Procrastination:
Unhelpful Rules & Assumptions

The reason people procrastinate, is because they hold unhelpful rules and assumptions about themselves or how the world works. These unhelpful rules and assumptions often generate some form of discomfort about doing a task or goal (e.g., anger, resentment, frustration, boredom, anxiety, fear, embarrassment, depression, despair, exhaustion, etc), and procrastination then becomes a strategy to avoid the discomfort. The unhelpful rules and assumptions most often linked to procrastination are:

• Needing To Be In Charge (e.g., “Things should be done my way. I shouldn’t have to do things I don’t want to, or just because someone else says so”)

• Pleasure Seeking (e.g., “Life’s too short to be doing things that are boring or hard, fun should always come first”)

• Fear Of Failure Or Disapproval (e.g., “I must do things perfectly, otherwise I will fail or others will think badly of me”)

• Fear Of Uncertainty Or Catastrophe (e.g., “I must be certain of what will happen. What if it’s bad? I am better off not doing anything than risking it”)

• Low Self-Confidence (e.g., “I can’t do it. I am just too incapable and inadequate”)

• Depleted Energy (e.g., “I can’t do things when I am stressed, fatigued, unmotivated, or depressed”).

There are a series of steps you can go through to challenge and adjust the unhelpful rules and assumptions that give rise to your procrastination. This involves asking yourself the following questions:

• What is the unhelpful rule or assumption I would like to adjust?

• Where did this rule or assumption come from?

• In what ways is this rule or assumption unreasonable? unrealistic? unfair? unhelpful?

• What are the negative consequences of having this rule or assumption? 

• What is an alternative more helpful (i.e., balanced, flexible, realistic) rule or assumption? 

• What can I do to put this rule or assumption into practice on a daily basis?

• If you hold more that one unhelpful rule or assumption, tackle each one at a time. 

When working out where your rules and assumptions might have come from, this will often be from messages or sayings you have received from others around you, past experiences you have had, or how you have observed others approach life. Often these things will have occurred whilst growing up, but can also come from more recent experiences.

When generating a more helpful rule or assumption, this involves thinking of another way to see yourself and the world that is more balanced, flexible to different circumstances, and realistic given the real state of affairs. 

When thinking of how to put the new rule or assumption into practice, this involves working out how you would act in everyday life if you already believed the new helpful rule or assumption, and then making a point of acting that way.  Often when we act as if something were true, we actually start to believe it.