While most of us will fall into the procrastination trap occasionally, for some, chronic procrastination can become a regular occurrence and result in a debilitating pattern that interrupts our success in work, school, finances, relationships, and health (both mental and physical).
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What is Chronic Procrastination?
Procrastination is the behaviour of continuously avoiding a task, or deliberately looking for other distractions to delay having to engage in tasks considered difficult or boring. In some instances, this can become a chronic behaviour and create a real hindrance to any form of progress or success. For these individuals it becomes crucial to develop skills and strategies to overcome chronic procrastination.
Procrastination happens due to faulty assumptions, beliefs and rules around what we can expect of ourselves and the world. If we underestimate our ability to complete a task or reach a goal, or overestimate the discomfort associated with a task, we are much more likely to procrastinate, rather than complete it.
The procrastination cycle helps give us a clear view behind the reasons and function of chronic procrastination. With some key tools and strategies, we can interrupt the procrastination cycle, and instead move into a “doing” cycle.
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What does chronic procrastination look like?
There are some common signs and symptoms seen among people who frequently engage in chronic procrastination and can often be linked to other mental health disorders, such as ADHD. A few of these include:
- Consistently missing deadlines.
- Getting easily distracted.
- Filling your time with minor or less important tasks.
- Inability to start a task, or consistently putting it off (even when failing to complete the task comes with consequences to yourself or others).
- A constant feeling of stress which may affect your sleep and health.
Why do we procrastinate?
There is no one type of person, or one reason for why someone falls into a pattern of chronic procrastination. There are however some patterns commonly seen in people who procrastinate regularly. For example, having a diagnosis of ADHD or an anxiety disorder can result in an increased risk of procrastinating. Other reasons can include, perfectionism, lacking routine and structure, low self-esteem and belief in one’s own ability, or a recurring inability to motivate oneself to complete unpleasant tasks.
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CBT for Chronic Procrastination
There are several tools and strategies that can be helpful for overcoming the challenges of chronic procrastination. One therapy that has proven particularly helpful for this is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). CBT is a form of talk therapy that focuses on the interaction between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, while building skills to overcome negative or unhelpful thought patterns. CBT is often used in the therapy environment, together with a licenced psychologist or counsellor, however there are many types of CBT based strategies that can be utilised outside of the therapy room.
So how can CBT help? Below you will find outlined some of the most effective ways we can utilise CBT based strategies to overcome chronic procrastination.
Setting SMART goals:
Often when we start a task, we might not have a clear “why” for the reason we want to or need to work on the task. By creating goals that follow the SMART model (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound) we can make sure that the task or goal is not too big and therefore too overwhelming, or too small and not engaging or interesting enough.
Breaking goals down:
Once we have set a SMART goal, we can benefit from breaking the tasks required to achieve the goal down into chunks. Learning to break goals down into smaller tasks is a great way to manage overwhelm and stress and to minimise the likelihood of chronic procrastination.
Creating a focus plan:
Much like breaking a goal down into steps, we may choose to create a plan for how we can optimise our focus and attention. This strategy follows the same pattern as the goal breakdown; however, we take it a step further and consider how to minimise distractions, while also creating a schedule for when the optimal time is to work on each “chunk” of the task.
Creating an optimised environment:
When working on minimising procrastination, we need to take our environment into account. Consider what is most likely to disrupt you in working on the task, and take steps to remove any distractions, or to improve the comfort of your environment for working. This may include putting your phone away, or having a set place in your home where you sit when needing to concentrate (tip: avoid the bedroom, and instead opt for working at the desk or dinner table).
Challenging unhelpful or false beliefs:
Often, it is our negative beliefs and worries that stop us from acting on the things we want or need to do. This is particularly true when it comes to chronic procrastination. If we anticipate a negative or difficult outcome, it is not strange that we are then not motivated to act. Next time you find yourself getting caught in negative beliefs causing you to procrastinate, try to identify the thought, before working to challenge it.
CBT Worksheets for Chronic Procrastination
If you're a therapist, counsellor or psychologist looking to utilise cognitive behavioral therapy to assist clients struggling with chronic procrastination and similar mental health challenges, you can find our full range of CBT based worksheets via the link below.
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Our CBT worksheets mega bundle has been developed to assist therapists and counselors working with individuals with a range of conditions, including anxiety, depression, OCD, ADHD, insomnia, addiction, chronic pain and eating disorders.
