Exercise and procrastination: Don’t put off training until tomorrow

After reading this post you’ll understand perfectly what procrastinating is, why it happens, and how we can minimise it.

Changing habits is always hard. Forming new habits or stopping bad ones are necessary but difficult jobs.

What does it mean to procrastinate?

Procrastination is the repeated, voluntary and irrational delay of an intended action that, at least in theory, benefits us or is important for us.

This delay in intended action is often replaced by more pleasant and less difficult actions.

Procrastinating therefore is swapping what we should do for what we want to do.

Taking a shortcut, that often doesn’t take us where we want to go. But be aware that this isn’t always the case.

Our society has led us to believe that we must be productive 100% of the time and that our personal value is only a reflection of what we have achieved, how strong we are or how much money we have in the bank.

This, of course, can only be defined as a collective madness.

Why do we end up procrastinating?

There are a lot of theories about why we procrastinate.

The most widespread speaks of the phenomenon of coping mechanisms.

Emotions

In this sense, procrastination is a way of tackling difficult emotions, brought on by certain activities (in the case of today’s post: physical exercise).

These emotions are very varied: boredom, anxiety, frustration or insecurity, to name but a few. Also physical pain.

In this sense, procrastination is an issue of emotional control, not productivity, as we’re led to believe.

We prefer not to face a negative emotion in the short term to the potential benefit of getting closer to our goals.

Organic factors

Of course, some some personality traits are predictors of procrastination and make us more prone to it.

The most obvious are self-control and impulsiveness abilities.

Continuing with the “organic” factors, there are inter-individual differences in the metabolism of brain regions involved in making decisions that would make us more prone to procrastination: the parahippocampal cortex and the prefrontal cortex.

Contextual factors

And finally, there are contextual factors that affect everyone equally.

The theory of time motivation explains why (all of us, without exception) are more motivated to do something the closer we are to the expiry date of that activity.

That’s why there are so many students the night before the exam in the libraries of universities around the world.

No.

That is procrastination.

Forms of procrastination

Procrastination has two ingredients that are present most of the time in the act of procrastinating.

Mental justification

The self-generated justification that “exonerates” us from feeling bad about taking the course of action that is expected of us (or that we expect of ourselves).

This mental justification is usually unique and fits perfectly with our current situation.

Temptation

The second ingredient is pleasure.

It normally takes the form of a new series on Netflix, or hours of “scrolling” through social media with no end time (the new zapping). But it can also take the form of an incessant snacking on hyperpalatable foods, or in the worst cases, alcohol or other drugs.

Procrastination and Exercise

In the case of physical activity and exercise, it’s easy to see why we procrastinate.

We live in a society that is becoming more and more comfortable and less tolerant of physical discomfort.

In this sense, physical exercise is becoming increasingly “intimidating” for a large majority.

Swapping the comfort of your home and family for sweat, aches and pains and feeling like your heart’s going to come out of your mouth – it seems crazy.

And if there’s a pandemic in the way providing us with perfect justification (“I can’t go out there, it’s dangerous”), so much the better.

But there is a way.

Tips and tricks so you don’t end up procrastinating with exercise

Choose your “facilitators” carefully

Facilitators are actions taken in anticipation of your procrastinating tendency.

In short, thinking ahead. This way, if you leave your sportswear perfectly folded and ready at the foot of your bed next to your socks and shoes, it will be easier for you to go running first thing in the morning if that’s what you set out to do.

These facilitators can be extended to other areas such as nutrition.

Focus the mind and picture your future pleasure

Visualising how you’ll feel after completing the task you’re avoiding is crucial.

Sit down for 5 minutes and try to imagine the end of the workout, when you come home with the “pump” still inside you, and feel that mixture of adrenaline and tranquility for having done things right.

Or imagine how good it will feel to watch your Netflix episode after you’ve finished that project.

Remember: you’ve done it before

Anticipate how you’ll feel.

Remember that procrastination always comes back, and that other times you’ve managed to overcome it. Why can’t not today too?

Act despite how you feel

Sometimes we must simply rely on discipline, which means doing the right thing “in spite of”.

Despite feeling sad, or tired, or angry, or lazy. Discipline does not come alone. It’s the result of repeating the right action hundreds of times. Until the imprint is left in the deepest part of you.

Don’t forget the basics

Sleep deprivation, over-training or burn-out syndrome will multiply and intensify your attempts at procrastination.

Focus on the micro

If you have to lose 20 kg, don’t focus on the scales or that number.

Focus on putting on your trainers and going to the gym. When you’ve done that, focus on the first one or two sets of the first exercise.

Focus on the immediate.

Avoid temptations

This is common sense, but if you tend to spend hours watching videos from your Youtube suggestions, leave your mobile phone out of the room or enable a specific web page blocker (also useful for other very “tempting” pages).

5, 4, 3, 2, 1

It’s a simple but effective habit that I discovered through the author Mel Robbins and her book “The 5 second rule”.

I don’t know if there is scientific support to validate this habit, but empirically I have been able to prove its effectiveness.

And you won’t lose anything for trying it out.

It consists of, every time you are faced with the temptation to procrastinate, counting down from 5 to 0 – that generates a certain “self-induced urgency” and diverts your mind from those very genuine excuses to the action you want to undertake.

Bibliography

1. Shunmin Zhang, Peiwei Liu, Tingyong Feng. To do it now or later: The cognitive mechanisms and neural substrates underlying procrastination.
2. Xiaoyu Li, Orfeu M Buxton, Yongjoo Kim, Sebastien Haneuse, Ichiro Kawachi. Do procrastinators get worse sleep? Cross-sectional study of US adolescents and young adults.
3. Website of Mel Robbins.

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