Have you ever had the urge to finish that presentation, mow the lawn or do your tax return, but instead you read the news, have another coffee and check the latest social media posts? We call this procrastination or "postponementitis". It mainly occurs when we feel overwhelmed or underchallenged. We unconsciously distract ourselves in order to avoid work that we find equally challenging or unattractive.

"Procrastinationitis" is often attributed to a lack of time. In reality, however, this is usually not the case. Rather, it is an unconscious strategy of self-boycott that we use to prevent ourselves from being successful in the long term. If you regularly miss important deadlines or deliver poor quality work due to a lack of time, you should ask yourself: What benefit do I gain from boycotting myself in this way?

Self-efficacy

A good friend and consultant once said to me: "If I want to know what I want, I look at what I do!" I was amazed, as we normally put it the other way round: "I still have to do this and that, so I have to get my act together" or something similar. So if I'm lying lazily on the sofa after my friend says this instead of finishing the presentation, I may have a need for relaxation that exceeds the need for performance. The recommendation: use your personal mindfulness to feel inside yourself and determine your true need. That is one side of the coin.

The other side of the coin is the finding of brain research that a completed task also generates joy, satisfaction or even moments of happiness. Why is that? Having overcome a hurdle triggers our brain's physiological reward system, we experience a feeling of well-being, triggered primarily by the release of dopamine. Then we say, "Tchakka, I've done it!" and that feels good. This in turn strengthens our self-esteem - I've achieved something! The result: the feeling of self-efficacy spreads. Self-efficacy means having or developing a basic personal conviction that I know I can achieve what I set out to do. I set myself realistic and challenging goals and achieve them - a great state of mind.

Now some readers will be thinking of the inner bastard, who occasionally tempts us to lie on the couch and eat potato chips rather than do something for fitness or work. The pig-dog rule is important here: the smarter the owner, the smarter the pig-dog. So he will always come up with something

always come up with something to stop us from achieving our goals.

Conquering your inner bastard

But wait - who is actually the master in your house? I hope you are! Two recommendations follow on from my friend's saying above:

1. It's okay to give in to your weaker self from time to time, but then please enjoy the potato chips on the sofa (you asked for it). Nothing is worse than developing a guilty conscience on the sofa while eating potato chips and wearing yourself down with inner self-reproach.
2. When you realize that you've lazed around enough, get up and do what needs to be done. You can overcome the bastard with just three letters: DO! Break big tasks down into lots of small tasks and get started. Then try to enjoy completing the subtasks. This also triggers your reward system.

The crucial question in everything we do is who is controlling? It should actually be the adult's ME who controls our inner team. Goethe already said: "Two souls dwell, alas, in my breast...!" There are usually many more players in our inner team, and the pig dog is one of them. There is often the ambitious one, the dreamer, the social one, the power seeker etc., and roles such as the mother or the husband also appear. Try to steer your hard-worker and your pig-dog out of your ego. Then you can do them both justice and give each their appropriate place and time.

The author

Bernhard Broekman

© B. Broekman

Bernhard Broekman is a qualified psychologist. As a DBVC senior coach and stress management trainer at Leadership Choices, he coaches managers at all levels on topics including leadership, roles, communication and, increasingly, stress levels, work-life balance and health.