Procrastination, an unpleasant feeling everyone has experienced at least once in their life. Journalists may experience procrastination when attempting to write articles that they have put off for months for example. You, on the other hand, may have experienced procrastination in school when you had a big test coming up that you know you should have studied for but chose not to. Now it is the morning of said exam and you are trying to go over the lessons during your twenty minute bus ride to school. Or maybe you had a huge paper to prepare but only began writing it the night it was due even though it had been assigned to you weeks ago. Now it is late and you are sitting in front of your computer aggressively typing, your hands flying over each key. Your heart is pounding violently and you keep checking the clock hoping that the minutes have not simply ticked away. Hoping that the dreaded 11:59 pm has not hit. The list goes on for examples of procrastination. This begs the question: why do we procrastinate and how could we stop this behavior?

The definition of procrastination is the action of delaying something or postponing it as much as possible. It is counterproductive, needless, and just delaying the inevitable. Procrastination is a habit that we may have started doing once without realizing it and kept going with it. As opposed to what many people believe, though, procrastination is not due to laziness or incompetence, but rather, the problem stems from a constant battle in our brain. According to Dr. Anne-Laure Le Cunnf, the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex are at odds. The limbic system is one of the oldest and most dominant parts of our brain. Its processes are automatic and it tells your body to flee from unpleasant situations if they arise. The limbic system is tightly connected to the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex, on the other hand, is newer and therefore less developed. It is the part of your brain that allows you to plan complex behaviors, express your personality, not be controlled by stimulus, and more. As the limbic system is stronger though, it wins the fight against the prefrontal cortex leading to procrastination. Humans like to give their brains what feels good right now. Who knew that we were not to blame for our laziness… but that the true culprits were our brains?

Procrastination, though, is usually not beneficial and very stress inducing. It also takes away from the quality of the work you have to do as it pushes you to act fast as time is ticking away, making you enable to hone in on specific details. Do not worry, though, as you are not an anomaly for procrastinating. According to a study done by Dr. Itamar Shatz, 80%-95% of college students procrastinate. This raises the question: is procrastination something new or a previously existing act?

Some believe that procrastination started with the rise of the internet but that it is not true. The internet has, though, led to procrastination trends appearing to increase rather than decrease due to the fact that people spend more time procrastinating on the internet than they did before. Humans, though, have struggled with habitual hesitation going back to ancient civilization, as Eric Jaffe an writer for the  Association for Psychological Medicine explains. The Greek poet Hesiod, for example, was warning about “not putting work off until tomorrow” around 800 B.C. The Roman consul Cicero was calling procrastination “hateful” in the management of affairs. These are just some examples of the presence of this stalling factor in our lives. So if procrastination has been around for so long, why do so many still struggle with it on a daily basis? Should solutions not have been found by now?

Lily Vallieres, a student at Harrison High School, has an answer for us: “It is one thing to be aware you are procrastinating but it is a completely different matter to actually stop procrastination from occurring”. Lily went on to reference how “people usually complain about the matter but don’t do anything to fix it as they may not know how to or they may feel unable to.” Realizing you are procrastinating is the easiest part, working to put an end to it is the real challenge. Being able to find an end to this grueling self-harm must come from within yourself. There are no miracle remedies.

Here are some recommendations and tricks based on Ness Labs research to lower procrastination: 

• Do the worst task first. Putting off tasks that you are dreading will demotivate you and drain your mental energy. Check it off your list first to feel more productive and more motivated to keep going.
• Break down the work at hand into smaller bits. Create tasks that feel more manageable and try to do them one at a time instead of attempting to do the whole work at once.
• Try the 10 minute trick. This trick just says to sit down, set a timer, and work for 10 minutes as hard as you can. See how you feel after. If you can keep going then do so, otherwise take a 5-10 minute break and start again.
• Work in public. Sit down at a coffee shop for example and get yourself a sweet treat. Then use the power of positive pressure by publicly committing to the task at hand. You already sat down with your work and everyone can see that you want to finish the task at hand, so do so. 

Finally, give yourself rewards. After working for a while or completing something that you have been putting off for a long time, go buy yourself your favorite dessert for example. This will keep you motivated and push you to continue your work.