Procrastination and the discomfort that comes first

A After a working day I come home tired, having planned to go to the gym. First, a quick check-in with my body: What would it feel like to be on the treadmill right now? I think. And the answer comes straight away: No, I haven’t got the energy. The workout will have to wait.

Written out, it looks like a considered dialogue. In the moment, the thoughts can follow one another so quickly that they barely register. The decision not to go can then feel almost automatic.

Here, the sense that exercise ‘feels too hard’ also contains a judgement: This is what it will be like. That image can, in turn, bring on bodily discomfort. The reaction is real, even though the workout has not yet begun.

At that point, the workout has already been called off, on the basis of how I imagine it would feel. Deciding to stay on the sofa brings immediate relief. The thoughts of the effort fall away.

This is where reinforcement comes in. The relief in the moment can make it easier to put off exercise next time too. That is one way a procrastination process can unfold.

When it feels difficult to begin

In the gym example, exercise is cancelled before it has been tried. The imagined discomfort can become more burdensome than the activity turns out to be. Meanwhile, what has been put off is still there to deal with.

The pattern can apply to other tasks too. When something is difficult or unclear, the first step may be to work out what needs doing or get help with defining its scope. Then there is something about the task itself that can be changed.

This can interact with low mood. During depression, both the energy and the desire to tackle things often diminish. I think attention can then also become more readily caught up in tiredness: How heavy does it feel? How much can I manage? The imagined effort can carry more weight.

Not calling it off in advance

My way of approaching it is: I don’t call the activity off in advance, but I can stop once I’m there.

At the gym, I can notice what starting actually feels like. If the energy is not there, I can stop. The whole workout does not have to be decided from the sofa.

If you have a sore throat, a fever or feel unwell, exercise should wait. Tiredness can also be a sign of too little sleep or a need for recovery. That needs to have a bearing on the decision.

If you recognise the pattern, you might think of a situation of your own. What could you try on a small scale, with the option to stop, without first having to decide how the whole activity will feel?

An MCT perspective

In metacognitive therapy, MCT, we examine how we relate to our thinking. In the gym example, the image of the treadmill determines the decision before exercise has begun. If we get caught up in assessing how hard it will be, we can examine what we hope to gain by continuing to think about it. Do we need to keep thinking the activity through in order to decide?

One way to test this is to let the image be there and begin on a small scale, without first working out how the whole activity will feel. Exercise may still be demanding. What we are examining is whether we need to finish thinking it through in advance in order to begin. The option to stop remains.

There is research on associations between metacognitions, meaning beliefs about our own thinking, and procrastination. A questionnaire study with 305 complete responses supports examining such associations. It does not show that MCT or the approach in the gym example is an effective treatment for procrastination.

Internet-based CBT has been tested in a randomised study with 150 participants, with improvements compared with a waiting list. This is evidence for the CBT approaches studied, not a treatment trial of MCT.

When putting things off takes up too much space

If you often put off things you want or need to do, we can begin with a concrete situation and try to understand what happens there. Read more about the approach on the MCT in Stockholm page. You are also welcome to write to me.