How to stop Procrastination in writing: Understand the source

Procrastination

is the nemesis of most scientific and creative writers. Try as they might, procrastination always manages to creep into the shadows, waiting for the opportunity to pounce and snowball into a self-perpetuating cycle of anxiety, avoidance, missed deadlines, and self-loathing. Does this sound like you? Don’t worry! In this blog post, we examine factors that commonly contribute to procrastination and offer solutions for over-coming them. Please be advised, what you read here should not be considered medical advice.

Factors that commonly contribute to procrastination and potential solutions

1. Problem - High-pressure environment: Researchers live in a high-paced world of judgement, rejection, and never-ending competition for scarce resources. They are under constant pressure to publish or perish and secure grant funding to keep their labs operational and themselves competitive for future grant and invited speaker opportunities. This constant high-stakes pressure can very quickly lead to burnout, with procrastination acting as an escape from the academia pressure-cooker. Perhaps you are only at the beginning of your academic career and pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree. The same can very well apply to you due to the competing pressures of school, work, and/or other extra-curricular activities. The weight of the need to balance it all and excel so you can reach your long-term goals can be very crushing. This is again the perfect scenario for procrastination to rear its ugly head and offer an escape from the negative emotions and pressure.
   
   Solution – First off, take a step back and breathe. Centre yourself in the moment and in your life and reflect on why you are in your current environment. Identify the sources of your stress, including where the pressure is external vs. self-imposed. Breathe out and tell yourself it’s going to be alright. Make a plan that will help you organize your time and break the writing (and other) tasks in front of you into achievable sub-tasks. Let go of the comparisons and need for perfectionism and focus on identifying realistic and achievable goals. With this roadmap now in front of you, hold yourself accountable for making consistent and steady progress towards your writing goals.
   

2. Problem - Fear of failure: When you’re surrounded by high achievers, it’s very easy to feel as though you don’t measure up. In this scenario, procrastination can seem like a perfect (albeit completely non-sensical) solution – because if you never start, you technically can’t fail right? Or, if you start too late, then you never really have a chance to showcase your true abilities. Consequently, if things don’t work out, they’re not really a reflection of your true abilities. Sound familiar? In this scenario, procrastination is actually a response to fear of failure.
   
   Solution: Let’s begin by re-framing the underlying thought processes and work from there. When you procrastinate in response to fear of failure, what you are actually doing is holding yourself back from truly being able to shine. So begin by acknowledging what is actually going on inside of you and work on some positive self-talk. If you’re going to do this writing task, then you may as well give it your all, starting from this point in time and within the context of everything else that is going on around you. Now stop holding yourself back by creating a realistic and SMART writing plan and commit to executing it. Treat any and all feedback as an opportunity to grow and improve, rather than a threat to your sense of self-worth. Writing is very much an iterative process. The sooner you embrace this fact, the easier it will be to avoid procrastination and embrace writing.
   

3. Problem - Lack of structure: Most students, writers, and academics have very flexible schedules that make it easy to find excuses and alternatives to writing. This scenario is a fertile ground for procrastination, as without a solid structure, writing gets readily pushed to the wayside in favor of less demanding and more fun tasks. Similarly, lack of structure can also refer to the actual writing product itself. As described in our previous blog post, it is important to structure your writing process through the creation of an outline and writing plan. Otherwise, it is very easy to get overwhelmed and to spend a lot of time writing without making any real progress. As you’ve probably caught on by now, this in turn leads to procrastination out of feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and/or stuck.
   
   Solution - It is very important to create and stick to a writing schedule that keeps you accountable and focused. Use the alternative and fun extra-curricular activities to your advantage by scheduling them as a reward and break from your writing. With this approach, you will begin to create positive associations between writing and your extra-curricular activities and create a better mindset for yourself in terms of how writing fits in with the rest of your life. If it’s the lack of structure within your writing product itself that is the issue, refer to our previous blog post for tips on writing outlines. As many wise people have said before us – failing to plan is planning to fall.
   

4. Problem - Lack of enjoyment and motivation: For a plethora of reasons, including the ones listed above, many people that we cross paths with absolutely dread the idea of sitting down to write. They have trouble getting themselves motivated and readily avoid the task. This often progresses into a defeatist cycle of negative self-talk that only intensifies as time goes on, leading to further procrastination from writing. A lack of motivation and enjoyment also tends to manifest as distractibility when writing, which is another form of procrastination.
   
   Solution – It is unrealistic to expect that everyone can bring themselves to love the act of writing. However, it is important to find a sense of purpose in writing by reframing it as a necessary means to an end that matters to you. If possible, also try to identify aspects of the writing process that you enjoy or underlying writing skills that you would like to develop. This newfound sense of purpose, enjoyment, and/or growth mindset will help you develop the focus and commitment necessary to offset the tendency to procrastinate. Who knows? You may even catch yourself smiling as you write.