Anyone who has ever been plagued with procrastination knows the internal agonizing and anxiety that can go along with it.
On one hand, we fully recognize the need to act and get things done.
But on the other hand, we avoid doing anything--even getting started--because we may be overwhelmed with too much to do, too little time in which to do it, and too many moving parts to juggle.
But in addition to the difficult push-pull thoughts (do it, don't do it) and feelings we have in the moment, procrastination also can leave us with a residue of disgust and shame.
Those deeper feelings can keep us locked into a pattern of procrastination that's difficult to escape from.
In other blogs, we've defined the three kinds of stressors (challenge, hindrance, and threat) that can trigger procrastination.
We've also shared our science-based Behavior Design Model, that can increase your desire and ability to act because it helps you account for the many different motivating and enabling factors that drive behavior.
How Stressors Affect Us and Lead to Procrastination
Almost without exception, challenge stressors (ie, too much to do in too little time) are the kind most productivity experts, organizational psychologists, coaches, and others deal with when it comes to procrastination. A lot of the advice is solid, and by using our Behavior Design Model, you can put it into practice in a systematic way to maximize your likelihood of success.
Unfortunately, addressing the procrastination that comes in response to hindrance and threat stressors is rarely discussed--except within exclusive academic circles--and help is rare to find.
We'll take a look at threat stressors in the next blog, but for now, we want to share critical insights into two key factors that affect how we think of and manage hindrance stressors.
Hindrance stressors, such as interruptions and distractions, insufficient or poor equipment, lack of clarity about who's responsible for what, competing demands, and being faced with a lot of uncertainty, red tape, or hoops to jump through, can make your ability to do what you have to do, hard . . . or even seem impossible.
Hindrance stressors can wear you down, lead to frustration and anger, or cause a lot of sleepless nights.
It’s easy to see how hindrance stressors can lead to procrastination: In the face of such stressors, the easiest path is to put off doing it.
With some hindrance stressors however, you don’t have a choice and procrastination is not an option.
Here’s a simple example based on a real-life story: Imagine that you’re a college student working at a small Kentucky Fried Chicken near a mountain ski resort. It’s Sunday evening and the KFC has been hit with a huge group of hungry skiers wanting to grab a big KFC bucket (chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and coleslaw) before heading home several hours away.
The chicken, biscuits, and cole slaw are ready to go, but you’ve run out of instant mashed potatoes.
The boss is the only one with the authority to make the potatoes, but he’s left for a one-hour break and can’t be reached.
It doesn’t take a lot of skill to read simple directions on how to whip up the potatoes and get the order out for all the hungry–and now impatient–skiers.
But you know that you could really blow it with the boss if you overstep his authority. . . even if it is to get out the order and make the customers happy.
This is a classic hindrance stressor: You don’t have what it takes to do your job successfully (no mashed potatoes). You have competing demands (satisfy the customers or respect your boss’s authority).
What do you do?
(True story: This author made the potatoes, got the order out, and then got fired for insubordination. Oh, well . . . she was going to quit the following week anyway!)
As we said, there are times when you simply can’t procrastinate regardless of hindrance stressors.
But that doesn’t mean that procrastination is completely off the table. In fact, hindrance stressors may contribute to procrastination in another setting.
For example, you may be grappling with hindrance stressors at work. You get home at the end of a long day and the last thing you want to do is anything that feels more taxing, even things that could benefit you personally, like preparing healthy meals, getting exercise, or reaching out to spend quality time with family or friends. It’s easier to veg out on the couch in front of a screen, maybe with a beer, and push off to tomorrow what you should be doing today.
It makes sense, right?
But this is only one side of the story about stressors. There’s another . . .
When It Comes to a Stressor, It’s Not What You See, But How You See It
After decades of research on stressors and their impact, we see that each kind of stressor doesn’t trigger the same response from everyone. In fact, depending on time of day and context, the exact same stressor may not even trigger the same response from the same person.
It turns out that regardless of the stressor, what makes the difference in its effect–and how, or if–it triggers procrastination–is how the stressor is appraised.
Appraisal is your judgment about an event or situation.
For example, at work, a fast-approaching deadline for a presentation that requires bringing together a lot of complex data may not faze an experienced data analyst but could paralyze a novice, trigger a deer-in-the-headlights response, and send them into a serious tailspin of procrastination.
On the home front, having to fold laundry and empty the dishwasher while also taking care of three little kids under the age of five in a house where TV or other screens are forbidden could be “life as normal” for their parents, but strike terror in the heart of a first-time nanny, leading them to doing nothing more than keeping the kids from getting hurt and counting the minutes until they can go home.
See how it depends on the person’s thinking and judgment at the time?
It turns out that there are two kinds of appraisal that determine what we do in a given situation.
First, we appraise the situation for whether it’s a stressor or not. (Is it hard?)
Then, if we judge the situation as a stressor, we appraise it based on how we think we can cope with it. (Can I do it?)
Some experts suggest that these appraisals occur simultaneously and that our appraisal about our ability to cope can inform our initial appraisal of whether the situation is a stressor or not.
The bottom line is that when faced with a particular situation or event, what we do depends on how we judge the severity of the stressor and our ability to cope with it.
In the words of Viktor Frankl, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
The good news is that any and all stressors–even hindrance stressors–can offer opportunities for mastery and growth.
The Importance of Mindset
Appraisal applies to a single event or situation at a single moment in time. But what drives appraisal in the first place?
It has to do with mindset.
In the same way that Carol Dweck defined two kinds of mindsets (growth and fixed) that apply to learning, researchers also have identified two kinds of mindsets that apply to stress: “stress mindsets.”
Stress mindset goes even farther than stress appraisal because stress mindset is a meta-cognitive belief about the nature of stress in general.
Stress mindset operates in the background–and all the time–regardless of how you assess the demands of a particular situation or event, and the resources you have to address them with.
In other words, stress mindset doesn’t focus on the kind or amount of stress you’re experiencing, nor on what you can do about it. Rather, stress mindset has to do with your underlying belief about the nature of stress itself.
The two kinds of stress mindsets include:
Stress-is-enhancing mindset
This mindset reflects the belief that stress can enhance key outcomes, such as performance and productivity, health and wellbeing, and learning and growth.
Not only do people with a stress-is-enhancing mindset exhibit more adaptive physiological responses to stress, but they also demonstrate more “approach-oriented” behavioral responses in the face of stress.
Approach-oriented means that you recognize, acknowledge, accept, and act on the stress. You don’t run away and hide.
People with a stress-is-enhancing mindset end up with higher ratings for perceived health and life satisfaction even after factoring in how much stress they are under, how they appraise the specific stress at the moment, and the coping strategies they use. In other words, a stress-is-enhancing mindset gives you an extra positive boost.
Take a job interview, for example. It’s stressful no matter how you look at it. People with a stress-is-enhancing mindset go into such an interview expecting positive outcomes, so they prepare by practicing their interviewing skills, stay focused and on-point during the interview, assess how they did afterward, celebrate the wins and turn negatives into opportunities for improvement. Their mindset optimizes immediate positive outcomes and sets the stage for continued good outcomes.Stress-is-debilitating mindset
People who have a mindset that reflects the belief that stress is debilitating tend to do more poorly than those with a stress-is-enhancing mindset. People with a stress-is-debilitating mindset expect the experience of stress to result in negative outcomes. They expect to have their energy sapped, their thinking ability jeopardized, and their sense of self-efficacy and self-esteem to fall.
While people with a stress-is-enhancing mindset exhibit approach-oriented behaviors that help them manage stressors, people with a stress-is-debilitating mindset exhibit avoidance behaviors.
As you can imagine, one of the biggest avoidance behaviors is procrastination. If you believe deep in your heart that the stressor you’re facing is going to leave you exhausted, overwhelmed, and feeling crummy about the situation and yourself, why wouldn’t you put off doing anything about it? Who wouldn’t want to run and hide?
The job interview of a person with a stress-is-debilitating mindset expects the worst. As such, they procrastinate, put off practicing their interviewing skills and doing research into the potential employer so they’re prepared with insightful questions. They come to the interview ill-prepared, and their lack of positive expectancy colors the interview itself. Afterward, they do whatever they can to take their mind off whatever occurred during the interview–whether good or bad, so no learning takes place. Their stress-is-debilitating is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
How Appraisal and Mindset Interact
Appraisal and mindset play key roles in your response to stressors and in procrastination.
Simply put, appraisal is driven by your mindset.
People who have a stress-is-enhancing mindset are more likely to appraise stressful events as challenge stressors that can be overcome rather than hindrances that block them, regardless of the actual nature of the stressor.
They expect positive outcomes, so stressors are experienced as bumps in the road that can be crossed.
In contrast, individuals who have a stress-is-debilitating mindset are more likely to interpret all stressors as hindrances rather than as challenges. They expect negative outcomes. Stressors are seen as more than bumps in the road: They become impenetrable brick walls that stop you dead.
How to Transform Mindset and Change Appraisal Behaviors
Some men see things as they are and ask, “Why?” I dream things that never were and ask, “Why not?”
This quote, by Robert F. Kennedy, reminds us that what determines outcomes is our ability to see beyond the limitations, and notice the opportunities. It’s a concept embodied in a stress-is-enhancing mindset.
It means opening up the door to possibility, expanding our perspectives about what we’re capable of doing, appraising each situation as something to learn from, and taking action–even the smallest action–because we believe that positive outcomes are possible.
With a stress-is-enhancing mindset, procrastination can become a thing of the past.
When we develop a stress-is-enhancing mindset, instead of procrastinating to avoid grappling with the hardship, we see the benefits of taking on hard things. As Viktor Frankl wrote:
“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.”
How Does the Behavior Design Model Help Address Hindrance Stressor and Overcome Procrastination?
The Be Your Own Best Coach Behavior Design Model offers a complete and comprehensive model for behavior design by:
Putting motivation in its rightful place as just one part of the change process
Defining the four key domains and their interrelationships that influence behavior, including procrastination
Reflecting real-world situations
Providing predictive power
You can use the Be Your Own Best Coach Behavior Design Model to grow or enhance a stress-is-enhancing mindset. It can help you manage hindrance stressors and avoid falling into the procrastination trap.
YOU: Motivating Factors (values, purpose, dreams)
Remind yourself why you’re doing the task.
Note how accomplishing the task can allow you to live your purpose.
Recognize how the task can satisfy a passion you have.
YOU: Enabling Factors (skills, deliberate practice, simulation & feedback)
Take a skills inventory to identify strengths and skills that you already have.
Based on the inventory, chart a learning path to learn new skills.
Use deliberate practice to hone your skills.
Reflect on your ability to respond to stressors in a way that brings meaning.
Use the magic words of positive self-talk to stay on course.
Read inspirational quotes or stories of people who have acted to overcome hardships.
PEOPLE: Motivating Factors (encouragement & social norms)
Let people around you know the stressors you’re facing and share your ideas about how you’ll benefit from addressing them.
Review your history of successes and accomplishments with family and friends to reinforce your appreciation of what you’re capable of.
Be on the alert to notice the difference your success makes to people you care about.
Hang out with people who embrace difficult challenges and hardships.
PEOPLE: Enabling Factors (coaches, teachers, guides)
Find inspiration from examples of others who’ve overcome similar stressors.
Get help to develop new skills you may need.
THINGS: Motivating Factors (games, challenges, incentives, rewards)
Make it a game.
Use humor.
Use incentives and reward yourself.
THINGS: Enabling Factors (Equipment, tools, gear; props and aids)
Think outside the box to identify things that can help overcome stressors.
Put old tools into new uses.
ENVIRONMENT: Motivating Factors (beauty & awe, stimulate the 5 senses, cues)
Keep an object in view that reminds you of why you’re doing the task.
Reflect on the power of nature as a way to inspire yourself.
Surround yourself with art and objects that please you and remind you of what you’re capable of and why you’re doing the task.
ENVIRONMENT: Enabling Factors (autopilot & defaults, physical surroundings, distance & barriers)
Manage light, air, temperature, and sound to support effective thinking and action.
Manage your space so everything you need is easily accessible.
Get rid of clutter and other physical distractions.
Regardless of the kind of stressors you face, procrastination doesn’t have to be a monkey on your back. Using the Be Your Own Best Coach Behavior Design Model can help you maximize the power of a stress-is-enhancing mindset to overcome hindrance stressors and ward off procrastination.
CLICK HERE to take your first step to crushing procrastination by creating a Personalized Procrastination Profile.
Read the other articles in the Be Your Own Best Coach series on getting things done without procrastination:
Get Things Done without Procrastinating Workshop
Get Things Done Without Procrastinating gives you everything you need to take a big step toward crushing procrastination. Instead of being filled with stress, anxiousness, or nauseating dread, you can face each stressor, regardless of the kind, with a sense of possibility and optimism.