ATG 276 | the Real Reason You Procrastinate  🔗 **Source:** [ATG 276 | the Real Reason You Procrastinate](https://share.snipd.com/episode/096a051e-dd33-49d7-b9af-eba785c75968) ## Highlights - **Build A System That Works Without Willpower** - Use a system that works when willpower is zero and when it's full. - Jon Acuff previews four permissions from his book Procrastination Proof designed to convert someday into today across all energy levels. Transcript: Jon Acuff One that works on the days you have zero willpower, just as well as it does on the days you're firing at 100%. That's what my new book, Procrastination Proof, gives you. Four simple permissions that turn someday into today. Because procrastination is the most expensive fear. The price tag is your life. And every day you wait to begin, you're stealing from your future self. ([Time 0:00:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/677aa319-d9bc-4558-9980-c8f879641019)) - **Identify Which Reason Trips You Up** - Diagnose which of the five perceived reasons fits your pattern before acting. - Jon Acuff asks listeners to reflect whether task, time, history, fear, or ego is tripping them up right now. Transcript: Jon Acuff As we go through the list, here's what I want you to do. I want you to listen carefully and see which one you might be doing. That's what I want you to do. We're going to cover five of them, and I want you to listen through the filter of, okay, which one of those most directly applies to me? As John shares these, which one do I relate to? Which one can I see in my own life? I want you to listen carefully to the list, because I think you're probably doing one of them. This is going to be one of those episodes where you see yourself. It's a mirror episode. ([Time 0:03:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e7ce0ccb-3d26-48a0-b5d7-ac3ca17a27b0)) - **Overwhelm Makes Every Task Feel Wrong** - The 'task' reason for procrastination stems from overwhelm and choice paralysis. - Jon Acuff describes how even choosing between five tasks can trigger doubt and constant switching because the first choice feels wrong. Transcript: Jon Acuff I'll give them to you right now, and then we'll break them down one by one. The first reason is tasked. People think they procrastinate because of the task. The second reason is time. They procrastinate because of time. The third is history. The fourth reason is fear. And the fifth is ego. Those are the five reasons. So here's what that looks like in a day-to scenario. So let's take task first. People procrastinate often because the task appears too difficult. We don't know which project to work on. We feel overwhelmed, so we put it off. Today's task becomes tomorrow's problem. I've done that before. I have this neat feature of my brain where no matter what I'm working on, my brain tells me that's the wrong thing. If I have five things to work on, the second I pick number one and start working on it, my brain goes, you picked the wrong thing. And I go, oh, I'm so I had no idea. I'm so sorry. And then I'll move on to number two on the list. And I'll go, no, this is this is wrong, too. And then I'll move on to number three and go like, oh, still wrong. I don't pick number four, but still wrong. Actually, number one was good. I'll go back and forth, back and forth, because the task feels overwhelming. People who want to write books tell me that. They go, hey, I want to write a book, but man, that task, I don't know where I would start. How do I get an agent? How do I publish it? How do I write the first chapter? How do I research it? How do I finish it? Oh my gosh. And you can see them starting to procrastinate because the size of the task feels massive. It feels overwhelming. Sometimes people do that where they add up a lot of things they have to do on their to-do list. On a Monday morning, they go through this long 20-point to-do list and then they spend the next half hour on Instagram. Like it's so overwhelming they go to Instagram for half an hour that turns into an hour. So the first reason people think they procrastinate is task. ([Time 0:05:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/2d8312db-9524-425d-9029-e1e6e54ab7f9)) - **Bad Time Estimates Stop Starts** - Time-based procrastination comes from believing you need a full uninterrupted block or from poor time estimates. - Jon Acuff notes people skip starting because they think 30 minutes isn't enough or they consistently underestimate task duration. Transcript: Jon Acuff We don't have enough time to complete the project in one sitting. So I know this would take me two hours. I only have 30 minutes, so I'm not going to bother. Or the other part of time is we're bad at estimating and the day gets away from us. That prevents us from finishing. So you look at your schedule and you go, I've got half an hour to prepare for that meeting. And then you go to prepare for it and it takes you an hour. And then the next thing you go, I've got half an hour to write that report. And that takes you 90 minutes. And all of a sudden you look up and you're behind. It's taking you way longer than you thought because you had a bad job of estimating the time. So one is kind of like perfectionism, like I don't have enough time to perfectly complete this so I won't start. And one is about you're not good at estimating. I'm too busy. I thought this would take a half hour and it took longer than that. But time gets away from us. ([Time 0:07:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5fdb3284-45e5-4479-94a7-0a68dca9c25a)) - **College All Nighters Reinforce Procrastination** - Past successes with last-minute work teach us procrastination works. - Jon Acuff recalls college all-nighters and getting decent grades, which tricks people into believing deadlines boost creativity. Transcript: Jon Acuff Simply put, it means procrastination paid off in the past. We all remember that moment, right? Like we turned in the college paper at the last second, and we still got an A. Like we did the all-nighter. My all-nighters used to be in a computer lab. I'm 50 years old. So I didn't have a computer in college. Like I certainly didn't, nobody had laptops. I don't even know if they existed, but I didn't have a computer in college. The first time that somebody had a computer in their dorm room, like my roommate was, was, he was a senior. We were seniors. So I would have to stay up all night in the computer lab, which is the most depressing room on a college campus, trying, like hoping that the computer would work. They had a phone in there that called nowhere. It was like the help desk and you would call it and it would just ring and ring and ring. But you had that moment. So we turned in the paper, we still got a B plus or an A, and so we mistakenly believe that we work best under insurmountable pressure. Our history has confused us into thinking procrastination is an asset. People will tell me that. They'll say, John, I'm my most creative right at the edge of a deadline. I need things to be on fire. I need things to be out of control for me to get inspired. So their history has tricked them into thinking procrastination is actually a tool. ([Time 0:08:14](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4d4bdee3-d60f-46de-969f-0a149a2aa749)) - **Avoidance From Fear Feels Like Safety** - Fear-driven procrastination is avoidance to dodge judgment or failure. - Jon Acuff compares it to toddlers covering their eyes, explaining delaying prevents confronting possible inadequacy but makes the task harder over time. Transcript: Jon Acuff So we are afraid that the project won't be perfect. Like if we avoid the project altogether, maybe we can avoid being judged and criticized. I mean, what will happen? Like, what if we try our best? We really go all in, and it's still not enough. Fear stymies us in a thousand different ways. We worry it won't be good enough, so we think the way to prevent me from finding out it won't be good enough is just to never start. If I delay it, I'll never have to learn I was inadequate in some part of my life. This is the ostrich approach, where you just go, I'm not going to look at it. It's kind of like, it reminds me of when toddlers play hide and go seek. If you've ever had a kid, there's this funny moment where they're really young, and you're playing hide and go seek with them, and they cover their own eyes. They do this because they're like, if I can't see you, you can't see. I'm invisible right now. And there's some of us that we're afraid of a project. We're afraid of a task. We're afraid of an activity. We go, I don't want to mess it up. So I just won't do it. Not realizing that by procrastinating on it, it's only getting more and more and more difficult. ([Time 0:09:35](https://share.snipd.com/snip/e7f8d2b6-ffd6-4b7a-bc7f-6f63a2339f93)) - **Ego Creates Delays Through Entitlement** - Ego-driven procrastination arises from entitlement and unmet expectations. - Jon Acuff explains expectations become demands, demands become disappointments, and disappointments turn into delays when reality doesn't match entitlement. Transcript: Jon Acuff The fifth reason people think they procrastinate is ego. Ego. So what does that look like? It looks like this. I shouldn't have to do this. This is not fair. Somebody else should be doing this. We feel entitled to the rewards, but not the work. It shouldn't be this hard or take this long. Our expectations become demands, and our demands become disappointments, and our disappointments become delays. Let me say that one more time because it was a lot in those little three snippets. Our expectations become demands. So I expected it to be faster. I expected it to be better. I expected somebody else to do it, and they kind of morph into demands. And then our demands, when they're not met, because they're not going to be met because they were unreasonable to begin with, become disappointments. We're frustrated. We're frustrated. And then our disappointments become delays. We put off what we need to do. Our ego gets in the way. ([Time 0:10:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/5117d743-a67f-4d5e-a140-b1ff890f3037)) - **Procrastination Is A Chosen Tool** - Procrastination is the best tool people have, not a simple character flaw. - Jon Acuff argues we choose procrastination because it feels like the superior solution to avoid emotions or hard tasks until we find a better option. Transcript: Jon Acuff The real reason people procrastinate is that it's the best tool they have. Let me say that again. The real reason people procrastinate is that it's the best tool they have. Procrastination is not a problem. Procrastination is actually a solution. We use it because we think it'll get us out of a jam. Call it a coping mechanism if you've been to counseling. Call it a tool if you've been to auto diesel college. The word you pick doesn't matter much. We choose procrastination, even though we know it has negative consequences, because we believe it's better than the alternative of doing whatever it is we're avoiding. What's so fascinating about procrastination, though, is that it impacts every part of your life. You will procrastinate on things you really want to do, like writing a book or getting in shape. But you'll also procrastinate on things you really don't want to do, like the laundry, like your taxes. We procrastinate at everything, but we're only doing it because we haven't found a better solution yet. ([Time 0:12:27](https://share.snipd.com/snip/31931da4-211d-455b-ae71-0e2c0f93023d)) - **Replace Procrastination With A Better Solution** - Don't abandon procrastination immediately; replace it with better solutions first. - Jon Acuff advises readers that his book will provide superior solutions so you won't need to rely on procrastination as a coping tool. Transcript: Jon Acuff Sometimes we use procrastination to save ourselves from experiencing a whole array of emotions, such as shame or fear or guilt or boredom. It's okay that you're leaning on it as a solution. I won't even ask you to stop using procrastination just yet. You shouldn't trust me. We just started this conversation. But if you read my new book, Procrastination Proof, by the end of it, you will never turn to procrastination to solve a problem again. ([Time 0:13:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f5a3c2ae-3227-4a0a-a8da-0b5f971312e7))