Why It's Easy to Procrastinate—And 7 Ways to Break the Habit
Practicing a few simple behaviors can make you happier and more productive.
Updated March 10, 2026 | Reviewed by Kaja Perina
I should warn you: There are no "silver bullets" in this post. Changing behavior is hard work, especially if you're trying to break the habit of procrastinating. But if you're willing to invest in the work, there are several tools at your disposal.
First, let's think about the word "procrastinate." For most of us, it carries a negative connotation: You're not doing what you should be doing . It might be easy to imagine our parents, a boss, or an academic advisor using the word.
However, I use the word simply as a description of behavior: to put off doing something . There may be many good reasons to delay a task, including giving ourselves more time to make a decision and the possibility that the problem will resolve on its own. In fact, some writers even encourage forms of procrastination , such as Adam Grant , who ties it to productivity .
Besides, I'm not your parent or your boss, so this post is not designed to convince you to stop procrastinating. But if you've realized that you're putting things off so much that it's costing you more than it's worth, there are several ways to increase your odds of breaking the habit.
Why Do We Procrastinate?
There are two things we tell ourselves that tend to drive procrastination:
You might think about tasks you're putting off and see which of these factors (or both) applies. You'll probably notice a common denominator—a sense of discomfort that arises when we imagine doing the task.
No matter the cause of our avoidance, it tends to reinforce itself. It can be surprising that procrastination is "rewarding," because it generally gives us neither the satisfaction of finishing something nor a sense of ease while we put it off. How can something that's often unrewarding—even punishing—be so persistent?
If I have a dirty kitchen and I'm feeling overwhelmed by the job of cleaning it, every time I think about it, I'm likely to feel a wave of dread, imagining how annoying and difficult it will be. If I choose to continue reading, watching TV, or whatever else I'm doing, I'll probably feel a sense of relief from not having to tackle something I view as unpleasant. I experience: Delay = Relief .
Psychologists call this phenomenon negative reinforcement . "Negative" because the reward comes from not having an aversive experience and "reinforcement" because it makes the behavior (in this case, delaying) more likely in the future.
When I go into the kitchen to get a snack, I'll remember that I have to clean the kitchen and may very well re-experience that cycle of Delay = Relief . If I'm in the habit of putting things off, I've experienced that cycle thousands of times. As a result, I'll be more likely to avoid tasks in the future.
The more we experience the negative reinforcement of procrastination, the less we experience the competing process of Task Completion = Satisfaction .
By tackling our tasks more immediately, we not only stop reinforcing avoidance but also strengthen the pathway from Task Completion = Satisfaction . Therefore, in the future, we’ll be more likely to complete our tasks.
Breaking the Habit of Procrastination
How can we increase our odds of completing tasks? In my book, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in 7 Weeks , I offer seven strategies to help break the habit of procrastination:
We're often not very good at predicting what will make us happy; we typically lack the imagination to know just how satisfying it will feel to complete something. The next time you finish a task, notice how you feel.
You might also pay attention to how much you enjoy your leisure activities when you're not avoiding something vs. when you're procrastinating. By reinforcing our awareness of the upsides of task completion, we make it easier to continue taking care of things.
LinkedIn Image Credit: Branislav Nenin/Shutterstock
Gillihan, S. J. (2016). Retrain your brain: Cognitive behavioral therapy in 7 weeks—a workbook for managing depression and anxiety . Berkeley, CA: Althea Press.
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Seth J. Gillihan, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and author specializing in mindful cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.