Why Do We Procrastinate?

Lukas Schwekendiek
5 min readDec 8, 2023
Photo by Chen Mizrach on Unsplash

We procrastinate because we love it!

I mean, what’s not to love?

Instead of doing the hard work we get to lie there, not worrying about anything, blasting ourselves with entertainment, and, if we’re honest, most of us would do what we do when we procrastinate all day every day if it paid the bills.

It’s just so easy and comfortable to be lazy.

Our minds even rewards us for it.

By avoiding the negatives of putting in effort we are getting rid of a negative, which leads to negative reinforcement, but we also positive reinforcement of doing something we enjoy.

In this way we condition ourselves exponentially to be procrastinators.

Add to that the evolutionary benefits of storing up calories through laziness and avoiding danger through avoiding risks or hard work, and our minds suddenly have a hugely reinforced network of reasons to procrastinate, with very little that goes against it.

If we procrastinate we get rewarded, if we work we add a negative to our lives, and whenever we are lazy we are safe.

At least, that’s what our minds still think and why they want us not to lift a finger.

This means, if we want to stop procrastinating we have to go against our minds, our

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Lukas Schwekendiek
Lukas Schwekendiek

Written by Lukas Schwekendiek

Life Coach, Speaker, Writer. Published on TIME, Inc & Huffington Post. Coaching available again! Email: Lukas.schwekendiek@gmail.com with the word "Coaching"