Procrastination Isn’t Lazy—It’s Wired (But Fixable)

Apr 07, 2025

Hey Rewire Collective!

Welcome to this week’s newsletter! We’re talking about procrastination.

Procrastination

I think we all know what this one is, but just in case, let’s define it. Procrastination is the act of delaying a task, usually right until a deadline, or even past the deadline (1).

An older view of thinking about procrastination is purely through willpower – you should will yourself to complete the task. But that’s not the whole story (2). Willpower is kind of like a currency; we have to spend it throughout the day to complete lots of different tasks and to avoid distractions. You’re not always going to run on a bank full of willpower. Although we can increase our willpower by continually choosing to do things we don’t want to, this is an effortful process.

Learn more about how to choose the difficult things and rewire your brain in my book, Rewire!

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From brain imaging studies, we see that the brain of a procrastinator is not the same as the brain of a non-procrastinator (3). The brains of procrastinators show lower emotional regulation, therefore, making it harder to choose long-term rewards (3). That’s not to say our brain connections cannot be rewired to improve this, but first, let’s look at why we procrastinate.

Immediate Rewards

The brain has something called time inconsistency, economists call this hyperbolic discounting, but it all means the same thing: we’re wired to value immediate rewards higher than future rewards (4). This makes sense evolutionarily, since our lifespans used to be much shorter and the need for immediate food or shelter was more important than the need for those things in 10 years (5).

Resistance to Discomfort

The brain also tries to avoid discomfort as much as possible, which is another root of procrastination. The anterior cingulate cortex is an important brain region in assessing pain versus reward, and in regulating our emotions to allow us to complete tasks. We see that this brain region is not as well connected to the amygdala, our brains emotion centre, in procrastinators compared to non-procrastinators (3).

The irony of this resistance is that actually, the pain is usually greatest during procrastination, and fades once we start the task (6). Tricking the brain to get over the starting line is the hardest part. You can check out my tips for this in my YouTube video!

3 Tips for Procrastination!

Figure demonstrating how our pain increases with time when procrastinating, but once we take action, the discomfort actually decreases. Created in https://BioRender.com.

Indecision

There’s also the worry that the consequences of action will be negative. We see that in people who procrastinate more often, they have larger amygdala (3), which is linked to more anxiety about decisions (7). This encourages them to put off the task.

So what can we do?

To resolve the issue of the immediate reward, we can practise imagining our ‘future-self’ instead of our ‘present-self’. Our present-self is us now, while our ‘future-self’ is us in the future, typically after we’ve achieved a particular goal. Envisioning our future selves helps us to bring that distant reward into the present, making starting a task less painful (8).
To resolve the issue of getting past the starting line, well, practice is key. The more we put ourselves in discomfort, the better we get at doing it.
To resolve the issue of worrying about failure, well, that looks at perfectionism and regulating emotions. Making a list to compare the negative consequences of the task versus the negative consequences of not doing the task can be helpful. It can also be helpful to think about why you’re worried about failing – were you allowed to make mistakes as a child, were you told mistakes reflected your abilities? This is getting a bit psychology-y, but my point is that how we view failure, as either a personal fault or a learning opportunity, can help us get past this hurdle. You can see my newsletter on growth mindsets for more advice here.

And if you’re procrastinating ending a relationship, or getting over an ex, join my rewire your heartbreak coaching group! Sign-up now for an early-bird 10% discount!

Until Next Week,

Nicole x

P.S. Let me know in the comments what topics you want covered in future newsletters!

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