The following is a sample from my book 23 Anti-Procrastination Habits: How to Stop Being Lazy and Get Results in Your Life. It includes many of the common “Procrastination Excuses” that many people use, as well as explaining why people procrastinate. If you're struggling with procrastination, then I encourage you to learn the simple habits for overcoming this problem, see the best examples of procrastination and learn a few vital lessons about how to not procrastinate.
It’s pretty easy to make an excuse for not starting a task. The trick is to know when a reason is valid and when it’s a creative way to avoid taking action. Most of our procrastination feelings come from a subconscious fear or self-limiting beliefs. When you take time to explore these thoughts, you’ll find that it’s easy to overcome them and create an action-oriented mindset.
Your mind is an amazing machine. It gives you the power to create anything from your imagination. However, it can also limit your ability to get things done. We often get stuck with a project—not from a lack of desire, but because of maladaptive thought patterns that bounce around in our heads.
The root cause of the “why people procrastinate” comes from our self-limiting beliefs. When these thoughts go unchecked, they cause you to make “excuses” for why a project/task can’t be completed. However, when you challenge these excuses, you’ll see that most of them are caused by hidden fears or destructive habit patterns.
(Side note: One positive ​way to improve your life is to read and learn something new every day.  A great tool to do this is to join over 1 million others and start your day with the latest FREE, informative news from this website.)
There are seven causes of procrastination psychology that people commonly give as the reasons why they procrastinate. If you wonder, “why do i procrastinate so much” understanding these procrastination excuses and why they occur will bring you step closer to overcoming procrastination:
7 Common Procrastination Excuses
Excuse 1:“It doesn’t matter.”
People often avoid tasks that don’t seem important. Sometimes it’s not time-critical. Other times it’s an unpleasant task that doesn’t relate to a long-term goal. And often it requires you to overcome a major fear. No matter what thought runs through your head, there are times when we put off a task because it doesn’t seem to be important.
One of the simplest remedies to the “doesn’t matter” excuse is to develop the habit of making simple decisions. Either you get busy with completing a task or you have the courage to get rid of it. As you’ll learn, one of the best ways to overcome procrastination excuses is to make hard decisions in your life—even if that means eliminating things that once seemed important.
Excuse 2:“I need to do ______ first.”
Projects often get hung up because a specific task needs to be completed before doing anything else. Whether it’s a phone call, conflicting project, or a simple purchase, it’s easy to procrastinate when there’s something that needs to be done before anything else.
You can forever eliminate this excuse by developing the habit of completely defining each project. The key here is to break them down into a series of tiny actions that you take on a daily basis. (Credit to Getting Things Done for this major insight.)
Excuse 3: “I need more information to get started.”
Sometimes this is a valid excuse. We often have tasks that require extensive research before getting started. However, I don’t think that it’s a valid excuse if you’re doing it on a weekly basis.
At the risk of sounding snarky, the simplest solution to this excuse is to get more information. Not knowing how to do something should never be a reason to avoid a project. Nowadays, it’s possible to learn any skill or find someone else to do it for you.
Excuse 4: “I feel overwhelmed and have too much to do.”
We all experience those moments when we feel overwhelmed. It seems like no matter how hard we work, our to-do lists never get to-done. Usually this problem happens to people who possess the “Superman mentality” where they feel personally responsible to do everything on their own.
Feelings of being overwhelmed can be eliminated by focusing on important projects and delegating/eliminating the rest. Once you know how to identify what’s important, you’ll find it’s easy to “single-handle” each task and get things done in a consistent manner.
Excuse 5: “I don’t have time right now.”
Again, this is a completely valid excuse. Sometimes you’re focused on a project and it doesn’t make sense to start another one. However, the “no time” excuse often turns into a nasty procrastination habit where you’re forever putting off important things.
Saying you don’t have enough time now promises a perfect future when work will be easier, less complicated and fun to do. Subconsciously though, many people make this excuse with the secret hope that the need to do the task will eventually disappear.
If you keep delaying action until that mythical “someday,” chances are quite high that you’ll never tackle this project.
Excuse 6: “I keep forgetting to do it.”
People often procrastinate on a task because they forget to do it. Sure, we all have those moments when something slips our mind. However, being chronically forgetful is a sign of a deep-seated resistance towards a specific task.
Perhaps you don’t think it’s important. Maybe you’re scared of failure. Or perhaps you’re not using an effective organizational system. The point here is that “forgetting” isn’t a valid reason for procrastination. At some point, you’ll need to make the commitment to either start a task or get rid of it.
Excuse 7: “I don’t feel like doing it.”
Sure, there will always be unpleasant tasks that we dread. The secret is to know when something needs to be done and when it can be permanently eliminated. We often confuse the two by avoiding tasks that might have a positive long-term impact on our lives. That means that even if you don’t want to do something, that shouldn’t be the only reason for why you’re putting it off. The better solution is to analyze why you’re dreading the task to see if it’s a symptom of a larger problem.
Why Procrastination Excuses Are B.S.
Nobody is immune to making procrastination excuses. No matter how successful you are, at some point, you’ll come up with a reason to not take action on a project.
That’s why it’s important to form habits that specifically prevent and overcome the excuses that sweep the reasons why people procrastinate right out the door. Once you understand the why of procrastination it is easy to move onto the next step. How to stop procrastinating.
Finally, one positive ​way to improve your life is to read and learn something new every day.  A great tool to do this is to join over 1 million others and start your day with the latest FREE, informative news from this website.
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Think there are other reasons why people procrastinate? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Then share the image on why people procrastinate on your favorite social media website (like Pinterest)!
I think fighting number 3 and 7 are so important. You will never have all of the knowledge. Learn some beforehand then just jump right in and learn as you go. 7 is important too because even if we love something, some days we will just not want to do it and we need to learn to go against our emotions because once we get started we tend to enjoy it. At least that is what has been the case for me : D.
Sebastian,
Agreed. I think one of the funny things about procrastination is that some people view it as being “lazy” -while in truth many of the reasons for procrastination stem from trying to make things too “perfect”
Absolutely agree. I’m an over-preparer and that serves as a real procrastination tool. The offsetting of responsibility to a future, better self is always a common one for me too. ‘If I had this shiny new piece of technology then I’d be able to do it’. Do what you can with what you have, right now.
“Do what you can with what you have, right now.” -YUP! Good or above average is good enough. A perfect project that never gets done is worthless. Thanks for the comment, Andy
#1 – everything matters (more or less)
#2 – schedule what you need to do first
#3 – schedule getting more information
#4 to #7 – schedule it
And by schedule I mean set it up in your management system (eg. calendar;) ) and spend some time on actually doing those tasks (don’t shuffle it in your schedule again and again)
I can relate with all of those excuses, although I have gotten much better. One of my other problems is distraction. My brain is a three ring circus most days, so by the time I get settled down into a good “flow” my day is half over!
Sabra,
I feel you. Distraction is EXACTLY why I feel it is so important to start on a big task early and completely eliminate all distractions while doing so. For me it is using the pomodoro technique and spending an hour or two writing every morning. Before emails. Before meetings. Before checking anything. Just me locked in a room alone. It is amazing how much you can accomplish with distraction free environment and a good routine.
SJ.Scott and Sabra,
Agree with you guys 100%. Eliminate the distractions you can eliminate (phone, radio, fb, answer e-mails etc) and schedule your tasks in ranking importance. My biggest obstacle is “I only need to do this and that first”
You can always justify your procrastination.
When I have something I don’t particularly want to do, I prepare the evening before and commence first thing in the morning before I do anything else…..well maybe after my breakfast and a cup of coffee 🙂
The longer I leave it, the harder it is to commence. So I leave no room for excuses. Once I start, it is easy to continue.
Great article – thank you
I really enjoyed this post! I love the section that speaks to the “superhuman” tendencies some of us have when we feel overwhelmed. It’s good advice to just narrow down what’s most important and go from there. Thanks again!
Perfectionism is my problem. I wait so long because I can’t stand not getting it just right. Perfectionism is a breeding ground for procrastination.
Good post, S.J.
I tell myself, “You can stand anything but thumbscrews for 5 minutes,” and then resolve to do the first avoided task for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, you’ll have some momentum and you’ll probably say, “This isn’t so bad. It’s kind of rewarding.” Voila . . . You’re doing what you put off, and making progress. (And getting enjoyment, or at least satisfaction, out of overcoming procrastination.)
Next time it’ll be easier to use the 5 minute trick because you’ll believe in it.