I will start by boldly stating I do not believe in procrastination. But to do justice to such a declaration I must first provide some background before explaining my stand on this matter.
A widely recurring phenomenon, procrastination has been researched by both psychologists and physiologists from many angles. It is generally accepted that there are two forms of procrastination: an active one, which involves delaying a task to induce psychological flow and is correlated with thrill-seeking, and a passive one, which is described by the avoidance of disliked tasks, the preference for immediate gratification and indecisiveness.
With regard to psychology, procrastination has often been associated with low self-confidence and an aversion to the task that must be completed. A frequent connection to impulsive behavior has also been observed, although that has only been tied to passive procrastination.
How it translates into our physiology?
It seems that procrastination is a tug of war between two parts of the brain: the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. The limbic system - the "old mammalian" brain - is involved in feelings of pleasure that are related to our survival, driving us to choose "immediate mood repair, usually at the expense of long-term goals," as Timothy A. Pychyl, PhD, author of The Procrastinator's Digest: A Concise Guide to Solving the Procrastination Puzzle describes. In contrast, the prefrontal cortex is a newer and more advanced part of the brain, which, among others, deals with complex cognitive behavior, planning, and decision making, while also participating in impulse control.
Now from my understanding, what we call procrastination is actually a biological response to a forced inoculation of values that do not belong to us. It is neither a question of our intellect and psyche conspiring against us, nor of our physiology causing our behavior.
Axiology covers this better.
The driving force in our lives is a personal value system in which there is a hierarchy of values that establishes the types of decisions we make, whether they be conscious or unconscious ones. These values are individual and they filter our reality through our senses. This is why your reality never seems to be the same as your parents', your partner's, your friends'. It is why we judge other people. Why we "procrastinate". Moreover, this hierarchy of values describes our telos, what ancient philosophers considered a person's purpose.
It is my view that what we see as procrastination is merely a sign that we are trying to do something we do not value. That for some reason we are trying to live by other people's values. The best solution isn't hunting for techniques and how to's that will not work indefinitely (yet somehow manage to frustrate us further when they do stop working); the best solution is working to understand yourself better.
What are your values?
What is common to the things that make you happiest/proudest/most fulfilled? How do you spend your money/time/energy? What do you think/dream/talk about? What are your short-term/long-term goals? What do you want to experience in your life? How do you want to grow? How do you want to contribute to the world? Among these questions there are recurring themes that reveal your core values, which are the top values you live your life by and make decisions according to. Write down the answers to those questions (about 3-5 answer per question) and filter the results. What you get is what your unconscious mind is guided by.
It was Freud's belief that the unconscious mind has its own agenda. From my research, that agenda is fulfilling one's telos, which is based on our values. Therefore, while our telos is most definitely the architect of our lives, there is a loud/silent builder that dictates the steps towards implementing the blueprint. This builder is either our consciousness or your unconscious mind. Which one of them we let guide us determines whether we live our lives by our highest values consciously or... not. It determines whether we are happy or unhappy with our own decisions and behavior. Because rest assured: no matter what, we live by our highest values.
The bottom line is this: if we follow our own value system consciously, we have Health, Wealth, Fulfillment - the "Riches" envelope Andrew Carnegie was talking about; if, however, we try to live by other people's values, what we get is Frustration, Fear, Disappointment, Doubt, Worries, and... procrastination. In other words: the "Penalties" envelope.
So to my knowledge, procrastination is nothing but a symptom of the failure to analyze ourselves, to find our own values and purpose (telos), the failure to take action towards accomplishing our goals, and the expectation to live by values other than our own.
To rehash:
1. Procrastination is not a fault, but a symptom.
2. Procrastination shows us in what aspects of our life we have inserted values other than our own.
3. To eliminate procrastination we must first know our values. The Delphic maxim "Know thyself" is not mere witticism, you know.
4. We can counter procrastination by analyzing the types of things we usually postpone/avoid, find their common denominator and work diligently to delegate those tasks to other people - who value them, while increasing the number of activities we have value (interest) in to ensure a healthy flow of fulfillment.
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