The Real Reason Behind Procrastination Isn't What You Think
In this solo coaching video, certified high‑performance coach Sean Buttner reframes procrastination as a habitual stress response rather than a lack of motivation. He explains that stress—stemming from fears of embarrassment, financial ruin, rejection, or health concerns—drives self‑soothing distractions, which then reinforce a cycle of shame and further delay. Buttner illustrates the concept with three client scenarios: a man who avoids workouts due to fear of being unhealthy, a woman overwhelmed by too many ideas for a career change, and a perfectionist paralyzed by over‑analysis. He then presents five inter‑related strategies to break the cycle. The cornerstone is the "Minimum Viable Action" (MVA): the smallest, concrete step that can be scheduled and executed immediately, which often leads to more effort than anticipated. To amplify the MVA’s impact, he recommends a stress‑management checklist (adequate sleep, proper hydration, moderated caffeine, regular exercise), uncovering the specific fear behind the stress, using a "stress‑management trigger" to pivot to the MVA when procrastination cues appear, and finally, clearing open loops by delegating, eliminating, or consciously letting go of commitments that no longer serve you. Throughout, Buttner maintains an encouraging, conversational tone, urging viewers to apply these tactics, and offers a free one‑hour strategy session for personalized coaching.
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Procrastination is a habit and it's a habit that's caused by something normal and human. Procrastination is just a habituated response to stress. So if you've found yourself beating yourself up because you didn't get the work done because you're procrastinating, you're just self soothing with distraction, right? And it's because we feel overwhelmed with the grand scope of things that we're supposed to do. Or deep down, we're afraid of embarrassment, we're afraid of financial ruin, we're afraid that we won't be loved. There's so many different things that are causing stress or underlying procrastination that we need to address if we want to move forward. Because if we do not address the underlying stress, you always be at the whim of the stressors because you'll get into the slope of something stresses you out. Instead of doing what you're supposed to do, you procrastinate, which causes more feelings of shame, which causes you to procrastinate more and you get stuck or you feel like you're not motivated, then motivation a lot of times isn't the problem. It's this habit of I'm stressed. Let me self sue. So I'm Sean Butner, certified high performance coach and I help people every day deal with procrastination or with really figuring out how to and their motivation, how to advance their productivity. But let me tell you about a couple of different scenarios that I've had clients have that warned this idea that procrastination is a habit. Right. Why don't you work out? So I've had clients, one client in particular who was, hey Sean, I know that I'm supposed to get on the treadmill right when I get back from work and before I go make dinner for the family because that's his responsibility. And what I do is I come home, I plop down on the couch, turn on the TV and start eating chips. And he's like, I know what I need to do. So it's not. He's very clear on what he needed to do. I know that I can do it. I've done this before, earlier in my life. I'm just so wore out and so I just don't do what I'm supposed to do. And for him it was the stress of not being healthy. He's. I know I'm not healthy, but he's doing unhealthy things that's perpetuating that. So that's that feedback loop that I mentioned. Earlier. And we've all had this, right? It's not to blame anyone. Like I said, it's a very human thing to fall into this kind of stress procrastination. But the way out of it is to get started to. To do something. We'll talk about here in a little bit. But after working with him, we were able to get him super consistent with his workouts with very little change. It was just figuring out like, oh, what is preventing you from getting in the game for starting right? For him, it was being afraid of the process of working out. It's tiring. I'm just gonna be more tired and that stuff. So we worked through that second scenario is, why don't you do the work? And unlike the first client, this particular client had 50 million different ideas. I kid you not. Like, every time I said, I'm do these three new things and it's okay. Like, you have all these ideas, you can't get any traction on them. You came to me because, as a coach, because you wanted to make sure that you were progressing on one particular goal, which was to change her career so she could spend more time with her daughter. Very noble. And still taking care of the family along the way. And so it was just overwhelmed with the amount of possibilities. And so the work with her was narrowing down. What is the idea you want to chase for the next year? Okay, what do we need to do to come up with a plan to make that happen and schedule that next thing? So it was simplifying what was going on in her life so she could focus on. And I already had the steps planned out. So the next thing I do is this and not the 50 other ideas that I have that I generated in the meantime. I need to get this credential. I need to talk to these people about shifting jobs. I need to talk to these people about really supporting my cause. And so the way out of there, again, was to get clear on the next step so you weren't overwhelmed. And the third scenario from another client was just don't know how to start. This is classic perfectionism. This is classic overthinking, which I think are the same thing. And what I mean by that, it's, you don't start a task, you don't start a project. You don't start doing what you're supposed to do because you're overanalyzing, right? You're thinking about all the things that you could do again. So tapping into overwhelm, you are afraid of making mistakes. So it's this combination of being afraid of trying because you're going to get whacked somehow in your way, and then it's over. Analyzing and getting over overwhelming yourself with weirdest. So how do you get out of that? I'll talk to the that point here when I talk about the five different ways to overcome procrastination. But we'll talk about the number one thing everyone needs to do in order to do that. Of course, there are other explanations for procrastination. It could be a health thing. It could be like brain chemistry or hormones or. So this isn't a one solution fits all. But in my experience as a coach, these are generally the things that help people feel motivated and feel like they have their procrastination in check. And that's what I want for you all. Okay, so let's get into these five things. The first thing and the number one thing. If there's one thing you do to overcome procrastination today, tomorrow, in the next week, in the next year, it's to find your mv. And what's MVA is your minimum viable action. You need to figure out what that is, get it scheduled, and then show up for it. Right. That's a simple process. So what do I mean by minimum viable action? So this is a little bit of the behavioral economics, meaning that if you're trying to start a new exercise routine and you're finding a huge struggle to wake up early, get on the treadmill, get on the stationary bike and do your half hour workout. What you need to do is think of the simplest and silliest way to get. And I've helped clients and I've advised clients to do this. I've done it for myself. But it looks like, okay, I'm going to go to bed in my workout clothes and when I wake up, I'm going to walk over to the bike, get my water and sit on the bike for one minute. That's you might have a half hour workout you're supposed to do, but you will call it successful if you get on the dang bike right when you get up or right when you get up. Like for me it was put on the running shoes, go to the spot where you're gonna start running around the neighborhood, right? And you're supposed to do three miles. If you show up and decide not to, that's totally cool. It's park being okay with whatever little progress you can go. But what tends to happen is if you can show up and be ready, get ready to act. 80% of the time you'll start 80% of the time, you'll go longer than you thought. And now your psychology is operating from, I did more than I promised I was going to do today. So I'm actually doing pretty good. And you're just trying to build the habit of getting into it. And when I was running marathons, there's a point in my life where when I had to do my training, run it, there wasn't any internal chatter. It was like, I'm running at 3 o', clock, get three or two 55 comes, I'm in my workout clothes, I show up, I do the run and there was no thought whatsoever. And it's amazing, right? And so that's what this minimum viable action can do for you. And it's really powerful. Like I said, what is the smallest thing you could do to get started or to just show up and generally you'll follow through. Now, there's four other points that I have for you that can help make that one idea way more impactful. Right? So these are the supporting things. So first thing is, since this is a stress response, grasp is a stress response. We need to have a checklist for things that could stress you out. So, so very basically, physically or mentally, write down what is potentially stressing you out. Is it, did you get enough sleep? Are you getting at least seven hours of sleep a night? I know that this seems silly and a lot of times when I talk to people, they think that they can survive on four, but they're grumpy and stressed out and a mess and they just can't see it because they're so tired. And I think only 1% of the population in the world has the particular gene that lets you not sleep for super long. So chances are you don't have it. But all that to say get seven hours of sleep because when you feel more rested, you will resist less, you will feel less stress and then it'll trigger your procrastination less. Are you hydrating enough? So many people, especially in the us, don't drink enough water during the day. Maybe you drink coffee, which actually takes water out of your system, which can hydrate you. The high performance suggestion is 3 liters of water a day. Try to make sure to have three, at least three of these, up to six. And also depending on how active you are during the day. But if you don't have an idea where to start, give that a try. Of course, always talk to your health professionals before making any changes to your health. But a lot of times when people feel tired or stressed. It's just they're thirsty. It sounds weird, but it's amazing how big of a breakthrough it is when you figure out I'm just. Also, something to keep in mind is caffeine intake. Because caffeine will spike your cortisol, which is the stress hormone. It takes 48 hours for caffeine to get out of your system completely. So if you drink a cup of coffee right now, in two days, your body will be processing that out of your system, right? Exponentially. But why is that important? If you find yourself jittery or antsy or unable to focus, it could just be that you're drinking too much dang coffee. And having worked in Corporate America for 14 years of my career and coffee was a way of life. And I absolutely love coffee, don't get me wrong. But it's easy to overdo. And it's one of those things that if you're habituated to it, you're not realizing sometimes how much you're consuming. So that's something to just take note of. Switching to green tea with a lower caffeine rating or just hot tea, or making sure you have some rules for yourself, like no coffee after 1pm or I can only do the one cup in the morning. Stuff like that can really help. And of course, physiologically, the best way to manage stress is to exercise. I found that out when I was super stressed over student loans when I first started out. That's why I started running marathons. Like, I was so stressed out. I hated running. I hated running guys. And my idea to manage that stress was to sign up for the Chicago marathon and see if I could do it, because I had to do something other than go crazy and worrying about and procrastinating about handling my finances in my room. And it was a game changer, right? I didn't realize how impactful running out some of those emotions were. So there's that kind of component just burning off energy if you're hyperactive, but just calming down the nervous system too. To when it comes to came time to look at my budget and stuff, and it wasn't awesome. It didn't upset me. I'm just like, okay, I'm so tired from running, but okay, I can work with this. This is just a math problem, particularly so you don't have to sign up for a marathon. Could just be walking for half hour after lunch every day or maybe going on a morning walk or doing some jumping jacks or whatever gets you a little bit more active and in your body and can really help you manage your stress. Sort of skipping ahead on that. But exercise. Are you exercising is a component of how stressed you are. So that's why that is important. The third idea to help support you getting your minimum viable action is to figure out what the fear is behind the stress. Right. Is it commonly for people it's oh, I'm not doing well financially, I'm going to be financially ruined or there's going to be financial hardship or not going to have enough to pay the bills, that those types of things. That's a very real thing. So, and that's. This is more of an accounting from what I've seen than anything. So it's not planning or it's not to say that there's anything wrong here. This is, these are just the common things. I'm cheering you on. If this is you or if any of these things have resonated with you, this is. It's my job to point it out so you can make some better choices to help get out of procrastination, out of this stress reaction. So that's my intention here and I just wanted to let you know that I do understand and have had a lot of these myself. So financial ruin, especially the student loan stuff for me, embarrassment, that maybe you won't be loved, that maybe you'll be thought of as stupid or incompetent, that maybe people will laugh at you. There's a lot of reasons why people feel that. So the fear of public speaking or why public speaking stresses out people is another way to say it is you're afraid you're going to be ostracized or you're going to be made a fool or that people are going to not respect you after publicly speaking. So that's the stressor behind there. That's what the fear behind the stress is. Could be shame, could be you're worried about people figuring out the real you and that's heavy. If you've been putting on a front to seem strong, to seem together and you're a mess, you don't want to show that vulnerability that's causing stress. So you don't do the online video content because you're worried about being shamed for being you. And that could be a huge thing. Understanding the fear is one thing. The high performance mental shift you need to do to get out of it is to think about if you finish this task, what do you gain? And a lot of times the thing that you're procrastinating on, the habit of procrastination to to avoid doing what you need to do is the natural thing that will pull you out of that feeling of stress, that fear. So you're afraid that if you show your true self that people will laugh at you, but it's also preventing people from connecting with you, from seeing who you really are, from building that community around. Oh, we're all flawed humans. We're all just doing the best that we can. And so that is a powerful thing. If you're worried about financial ruin, but you're really not doing your work at work, right, because you're procrastinating because you're so stressed out about it, you're actually risking being fired instead of doing what you got to do to maybe get promoted and then move your way up and out through that financial stress. So it's really counterintuitive. But a lot of times doing the thing that you're putting off can help you overcome the fear. And it's again, this question that you should write down, if you haven't already, is, what do I gain from moving forward in this thing that I'm procrastinating? Okay, makes sense. Cool. And if we're going through this and you're like, man, this is really good and I wish I had somebody to talk to about this, I'm gonna let you know. Below this video, you can sign up for a free one hour strategy session and we can talk through the things that you're procrastinating about and brainstorm some ideas on how to help you move forward by going through this list and a couple other tools that I have as a certified high performance coach. If you are interested in that, hit the link below. There's a quick application for you to fill out. You fill that out. You can choose the free option. There's also a private option and gathering stories to start a YouTube channel series where we go over coaching. So if you want to keep it private, I totally understand that. But that's then a private coaching session. So you make that choice again for either the free or for the private coaching session. And we go from there. We on the hour call, I review your application. We go to the things that will particularly help you move forward. We'll build you a hydrogen performance plan with high performance habits that you can implement immediately to see results. And that's why I do this. I just want to help you move along, help you achieve your dreams, help you move forward. And if we like that call, then we talk about a coaching relationship. So there is that component of it too. If not, we leave the call with you having an amazing plan with some habits that you can follow right away to change and transform and level up your life. So it's a great deal all around. Just hit that link below. So just to recap, we've talked about the minimum viable action, the MVA that we should all find. And that's the number one thing to overcome procrastination is just buy that MVA and then get at it. To help support that, we have that stress checklist, sleep hydration, caffeine intake and exercise. We talk what do you fear on asking the question what do I gain by moving forward in this area? The fourth idea to help support the minimum viable action is I'm not calling it the stress management trigger, which when you feel like you're procrastinating or you feel stressed, your immediate habit should be to do your MVA and not whatever you do to procrastinate. Video games, Netflix, cat videos, socializing other people at work, or however that shows up for you. And that's super important. And part of that too could just be taking a break to calm down. So that could be you do a five minute meditation. It could be you go and sit in the sun for 10 minutes. It could be you do that triggers you to do some type of movement or exercise. But this, anytime you're feeling that procrastination, it should be how do I get to mva? What do I need to do to manage the stress? And there's a million different ways that we could brainstorm on how to reduce stress. But I listed get out in the sun, exercise and meditation as a couple of recommendations for this video. Just in general, the last thing to think about is you're struggling doing your MVA is that maybe you just have, excuse me, maybe you have too many open loops and it's time to let go of things, right? So asking yourself the question, what am I hanging out to? What do I need to let go? What can I delegate or eliminate or take off my plate? This is a super important one. My coach at one point pointed out that I had been holding onto this old business that I had started years ago where I was writing an ebook. The business failed and I committed, I'm going to finish this ebook. I'm really going to figure this out. It took me three years and I spent so much time on it, I was worried about it. I was like always thinking about was stressing me out because it was this thing that was hanging over my head and talking with my coach. She's like, why are you hanging onto this or just that blun. Because that's. I made a promise to myself. And she's like, what? How is that serving you right now? Other than you should always keep promises to yourself? But you left that business years ago. Why are you holding onto this? And I'm like, I don't know. Then the next magic question was, what do you need to let this go? And that was so profoundly impactful. And like, you know what? I'm going to get it to this state. I'm going to finish it this way, finish draft 12 or 13 or whatever, put it out on my website, and that'll be that, right? Whatever happens, happens. But I can close it down and I'm going to set a date for this to close down. And it was immensely freeing it that. That pressure of, oh, no matter what happens by this date, I'm going to let this thing go because it's not part of my core business. It's not part of who I am. I will have technically fulfilled the promise to complete this thing. And that got me back in the game. I was more motivated, more, okay, let's get this thing done. And so I worked on it for another month, released it, and that was that. And that's what I mean by closing loops or clearing house, right? So it could be those things that were important to you that aren't important to you anymore, that it's time to let go. It could be that kitchen project that you've been trying to do by yourself for the last three years. You finally hire someone, a contractor, to finish the work so that you have that out of your mind and can live free again. It's such. It could be a really fun activity to fit. To write down all of the open loops that you have and then figure out, like, are these still important to me? So, yes, your question to each of those items on that list. And then you're like, do I have to do all these. And you have that tally for everything in the list, and then for everything that you don't have to do yourself. Assign it to someone. If it's not important to you, ask yourself, can I let this go? Can I? I get rid of this? And I. Sometimes that level of stress is just. There's so much stuff in our mind, and this one exercise frees up so much. And then you can do your MVA for the things that really are important to you. Again, this video is all about procrastination being a habit that is a habitual response to stress. So don't stress it. Do your MVA if you are procrastinating I know it will help you. If you need some extra encouragement again hit the link below for that free strategy session or ask a question in the comments below and I'd love to address those for you. So with that my friends go out there. Don't continue to habitually procrastinate. Switch it. Get in the game. I'm cheering you on. Like I know that I don't want it to sound flippant because I know there's work here and I know that you can do it and I know that you make that decision that you're going to move forward. You find that very simple task that you can show up and do every day so you don't feel like every day you're procrastinating you beat up on yourself here I showed up. I I at least did this. That can change the whole game for you. Give that a try. Hit me in the comments. Hit the link if you want a free strategy session and we'll see you guys next week. Sam.
