The real reason you procrastinate

- Do you procrastinate? A lot of people think procrastination is a time management issue, reflecting laziness or a lack of motivation, but it's actually none of these things. The research tells us that the cause of procrastination isn't issues of self-regulation. Instead, it's actually linked to emotional regulation. Interesting, right? You'll make excuses and procrastinate when there's a risk that you might fail at something, where you're scared of the complexity or you're uncertain about how things will turn out. So before you assume you need better time management skills, see if you can solve the emotional foundation of your procrastination first, it might work for you. But if it doesn't, try these two. Have some kind of reward that you'll get once you complete something, and avoid distractions around you. These can both help with willpower.