The Top 10 Reasons You’re Procrastinating and How to Finally Stop the Cycle

* Disclaimer * Some of the posted links are affiliate programs. By clicking these links, I may receive monetary compensation. This will not alter the price or change the buyer’s experience.

Procrastination is a curse that haunts us all.  It strikes when we least expect it and completely cripples not only our productivity but our ability to keep up with all of our obligations.

There is a popular myth that a lack of self-discipline is the cause of procrastination.  This is not an opinion that I agree with.  People don’t procrastinate just because they are lazy.  So many factors go into your motivation level that this generalization can be harmful. 

So then, why do we procrastinate?  What is literally holding us down? 

It’s not always as simple as “just get up and do what you have to do.”  Sometimes, as much as we want to and as disciplined as we are, we just can’t get started. 

Today, we are going to count down the top 10 reasons why you are procrastinating.  Then, we will discuss what causes these bouts and why it’s so hard to get to work. 

Don’t worry.  We will even offer some suggestions to get you back to being your regularly productive self.

Unlock Your Productivity Potential Now! Download Your FREE Study Planner and Activity Tracker. Crush Procrastination and Supercharge Your Success Today!

What is Procrastination?

Procrastination is a feeling of disinterest or lack of motivation. It’s when you know you need to get up and tackle that looming to-do list, but you just can’t get out of bed. You know you need to get started, but for some reason, you just can’t seem to work up the will. This is not an all-or-nothing kind of mood. It can be a spectrum.

Your procrastination level can be caused by many factors. Everything from diet, physical activity, depression, stress, and even ADHD can influence your motivation. While being mindful of your habits can help, small steps toward making progress can be incredibly motivating when you are crippled by procrastination.

10 Reasons you are procrastinating

Many triggers lead to procrastination.  These 10 cover the most popular reasons.  Identifying what led to your motivation loss can help you stay vigilant of these traps.  This way, you can avoid them before they drag you down. 

I suck at making decisions and can never stick to a plan.

You’re standing in the cereal aisle, and you can’t make a decision.  Lucky Charms or Froot Loops?  Lucky Charms has marshmallows, but every O is tasty with Fruit Loops.  Besides, we both know you’re just going to pick out all the marshmallows anyway.

You stand there staring and staring and staring.  You’re paralyzed, unable to decide.

Is this you?  Does this sound familiar at all?

Or are you at the other extreme where you make decisions quickly, but then you get home and immediately second-guess yourself?  Self-doubt comes rushing in, and all you can think of is that you made the wrong choice.

While working on an assignment, you might scrap all the progress you’ve made just to restart again at the last minute simply because you don’t like the strategy you started with.

A lot of people struggle with making simple decisions.  The most important thing to remember is to trust yourself.  You must trust your original vision and plan.   

You have to be kind enough not to do yourself a disservice by undermining all the progress you have already made.  Don’t abandon your original plan in favour of cramming an entire project into too little time.  Trust the strategy you’ve already committed to.

This form of procrastination is sneaky because it is thinly veiled as productive.  You are starting projects but just struggling with the steps.  Don’t be fooled!  Progress is not being made if you constantly start over and second-guess yourself.  You are just burning energy with no real headway to show for it. 

Stick your plan through to completion.  Trust me.  You will feel much better once it’s finished.

I constantly make excuses and lie to myself.

If we wanted to, we could justify just about anything.  This is dangerous and often gets us into a lot of trouble.  Not starting that project that’s due next week today because “we work better under pressure” is the bald-faced lie we tell ourselves daily.

While some people may definitely be able to make the best of a stressful situation, that same person would undoubtedly flourish, given the time to prepare and implement a strategy correctly.  You have to be honest with yourself.  Putting this project off when you have extra time to complete it will stress you and overextend your efforts. 

Putting it off is just going to cause you to rush, take shortcuts, and possibly overlook mistakes.  This will eventually cause you to feel guilty for pushing yourself through all this unnecessary and unwanted stress.

No one does such a great job under pressure that it justifies not starting now.  With all that extra time, you can really sit down and break the project into simple steps that allow you to gracefully and thoroughly complete it over an extended timeline.

Stop procrastinating and make a simple list of everything you need to do to complete this assignment.  Then, start plugging away at these simple tasks until you see enough progress to get real motivation.

I have low self-confidence.

Sometimes, we put things off because we don’t believe in our ability to do them.

• “I’ll never understand anything so complicated.”

• “I’m struggling with the coursework, or I have trouble with essays.”

Lacking self-confidence is something that we all struggle with.  It’s hard to feel good about yourself every day, but it’s deeper than that for some people.  Some of us never seem to believe in ourselves.  

The best cure for lacking self-confidence has something to show for your efforts.  Having something tangible that you can review and show other people will boost your spirits and help you believe in your ability to see things through.

Remember that no one expects you to be fantastic at something on your first try.  You have to practice at it.  If you start now, even if your first draft is less than stellar, you will have the time to review, revise, and edit over and over until you have it exactly right.

You can do this until you’re proud of your work.  Repeat the process until it is everything that you want it to be.  The only thing standing between you and the product you want to put out is: starting today.

Also, never compare your skills to those of your friends.  The grass is always greener from the other side of the fence.  Writing or drawing may seem incredibly easy to someone else, but I can assure you that there were hours and hours of practice behind them.  Everyone has a talent, and you have gifts they can only wish for.

Everything must be perfect!

All too often, we expect perfection from ourselves.  Even though we know that our standards are nearly impossible for others to live up to.  We somehow believe that we can attain them.  This is frequently caused by the absolute perfect aesthetics we are subjected to constantly on social media.  With their immaculately sterile homes and perfect GPAs, these perfectly manicured models are the facade everyone puts up.

The truth is that all of us struggle.  Everybody has a bad day.  Everyone has a Monday where the best they can do is sweatpants and a hat.  Each person has to study to get the grades they want for themselves.

No amount of stationery or windblown sunset shots can change that.  Many times, you must remind yourself of this.  You can’t live this perfect lie every day, and you can’t expect perfection from yourself at every moment.  Perfection does not exist.

You’ll never get to the final draft if you get hung up on all the imperfections in your writing style, note-taking, assignments, or lives.  Edit, revise, then proofread the heck out of that assignment, then turn it in.

Sometimes, you have to remember that you have to hand in an assignment for it to be graded.  Any mark is better than the big fat zero you’ll get from not handing it in at all.

I don’t understand how.

Too often, assignments are handed out, and students are overwhelmed by this daunting task they say they don’t understand.  This leads to the project getting put to the side, where it is eventually forgotten until the final hours.

The problem here is that by the time they get around to dealing with this assignment, it’s too late to ask questions about how to complete it.  This leaves students scrambling, and they will never know if they could have gotten a better mark had they understood the project better.

Start early and try your best.  Often, a lack of understanding is really just being overwhelmed by something new. 

Start the project and work through it step-by-step.  More often than not, once you start moving through the process, you will find that it’s not as difficult as it originally appeared.

If you do find that you’re still struggling after reading the instructions and working on the steps, don’t be afraid to approach your professor or the T.A. for help or insight.  But, the most important thing is that you start.

I can’t seem to get organized.

No one is born with outstanding organizational skills; this is a muscle you must hone and exercise daily.  The most important thing to understand is that once you put in the time to get organized, staying that way is easy. 

There are so many ways to get and stay organized.  The simplest way to organize your day is to keep a running to-do list so you don’t lose track of what needs to be done.

Unfortunately, the only way to get out of the procrastination rut caused by the lack of organization is simply to get organized.  I know it seems like it is easier said than done, but once you form these habits, you will be surprised at how much easier it is to get yourself together and stay on top of your tasks.

Try using Siri or your Google assistant to add tasks to your to-do list hands-free.  Just ask them to create, or add to a specified list.

I don’t know how to study. 

Unfortunately, teaching study skills is largely overlooked in high school.  Many students struggle with learning and implementing these skills simply because they have never been taught.  They then flounder throughout their first years in post-secondary while trying to figure it out on their own.  This can lead to a lack of confidence in their ability to really prepare for exams.

How can you get down to studying if you’re not sure you’re doing it right?  Figuring out how to study early in your educational career is vital to your success, especially in post-secondary education.

Many students enter college or university after never having studied a day in their lives, only to find themselves struggling shortly after enrolling. This can lead to a crisis of confidence in their ability to graduate, their intelligence, and even their self-worth.

What is really unfortunate about this is that study skills are so easy to develop and learn.  There are so many different ways to study, and once you commit to discovering them, it’s just a matter of finding which style is right for you.

We have an entire series dedicated to different ways to study.  A great place to start would be “Choosing a Study Guide.” This video covers many types of study guides.  

We also have a free study planner to help you schedule your study sessions.  It comes with a tracker with over 20 different study activity suggestions on which you can track your progress.  Download it today.

Never be intimidated to start something just because you lack the confidence to see it through.  More often than not, confidence comes once you start seeing results and progress.  Luckily, help is never more than a phone call, an email, or a YouTube video away!

I never have the energy.

Do you feel like you’re always tired? The only thing you want to do all day is to lay around in bed and think about everything you should be doing. You might binge-watch Netflix or drift in and out of naps all day long and think, “What’s wrong with me?” “Why can I get myself together?” “Why can’t I just get out of bed and get things done?”

You might be surprised to hear that you’re not alone. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who does not have these lows or depleted energy levels.

What we need to figure out is:

• Is this something that happens occasionally, or is this every day?

• If this happens only occasionally, is there a pattern to it?

When you are reviewing this question, the first thing you should do is contact your doctor. A lack of energy can sometimes be a symptom of something bigger, and we would never want to ignore that.

Talk to your doctor and ensure there’s nothing going on beneath the surface. Once your health has been checked out and your Doctors have given you the thumbs-up, there are many things you can do to address low energy.

First and foremost, make sure you’re getting enough sleep. I know 8 hours is often a lot when juggling many obligations, but try to reach this goal as much as possible.  

Taking in and retaining information is impossible without adequate sleep. Even going to class overtired like this is useless because you are not preserving the material.

Also, make sure that you are setting and sticking to the same bedtime and wake-up time as much as possible. Keeping this routine strict is the best way to feel rested.

Next, consider your diet. Have you been eating lots of junk? Fast food can often cause these kinds of energy spikes and free falls. Try tweaking your diet to include more energy-boosting foods like whole grains, proteins, and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Another track to increase your energy levels is to make it a habit to work out. This always sounds counterintuitive because you need the energy to work out, but working out boosts your energy levels.

I’m not even going to try to lie to you. The first few workouts are going to be tough. You’re going to be sore, achy, and tired. But by the end of the week, you will feel amazing. You don’t have to go crazy and join a class or anything. Just try a quick yoga session at home or a jog around the block to get your blood pumping until you are ready to commit to the workout lifestyle.

I have no direction or vision.

We’ve all heard these questions before:

• “So, what are you planning on doing with your life?”

• “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

• “When exactly are you going to graduate from University?”

• “What are you going to do after that?”

Some people seem to have it all figured out.  It’s like they know exactly who they are and what they want to be.  That’s not always the case; some people are just late bloomers.  They don’t find out until they’re well into their careers.  Others find out while they’re away at University or College.

Some people even change their majors several times.  There is no right or wrong answer to finding your destination.

It’s okay not to have an ultimate vision and the exact steps you want to take to get there.  However, having clear short-term goals is essential for making progress in life.  You may not know what you want to do as a career, but you know you want to pass this course. 

Don’t let being overwhelmed by the idea of long-term success inhibit you from making short-term progress.  Making goals, tracking them, and achieving them, is vital for measured success.  Having clearly defined targets for your week, month, semester, and year is crucial.  These can be as simple as improving your GPA, completing specific courses, or even personal goals like getting your driver’s license.

Depending on your actual schedule, a monthly goal can be something like acing a test, while weekly goals can be completing all of your notes and homework.  Simple goals like these are baby steps toward finding and achieving an ultimate goal.

Alternatively, if your goal for the year is to finally decide what you want to be, perhaps you can enroll in different courses you are interested in.

Thinking about being a doctor?  Take a biology course.  A lawyer?  Take something in law or criminology.  Experimenting with different classes while you’re at University or College is a great way to explore various opportunities without fully committing to a specific path for the rest of your life.  This way, you will be able to see if you are taking a liking to the material before you wake up in your forties and realize that it’s not for you.

I’m afraid I will fail.

Sometimes, we have dreams that are so big they scare us.  If this is you, the fear of not achieving such an incredible dream can be paralyzing.

If you don’t start, you can’t fail.

At the same time, if you don’t start, you also can’t succeed.

You deserve to be able to achieve anything that you set your mind to.  You can do it with the right strategy and proper implementation.

There are so many others out there who have built empires out of nothing.  These come-ups have proven that anything is possible.  You have to start.  You have to put one foot in front of the other.  This fear can be crippling, and it hits all of us.  Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, stick to your plan, and do what it is you’re afraid of.

Remember, you are full of potential; the only thing between you and achieving all of your dreams is getting started.

Procrastination happens to all of us, and it happens for a variety of reasons.  It’s vital that you aren’t too hard on yourself when it comes to self-doubt, second-guessing, lack of confidence, or the inability to make a decision.  These are all problems with simple solutions.

When you’re deep in procrastination mode and laying in bed not doing what you need to, you might not appreciate me just saying: “Just start!” But ultimately, it really is just a matter of starting.  

Many people will argue that one of the entries should have lacked self-discipline, but I don’t believe that.  Even the most disciplined students and people, in general, will find themselves procrastinating.  It’s a human to procrastinate, second-guess yourself, or even doubt yourself. 

The cure for procrastination is motivation.  Think about what motivates you.  What do you aspire to?   Now, go out there and get it!

The best motivation is seeing results, and the first step in seeing results is just to get started.  Do away with negative self-talk and be kind to yourself.  Repeat some positive affirmations when it’s hard to do that.  Remember, you are full of potential; the only thing between you and achieving all of your dreams is getting started. 

Don’t forget to pick up this free study planner.  It will help you keep track of all your tasks, breaking them down simply.  Tracking these tasks will help you increase your productivity, generating the motivation you need to keep up with your workload.

I would like to be transparent so that there are no misunderstandings. As an affiliate, I may earn a small commission from any products linked in this post. This is not a sponsored post, and I was not asked to recommend these products. These are products that I genuinely love and want to share with my audience.