2 Good Reasons to Procrastinate

I got myself in a jam last month rushing to get a project checked off my to-do list after I procrastinated for almost a year.

Every year to renew my psychology license I have to do so many continuing education credits.

And probably like most workshops and trainings you’ve taken, some are great (I learned a lot, the speaker is engaging, and the time flies by.), but some are less than fantastic (read, super boring).

I had one last seminar left I had to watch before our registration deadline this year.

You can probably guess it was one of the boring ones.

I wasn’t interested in the topic.

The speaker drones on with the same monotone voice the whole time so I kept finding myself scrolling Instagram to stay awake.

And I had to answer a quiz question every 10 minutes or so to make sure I wasn’t just leaving it on play and doing laundry instead.

So, I’d been procrastinating.

For months.

I’d save space on my calendar, and then something much more fun would come up, so I’d bump it to next week. And the next week. And all of a sudden, the deadline is in 10 days, and I need to get it done as soon as possible.

I know I’m not the only one who procrastinates.

It’s one of the questions I get asked most by clients. Especially by high-achieving professionals and entrepreneurs.

“I have so much on my plate…why do I keep procrastinating and stressing myself out more?”

The answer?

There are good reasons to procrastinate. At least when it comes to your brain.

Good reason to procrastinate No. 1: looming deadlines motivate.

A classic psychology study by researchers Yerkes and Dodson uncovered that our brains need an ideal level of stress to take action.

Not enough stress or pressure means we procrastinate.

Like in college, when you were assigned that term paper in September, which is due in December. So it sits on your desk under a pile of other projects until three days before the deadline, when you have to pull an all-nighter to get it done.

The other end of the curve is too much stress or pressure can also make us procrastinate.

You sit down at your desk, open your calendar, and your day is packed—back-to-back meetings. And you still have 53 things on your to-do list from yesterday. You have an hour before your first meeting…but it all feels so overwhelming. You have no clue where to start…and it’s impossible to get it all done anyway…so you waste that hour checking emails or reading TMZ articles about whether Taylor and Travis are still together.

Totally normal.

Our brains are designed to work that way according to the Yerkes-Dodson law.

We need enough pressure that we’re motivated to take action but not so much pressure that we feel overwhelmed.

It makes sense that you procrastinate when that project isn’t due for six months.

The solution: Start small with mini-deadlines.

When I’m really stuck procrastinating on a project, I find a task that I can do in five minutes. Something super small. Because you can do anything for five minutes, right? Which means your brain is less likely to put up resistance. So you can get out of procrastination mode and get stuff done.

Good reason to procrastinate No. 2: No item on your to-do list is a “must do.”

That never-ending to-do list.

It's jam-packed with everything from replying to a client call to answering emails, creating a new program in your business, and updating the color palette on your website.

It’s not all “must do.”

And it’s definitely not all equally urgent.

But when your brain looks at that giant list, it interprets all those items as equal because they’re all on the same list.

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Plus, a lot of the stuff that zaps our time and clogs up our to-do list is only on there because we feel like we “should” be doing it.

Feeling pressured to post on Instagram three times a day, or figure out how to eliminate the “millennial pause” on TikTok, reply instantly to that email from a client when you’re already swamped, or stay up past midnight making leprechaun footprints late at night for your kid’s St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun trap.

Our brains don’t like to feel pressured to do things. We push back when we’re being told what to do.

So when our to-do list is full of a bunch of “shoulds,” we procrastinate.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Because often those “shoulds” aren’t the tasks that are taking you towards your goals anyway.

The solution: Cross off the “shoulds.”

Take a look at that to-do list. Is anything only on it because you feel like you should be doing it? (Hint—it’s probably stuff you’re procrastinating on.) Eliminate as many shoulds as you can from that priority list. Not only will it help your brain get out of procrastination mode, but you’ll free up time for the projects you want to do.

Procrastination is normal for our brains. And sometimes, it can actually be helpful (like an internal sensor that something on your to-do list isn't aligned with your goals.).

When you understand why your brain likes to procrastinate in the first place, you can quickly get your brain into action mode every day.