do try to squeeze it into smaller chunks of time, it feels inefficient. Like I’m starting and stopping so much that I lose momentum or clarity, and it ends up taking way longer than if I had just tackled it in one go. So I avoid it altogether.
If that’s you too—if you’re putting things off because they feel too big to start and too frustrating to do in pieces—here are a few things that actually help:
1. Break the project into "realistic chunks," not vague steps.
Instead of writing “launch new website,” try: “Write homepage headline” or “Find 3 site designs I like.” When the task is too big or too vague, it feels impossible to begin.
2. Time-block the tiniest possible win.
Literally schedule 15–20 minutes to do just one piece. Not to finish—just to start. Once you’re in it, you might keep going. But even if you don’t, you made real progress.
3. Ditch the fantasy of the ‘perfect’ work window.
Waiting for perfect conditions (quiet house, no other deadlines, 4 hours free) is a trap. Life doesn’t pause. Progress in imperfect conditions is better than no progress at all.
4. Create an ‘open loop’ system.
Leave yourself a clear marker for where to pick up next time—like a post-it or sentence in your notes that says: “Next step: write intro paragraph.” It saves time and makes re-entry easier.
5. Celebrate the start, not the finish.
If you only ever feel accomplished when something’s done, you’ll dread every start. Celebrate the fact that you began—because starting is the hardest part.
A large part of procrastination is hereditary - 46% of procrastination is due to genetic influences. That’s not to say, oh, there’s nothing I can do about it, it’s genetics, while it is, it’s only part of it. The majority is personality traits, lack of information, environmental factors, and everything else we talk about it in this episode. It’s just SO interesting that part if it is purely genetics at work. Makes you think about nature vs. nurture. I wonder if someone who was born with the non-procrastinator gene but was adopted by procrastinators would fair. Or vise versa.
What actually helps? First, the Pomodoro Technique. This is a lifesaver when you just can’t get started. You set a timer for 25 minutes, focus on one task, then take a 5-minute break. It tricks your brain into thinking, “I only have to do this for a little while,” and usually, that’s enough to get momentum going.
Also, body doubling is amazing. That’s when you do a task with someone else nearby, either in person or virtually. It creates a low-key sense of accountability, and you feel less alone in the work.
Task bracketing—sandwiching a hard or boring task between two things I enjoy. So if I need to pay bills, I’ll do it between a morning coffee and a walk. It feels way more doable.
There’s also the idea of “rebranding the task.” Instead of saying, “Ugh, I have to clean the kitchen,” I say, “I’m going to reset my space.” It’s the same task, but the energy is different. Language matters.
And let’s not forget about energy cycles. Pay attention to when you’re naturally focused—morning, afternoon, evening—and schedule your hardest stuff then.
Work with your rhythms, not against them.
If you’re stuck right now, if your to-do list is full but your motivation is nowhere to be found—you’re not broken. You’re probably tired. Or overwhelmed. Or scared. And all of that is okay. Be gentle with yourself.
You don’t need to hustle your way out of avoidance. You need clarity, support, and kindness. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is rest. Sometimes you need to start small. You can restart your day anytime. You’re allowed to change your mind, to take breaks, and to come back when you’re ready.
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