The Psychology of Procrastination: How to Follow Through

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This winter, I published a book called The Psychology of Procrastination. It’s all about examining the core issues that exacerbate procrastination (things like low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, ADHD, imposter syndrome, etc.). Then, it gives you evidence-based strategies to work through procrastination one step at a time.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve shared with you content that was deleted from the book to save space: strategies for prioritizing, finding motivation, getting started, staying focused, and overcoming avoidance. Now, it’s time to reveal the deleted content about following through with a task you’ve started. If you’re someone who has 100 projects started but none complete, these are the strategies for you.

For all the details and my very best strategies for following through, though, make sure you grab the full text.

How to Follow Through: Use Mindfulness

We spend a lot of our lives in a mindless state.  Simple or repetitive tasks can become so monotonous that we do them automatically, without even thinking about what we’re doing.  A lot of distraction happens in this mindless state.  We don’t notice ourselves getting distracted, so it’s really hard to manage the distractibility. 

The opposite of mindlessness is mindfulness.  Mindfulness is being consciously aware of what’s happening in the present moment.  It’s what happens when you purposely focus your attention on what you’re feeling, thinking, and experiencing.  For example, the sensation of your feet on the floor was probably outside of your awareness just a moment ago.  But now, focus your attention on what your feet feel like.  Slowly move your toes, feel the texture of your socks or shoes, notice whether your feet are hot or cold, and notice whether there is any pain or tingling.  As you focus your attention in that space, you’re in a state of mindfulness. 

Practice mindfulness with these strategies from a previous article or by using a daily meditation app (e.g., Calm or Headspace). Or, spend a few minutes each day trying to catch your mind wandering off course while you try to focus on your breath. Or, be extra mindful as you do ordinary things (e.g., take a shower, wash your hands).   Building self-awareness through mindfulness practice can be really helpful for following through with tasks.  For one, the more we practice being mindful of the present moment, the more quickly we can notice if we’ve gotten off task.  Plus, mindfulness helps us watch our feelings without reacting to them (like the strategies in Chapter 9 of The Psychology of Procrastination).  Once we become skillful at that, then we can minimize the negative responses we make to challenges and increase our ability to persist through difficulties and follow through with tasks. 

How to Follow Through: Monitor Your Progress

When you’re driving a car, you’re constantly monitoring whether you’re staying in your lane.  You make frequent, miniature micro-adjustments to the steering so you don’t veer off course.  Imagine if you just started driving and you didn’t look at where you were headed for a few minutes – disaster!  Completing any task or working toward any goal requires the same type of feedback regarding whether we’re still on course.  Unfortunately, we don’t monitor ourselves very closely when we’re working on our goals, so it’s pretty easy to get off track. 

A solution is to check in with yourself on a regular basis to monitor your progress.  If you’re prone to frequent distractibility, you might check in with yourself every few minutes to ensure you’re still on task (have the brownies made it in the oven yet?).  If you’re able to follow through with these types of short-term tasks but have more difficulty following through with longer-term goals or projects, you might check in with yourself every few days or weeks to ensure you’re still on track (how’s that piano piece coming along?).  If you find you’ve strayed off course, adjust accordingly so you can follow through with the goal.

Put This Psychology Skill Into Action

These skills ended up being cut from the book — but they’re still really important and useful for following through with tasks you’ve started. If you can stay mindful of what you’re doing in a given moment and reflect on your progress periodically, you’re more likely to actually complete a project. If you’re looking for a little more guidance on how to follow through, the full book includes 8 strategies I thought were even better than these. Grab the e-book or the hard copy here. Also, since overcoming procrastination is all about establishing good habits, consider grabbing my guided journal to help you change your habits. It’s called Habits: A 12-Week Journal to Change Your Habits, Track Your Progress, and Achieve Your Goals.

How to Finish What You Started

Once you’ve followed through, it’s time to actually cross the finish line and mark a task D-O-N-E. You’d think that once you get close to the finish line, you’d just run straight across it. But there are actually a lot of psychological hurdles that can sabotage our success (fear of failure, anyone? 🙋🏻‍♀️). Next week, I’ll share with you a couple of strategies for finishing what you started that didn’t make it into the final publication. Don’t miss it. If you’re excited to see the best strategies ahead of time, go ahead and grab the full text here.

Talk to you soon,

Dr. Finch

P.S.    Remember, this is education, not treatment.  Always consult with a psychologist or therapist about your mental health to determine what information and interventions are best for you.  See the disclaimer for more details.  

Disclosure: Some links to products may be affiliate links, meaning, at no extra cost to you, I’ll earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.  Thanks for your support!