Why do we procrastinate?

This question has been discussed by so called "life coaches" a lot, who don't get tired to tell you that they have a simple solution to this problem and you only need to buy all their books and come to their seminars to understand it, so you never have to procrastinate again. This view, however, comes with the implied connotation that procrastination is inherently bad, as it stands in the way of doing the things you actually want to do.

Here's my hot take on the matter: People procrastinate, because they don't fear the consequences of inaction. Have you ever seen anyone procrastinating to leave a burning building? Of course not, because fire is very hot and very ouchy, so burning to death is obviously something we do not want. But, I hear you ask, surely we are not just motivated by fear. People often do things for a positive reward, such as love, pleasure, wealth or fame. Shouldn't the prospect of achieving these things also be a valid motivator to not procrastinate?

To that I answer: It's a valid hypothesis, but look at people procrastinating to propose to their spouse, to write that novel that will make them rich and famous or simply to do their job that pays their bills. People do procrastinate all these things, although they might not get the reward that they, if you were to ask them, confirmed they want. And my explanation for this is that they are not afraid enough of not getting that reward. This my be because they think they'll get it anyways, even if they procrastinate. It may also be because they think they'll probably not get it, even if they didn't procrastinate. Or it may be because they don't actually want it and just haven't figured that out yet.

So why do people procrastinate, instead of doing anything more useful? Well, what do you think? Really just give it a thought for a moment! Ready? Ok, here's my answer: Because they don't have anything to do.

It can be difficult to admit that you don't have anything to do. Others might expect you to be really busy, because they have different opinions on what your goals should be, what is required to achieve those goals and how to behave in general. But even more difficult is admitting it to yourself. It can make you feel terribly worthless if you are sitting there, ready to be productive, contribute to society, yet you don't see anything to do. So in all these cases, isn't it a lot more convenient to say that you have lots of important things to do, but somehow you're procrastinating? You can throw your hands up and say: "damn, I don't know what to do about this procrastination problem. If only I procrastinated a little less, I could reach all these important goals." - without ever having to admit that you don't actually believe in these goals, their achievability or the necessity for you to contribute to them right now.

So should you feel bad for procrastinating? I'd say, usually not. There are instances, however, where people do mess up by procrastinating. After all, procrastination is a result of people's beliefs and attitudes towards their goals, but those don't need to be necessarily correct. So if you're procrastinating, that just means that you don't see anything you have to do right now. This is even the case, if you're "working" on a thesis that is due in a few hours. You might be procrastinating, because you think it's pretty much done and the grade will be sufficient anyways, even if you don't work on it anymore. But obviously you might be wrong about that. Another example might be when you're procrastinating house work, because nobody will see your disgusting appartement anyways. Yet, you might be forgetting that your parents wanted to visit you on the weekend.

The point is, those are not problems caused by procrastination, but by inaccurate beliefs leading to procrastination. If someone had given you the (believable) information that you would fail your thesis if you handed that in, or reminded you that your parents wanted to visit, you'd not have procrastinated. Why? Because it would have caused enough fear for the consequences of inaction.

To live a less stressful life, you need to tune this fear accurately. If you suppress it, you might end up in stressful situations because you procrastinated too much. On the other hand, if you become too paranoid, you might end up doing a whole bunch of unnecessary things and spend too little time regenerating. Because here's the life hack: If you don't feel bad about procrastinating, you can use that time to relax, calm down your mind and regenerate your strength. But for that to work, you need to be honest to yourself. Don't think "why am I not doing this". Instead, think: "why am I not afraid of not doing this". And if you can't come up with a reason to be afraid, just don't do it and don't feel bad about it. If that leaves you with nothing to do, double check that you're not forgetting anything and, if not, just chill. Trust me, I know that this can be a lot more difficult than it sounds.

Now, that is some advice you're not getting from any life coach. Guess you need a nihilist for that.

Comic transcript

Panel 1:
Tucan't is connecting to SantaCloud.
Panel 2:
T: Hey SantaCloud™
S: blip
T: Report status of Smartmas™ preparations!
S: I did not understand your command. Please retry.
T: Hmmm ... that’s strange. The speech interface worked perfectly last time ...
Panel 3:
SantaCloud is playing a video game, where they are leading a cow.
S: Hihi, you’ll do nicely in my cow farm ...
Panel 4:
T: Wait a moment ...
Tucan't is connecting their screen.
Panel 5:
The image of the cow appears on the screen.
T: What the ... Are you ... procrastinating?
S: Ahhhm ... no ...
Panel 6:
T: But ... what about Smartmas™? What about capitalism? The people out there need to indulge in consumption to forget about how insignificant and replaceable they are!
S: Can I at least finish my cow farm first?
T: No! Get to work!
S: command confirmed :(