Procrastination doesn’t just happen: It’s our learned response to stressors related to a task we should or must do. When we are confronted by stressors–challenge, hindrance, or threat–procrastination gives us a way to temporarily duck the distress the stressor causes us.

Unfortunately, licking the procrastination habit is not a matter of “just do it.” One trap that’s easy to fall into is to attribute procrastination to not having enough motivation. Not having enough willpower. Not exercising enough determination and self-control.

The truth is, motivation, willpower, and determination and self-control aren’t enough. 

When we generalize, like thinking we need more motivation or willpower, we aim for the wrong target and miss opportunities for change.

To overcome procrastination, your pattern of response to stressors is what must change. 

But to do that, you need to identify and unravel the kinds of stressors that trigger your procrastination because each kind of stressor requires a unique strategy to address it.

Developing your own personalized procrastination profile can give you a reliable roadmap to crush procrastination in its tracks. A personalized procrastination profile helps you recognize the specific stressors that trigger your unique learned procrastination patterns . . . and then points the way to a personalized procrastination-busters plan that alters old patterns of behavior and installs new ones.

Take this assessment as your first step toward developing your own personalized procrastination-busters profile. It will help reveal the stressors and demands that trigger that “uh oh” feeling inside you that leads to procrastination and blocks you from getting things done on time and without a lot of stress.

And be sure to check out The Ultimate Guide to Getting Things Done Without Procrastinating.