Even the most dedicated, organized person will procrastinate sometimes. While an occasional delay in action won’t always lead to chaos, procrastination can be an “evil beast” if allowed to call the shots, says Jo Anne Preston, author of Lead the Way in Five Minutes a Day: Sparking High Performance in Yourself and Your Team.
“Guilt and shame can come from not getting started on things or from being last-minute,” she says. “Let’s say you have six hours to work on something and you spend five hours worrying about it or doing something else, like cleaning up old emails. . . . You’ve wasted energy and won’t have the creativity and the enthusiasm to do the work. Now you feel pressure, which will lead to burnout and feelings of failure and low self-worth.”
The key to tackling procrastination is figuring out what’s behind it. Preston says four hidden unmet needs cause us to procrastinate. Addressing the one that’s hindering you can put you back on track.
The Need for Quick Action
One reason to procrastinate is to avoid a task that feels big and complex. It’s common to switch your attention to something small, like an email, to get the dopamine hit that comes from crossing something off your to-do list. Even if it seems productive, it’s holding you back from more meaningful work, which often takes longer.
Harness the satisfaction of accomplishment by breaking down the big task into smaller pieces, says Preston. She suggests setting a timer and working for 30 minutes—or just five if you feel really blocked.
“One of the things that we know about motivation is you really only need the motivation to start,” she says. “Once you’re started, motivation is like a wheel already rolling down the hill. It’s getting out of first gear and into movement. Grab that project file, open it up, and write down your first ideas. Take action that gets you going.”
The Need to Have Influence
Another unmet need that causes procrastination is the worry that your work will not be good enough, says Preston. You may ask yourself, “What if my work doesn’t meet other people’s needs? Or, what if I don’t come across as intelligent or get rejected?”
In this case, it’s important to understand who your work will benefit and the positive impact you can have.
“This is a relational barrier that happens for people,” says Preston. “One of the best things that person can do is call a friend. Say, ‘Here’s my project. What do you think about this? And where would you start if you were doing it?’”
Choose someone you admire or who has experience, such as a mentor. Getting input fuels the relational motivation.
The Need to Find the “Best Way”
Big projects can have an abundance of options. Knowing where to start is a matter of narrowing it down to the best choice. The analysis often causes paralysis, which is a form of procrastination.
Preston suggests narrowing down the options for starting to three things that are interesting to you. From there, choose one to start with to move toward accomplishment more quickly.
“A tool like a mind map forces you to narrow your writing down to one question that you want to answer,” she says. “Build from there. From a creative person’s viewpoint, narrowing seems counterintuitive, but it’s really about focus. It’s like letting the particles in the water settle down, so you can clearly see the goal you are swimming toward.”
The Need to Create Order Out of Chaos
In addition to finding the best way, some people struggle to find the “right” way—a need to make sure everything is perfect and done in the exact correct order. You can become stuck because the path forward feels chaotic, and you don’t want to forget anything.
Preston says you can push through by giving yourself time to record everything that needs to be done. Then, put the list in the most logical order. It can also be helpful to think of everything that might go wrong. By looking at the downsides first, you can ensure everything gets noticed.
“Maybe it’s moving to another space and maybe it’s putting things in order that allows you to create a framework for the project before you actually start,” she says. “That structure is going to feel motivating.”
The unmet needs that cause procrastination are often related to our personality type, and they boil down to needs for action, relationship, perfection, and structure. By determining what’s stopping you, you can understand exactly what you need to get out of first gear and into drive.
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