Procrastination: Frame tasks as a project

Chances are, we’ve all been caught up in procrastination cycles at some point. The pattern can be a familiar one: we avoid tasks due to difficult and negative emotions like insecurity, fear, anxiety. The drivers behind these emotions can be complex, and are very much unique to the individual, but can include the fear of failing, negative associations with the task (e.g. past criticism or judgements), anxiety about the unknown and countless others.

Add this to the fact that there are so many distractions available like social media, games, news and other forms of entertainment and escape that offer that immediate, difficult-to-resist hit of dopamine, and the chance to ‘reward’ avoidance behaviour (and reinforce the habit of doing so) is entered into again and again.

There are numerous methods to try and counteract this routine, which are often talked about, such as journaling, meditation, breaking tasks down into smaller steps to bring a sense of achievement, increased confidence and improved motivation, but could the way we position the task in our minds also help?

One of the problems with procrastination is how the brain constantly seeks out and categorises threats. Often, it’s simply performing as a ‘personal security guard’ far too well and overzealously, meaning the amygdala grades the negative associations with tasks as something to avoid at all costs due to being a survival threat.

We could try to override this – we could tell ourselves to push on through, or to prioritise important tasks, or to focus on the fact that we will feel better when it is done. But those approaches are all still based around the task being a negative experience, and, given half a chance, the brain will bargain its way out of doing it. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’, ‘I’ll wait till I’m more confident’, ‘I’ll wait till I’ve lost a bit of weight and then start going to the gym’. Or, most likely, ‘I’ll just see what’s on social media, then do the task when I feel a bit better instead’.

If only we could stop the amygdala from running the show, with its fear-led outlook. And we need to remember that it’s not doing anything wrong, it’s just trying to protect us, just as it’s programmed to do.

If we can engage the pre-frontal cortex instead, with its more rational functions such as emotional processing, insight, fear modulation and body regulation, we can usually discover a higher semblance of control, opposed to the impulsive reactions of the limbic system.

So, given the speed and immediacy with which the latter works, and the snap judgements it makes, is there a way of framing a task – especially in that initial fraction of a second – that could move it into a more pre-frontal cortex rational, less fear-based way of thinking?

Well, let’s investigate. Consider the word ‘project’. How does that make you feel? It has connotations with creativity, of gradual progress. It has a beginning and an end – a project is not something that goes on forever. It implies a sense of vision, of future achievement, but does not sound overly ambitious. A project is something that offers a promise of control. A project is something you can dip in and out of. A project is something positive, progressive, and practical. A project is something that has a sense of curiosity, experimentation and learning at its core.

On the other hand, framing a task as a nightmare, an uphill battle, a bore, a chore, a hardship, something to push through – even if the task is highly beneficial to our well-being – will ensure that the ‘personal bodyguard brain’ will be all over it, shooing us away to the comfort of social media and other distraction mechanisms.

A potentially useful tool for breaking procrastination cycles? Try it as a project today.