How Your Inner Caveman Makes You Procrastinate

The average person wastes 218 minutes a day procrastinating.

But most have no clue why.

In this article, I’ll teach you about the root causes of procrastination.

Do you act against your better judgment and put off things you know you should be doing?

You probably experience some of the devastating consequences of procrastination:

• stress
• anxiety
• decreased productivity
• poor performance
• wasted time

If so, this is a serious problem.

You are wasting your most precious resource: your time. And your potential. You miss out on achieving goals, having incredible experiences and so much more. But I have good news: there’s a solution.

I know because I cured my own chronic procrastination. To do so as well, you first have to understand the root causes that make you put things off.

Let’s get into it.

Negative Emotions

Back in school, I was a professional procrastinator.

But the anti-procrastination advice I got from my teachers didn’t work. Time management techniques and to-do lists changed nothing. I wasn’t lazy, undisciplined, or unorganized.

Today, I know why. Studies have shown that procrastination is mainly an emotional issue.

If an activity triggers negative emotions like fear of failure, boredom, or overwhelm, chances are you’ll procrastinate on it.

The reason for this is evolution.

Our ancestors used to live as hunters- and gatherers facing grave threats on a daily basis.

When facing a deadly snake or a lion, it is an excellent strategy to avoid them at all costs. That is why humans developed the so-called fight or flight response when confronted with situations causing negative emotions.

But today, this tends to hold us back and lead to procrastination. Our brains find ways to avoid tasks like studying, working on our business, or writing a book as if these tasks were predators ready to kill us.

We flee from our work.

The result: procrastination.

To avoid those negative emotion-inducing activities, you procrastinate until the deadline is dangerously close. Once the pain of inactivity is bigger than the negative emotions associated with doing the thing you finally start acting.

But sometimes there isn’t a deadline that forces you to act. There’s no clear deadline for the book you always wanted to write or the business you always wanted to start.

You might procrastinate forever. And your dreams die.

Sad thought, isn’t it?

Understanding the psychological root causes of procrastination is the first step to solving the problem. Download my free eBook to do so.