Pleasurable Consequences of Procrastination

Today’s Tasks

• Add Pleasurable Consequences of Procrastination

Click on the button below to get to the “Pleasurable Consequences” exercise in this app. You’ll see a form to add your procrastination consequences.

Pleasurable Procrastination Consequences

Type in a pleasurable consequence you’ve identified and then reflect on how it keeps you procrastinating. Repeat this step for all the pleasurable consequences you can come up with.

For example, by procrastinating, you may feel one of the following:

• Need to be in charge: a sense of power and control due to doing things on you own terms
• Pleasure seeking: feeling pleasure because you are living in the moment
• Fear of failure or sisapproval: a reduced likelihood of failure or criticism as a result of hot taking any action.
• Fear of uncertainty: reduced uncertainty 
• Fear of uncertainty: reduced uncertainty because of nothing being changed or challenged
• Low self-confidence: not challenging yourself and potentially revealing your inadequacies
• Depleted energy: continuously taking it easy on yourself and avoiding challenges, and justifying it as a need to replenish your energy

Pleasurable Consequence Title

Type here…

How does this keep me procrastinating?

Type here…

+ Add Pleasurable Consequence  (button)

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Welcome back, ____!

Procrastination results in various personal consequences-pleasurable (today’s lesson) as well as painful (tomorrow’s lesson).

No matter how they make you feel in the moment, such consequences end up keeping you procrastinating and, therefore, need to be addressed.

Pleasurable Consequences

The pleasurable consequences (or “pay-offs”) of procrastination make you feel good at the moment of procrastination. Therefore, they make you more likely to procrastinate the next time you face a similar task or goal. Let’s look into the 3 most common pleasurable consequences 

Relieve Discomfort

Unhelpful rules and assumptions covered in the previous lessons often lead to me feelings of discomfort (e.g. exhaustion, boredom, anger, resentment, frustration, etc.) when faced with a task or goal. Pleasurable consequences often initially relieve such discomfort because procrastination allows you to avoid the task that is making you feel uncomfortable. Therefore, pleasurable consequences that simply “feel good” are dangerous.

Stick To Your Rules & Assumptions

Procrastinating may also make you feel good for having stuck to your rules and assumptions, even if they’re unhelpful.

Other Pleasurable Feelings 

The activities you engage in as a substitute for doing the priority tasks (e.g. daydreaming, social media, YouTube, etc.) will often be pleasurable in themselves. The pleasure you get from these diversions will have its own payoff.