Revealing the Hidden Motivations Behind Procrastination

Hey there everybody, and welcome to this video on the hidden reasons you procrastinate. And guess what? It's not always fear of failure. I'm your host, Dr. Donnelly Snipes. Procrastination is something we all do sometimes. But why do we do it? The reasons we procrastinate can be physical. We may be tired. They can be interpersonal. Fear of failure or rejection. They may be emotional, we're just, we're not motivated. Or cognitive. We don't have the skills. Procrastination can be environmental because there's too much stuff going on around us, or even spiritual. So let's take a look at these a little bit more in depth. Lack of proper rest and disturbed circadian rhythms can cause fatigue. Lack of concentration, which both contribute to procrastination. If you're tired, it's going to be harder to get motivated. That's just a fact. Hyper vigilance, which is often associated with trauma, can lead to a state of constant worry and make it difficult to focus on other things like the task at hand. So you may be distracted from focusing on what you're doing. These are both physical or physiological reasons why people may procrastinate. If you're just too overwhelmed or exhausted, interpersonal reasons you may procrastinate. As I mentioned, the fear of rejection or criticism from others might lead to avoidance of tasks, particularly those that involve collaboration or judgment by peers. When you're getting ready to work on a group project, for example, you may procrastinate. Or if you are needing to study for an exam that you're going to have to take and if you fail it, what does that say about you? So fear of rejection, failure, criticism, those are all important. But when we talk about interpersonal, you're thinking about that person's reaction. What is that teacher going to think about you if you fail the exam? What are your peers going to think about you? What when you give them this project or product? Low self esteem and lack of confidence in one's abilities can also create hesitation and delays in starting or completing tasks. If you don't have the belief that you can do this, then you may kind of resist doing it because you're afraid of rejection. If you don't believe that you're a good person and you're lovable, even if you screw up, even if whatever this is that you're procrastinating on, even if you screw it up, all right, it means you screwed it up. It doesn't mean you are a bad person. So procrastination can deal with a fear of your own self, criticism of that inner critic that's in there going, see, I told you you'd never measure up. Foreign that you procrastinate can include depression or anxiety about other things. If you need to do a task, but you're worried about this here and this here and this here, that task is not really motivating. You're having difficulty focusing on that because your anxiety is more potent, more powerful. Your anxiety is saying, hey, there are these threats or possible threats of over here. Why are you focusing on that that we know is not a threat? If you want to stay safe and survive, you need to address the threats. It's important that we recognize that emotions and feelings are not facts. But it's also important to address those feelings of anxiety or anger or whatever it is that's distracting you so you can free up your neural resources, if you will, to focus on the task at hand. If you have anxiety about the task at hand or its potential outcomes, you may procrastinate. If you're like, oh, I don't know if I can do this or I remember when I was working on my dissertation, it just wow. I was anxious about doing it. I was anxious about whether I would actually passed my oral boards. I was anxious about a lot of things. So it was hard for me to get motivated and get started to work on such a big project that had so much hanging on it and grief about losses that will occur when you accomplish the task. This is one we don't talk about a lot. But when you turn in a project, if you're working on a group project and you turn it in, you may not be interfacing with those colleagues weeks as much anymore. And that may be sad. You may grieve the loss of that activity because you really enjoyed working on that grant or that thing and you're not really looking forward to going back to the run of the mill stuff you got to do at work or at school. You may procrastinate doing things because you really enjoy being in a learning environment and you're experiencing what we call anticipatory grief about losing that, about moving on, about having to graduate and then find an entire new cohort to belong to. Learn more@docsnipes.com we now offer self guided trainings as well as concierge coaching and recovery support. Or you can donate any amount@docsnipes.com donate or on cash app oc snipes to help us keep providing these videos to you for free. A Lack of connection to the task can also reduce motivation. If you just cognitively, you're not interested in it, it's just, oh, gosh, then you're probably going to procrastinate. We are motivated to do things that trigger dopamine. Dopamine is the chemical that says, I want to do that and I want to do that again. And if you're not, if you don't have a connection to it, if you don't see the point in it, then you may not have the motivation to get started. So one hack you can do is try to figure out, how does it make sense to get started with this? And sometimes the only answer is, it makes sense to get started with this. So I get it off my plate and I don't have to think about it anymore. Brain fog can cause you to procrastinate. Whether it's brain fog due to a hangover or brain fog due to not getting good quality sleep or maybe having a new baby in the house or whatever it is. When you have brain fog, it's hard to think clearly. Your memory is kind of crap when you're trying to think of something instead of being right there on the tip of your tongue. It takes a minute and you feel like you're thinking a lot slower and you have difficulty coming up with the brilliant answers you normally would. Cognitive distortions, thinking in terms of all or none. I either get an A on this project or I fail the project. That can really cause you to procrastinate because there's a lot of pressure on you to, to. To pass or to complete the project effectively. It's or being in a relationship, you know, having a discussion with somebody about things that need to change in your relationship, you may put it off. Well, number one, you may put it off because it's probably going to be uncomfortable. And that's not. You're uncomfortable the way things are right now, but that's going to be more uncomfortable. So you may be putting it off for that reason, but you also may be thinking in all or none terms. They're either going to agree with me or they're not, and there's no middle ground and we're going to break up. So that can be anxiety provoking. Catastrophizing is another thing that makes us put things off. If we think that, hey, if this happens, then the sky is going to fall. If I fall, fail this test, then I'm going to fail out of school. Well, if that's true, then you definitely need to be worried. But for Most people, that is an exaggeration. If I fail this test, I may not get an A this semester in this class. Is that going to prevent me from graduating and getting a job? No. The availability heuristic. Focusing on things that are most salient in your mind, most emotionally salient, and generally those are the bad things. So you may remember tests that you failed, relationships that went bad, speeches that you gave where you didn't do very well, and start thinking about all of those times that it didn't work out the way you wanted. And that may cause you to procrastinate. But it's important to remember that those were distressful situations. And your brain remembers distressful situations a lot more readily then it remembers the times things went really well because you need to be worried about the vipers and not the bunny rabbits. So it's important to step back and look at the totality. When I look at all of the relationships I've had, how many times has it worked out badly? When I've had a discussion versus how many times did it work out okay? When I've taken a test or applied for a job, how many times did I fail versus how many times did I succeed? And personalization. We may put things off because we take it too personally. We assume that if we don't do this right, it means that we are stupid. It means we are a failure. And no, it means you're not good at that one thing or you didn't do that thing well has nothing to do with who you are as a person. So we need to make sure to unhook from it and recognize that we are people. We are not behaviors. We are people who do behaviors. Some of those behaviors may be great and some of them may be regrettable, but we are people. Pessimism is another cognitive reason you may procrastinate. It's like, well, if I turn this in, I'm just going to get piled on with six other projects, so why should I get started? Or if I turn this in, nobody's going to actually ever do anything with it, so what's the point? Address the thoughts. Identify the thoughts that are keeping you from getting started. If you're having obsessive thoughts or ruminations about other things, like what your significant other is doing or, or the vacation that you're going to be taking next week or whatever it is that can cause you to procrastinate, if you are doing that, it's important to explore the function of those behaviors. One is anxiety based, the other one is enjoyment based okay. If you want to go with it. That way you can address the anxiety based things with what is your significant other doing right now? You can text them, you can deal with that thought in some way. So you can put it aside, or you can write it on a piece of paper and put it aside and say, when I get this finished, I will call them or do whatever in terms of the vacation, reminding yourself, well, if I get this done now, then I won't have to think about it when I'm on vacation or I need to get this done so I can go on my vacation using that carrot, if you will, that's out there to motivate you to get it done now and to get started. You also may procrastinate because of skill deficits. You may be getting ready to do something and you're like, I have no idea where to begin. I have no idea how to do this. And yeah, you're going to procrastinate. If you don't feel like you have somebody that you can turn to who can mentor you or provide you guidance, if you have skill deficits, you don't know where to start, then it's important to step back and go, okay, who can I ask? Where can I get assistance in figuring out exactly what to do? And poor goal setting skills is the final cognitive reason. Some people may get overwhelmed with a task they've got to do because it's so incredibly monstrous. I'm working on one of those things right now, creating or recreating the 360 hour addiction counselor certification curriculum. And that's a huge task and I've been procrastinating on it. I'll, I'll give you that. So it's important to recognize that and break it down. Goal setting means being able to set larger goals, but, but also being able to set sub goals, small goals, so you don't feel overwhelmed and you can feel like you're making progress toward that ultimate goal. Environmental reasons you procrastinate may include too many distractions, making it hard to procrastinate. Whether it's cats or dogs or television or your roommate coming in and out, or whatever it is. It's really hard to get started and stay focused on something when you're constantly being interrupted. Similarly, but not exactly the same, is too many temptations. And I struggled with this when I first started working from home. All of those temptations to go down and get some more coffee or to watch TV or to do laundry or dust the baseboards, or just about anything other than what I was probably supposed to be doing. And it's important to exercise or learn how to exercise some self discipline and use those temptations, if you will, as rewards for when you finish one of your sub goals. When I. Once I finish this little part of this task, then I can do whatever this is and I guess make it a game if you will. But rewards are important and spiritually, and I know this is a kind of an odd one to throw in there, but spiritually has to do with your sense of connection. And if what you're getting ready to do doesn't connect to your values, then it's really hard to get motivated to do it. If you are getting ready to do something that you don't feel is right, that you know is just disconnected from what's important to you, then you're not going to get motivated. And if there's a lack of a clear purpose for what you're doing. All right, you're having me do this. Is it just busy work or is there a purpose for it and you. We need to understand the why. When I worked in residential, I used to tell my staff, when clients ask us why we're asking them to do something, whether it's write an autobiography or do chores, when they ask us why they need to do it, we need to have an answer for them. We need to have a purpose for everything we ask them to do in order to help them understand the meaning and also understand that we are respectful of them and trying to encourage them to do things that are helping them move toward their goals for a rich and meaningful life. Like most other behaviors, procrastination is a form of communication and serves a purpose. You just gotta identify the reasons you procrastinate. Why am I doing this? What am I communicating to myself by procrastinating? And then start taking steps to address the problem.