Procrastination is a strategy of putting things off until later and being distracted by extraneous things. This is a fairly common way clients come to me for therapy. This strategy of avoiding important things occurs in response to the fear and anxiety that are associated with doing these important things. Procrastination is a process in which there is necessarily a conflict between the desire to overcome anxiety and avoidance of the discomfort associated with this overcoming. When the body dictates “I want immediate relief,” and the mind convinces, “I need to do this, it will help in the future.” We tend to immediately satisfy our needs, such is our nature. What to do? I’ll describe it using the example of my work with one of the clients who asked me: “I often procrastinate, what should I do? Is it my laziness or what?” What did we do with Mikhail (let’s call the client that). 1. We recognized that there is a conflict between the mind and the body, between the anxiety that arises and the desire to avoid it. 2. We identified and learned to apply organizational abilities , management and regulation (self-efficacy) to overcome anxiety and do what he put off due to anxiety. 3. Challenged with Mikhail his beliefs in which he felt that he was not able to overcome “discomfort and stress.” Because fear, Anxiety and procrastination have a common feature: avoiding discomfort. It is important to learn to be emotionally stable. You acquire this important skill in the process of long-term therapy. Also, in working with Mikhail, we challenged his beliefs about himself, his belief in his own strength. We discussed how dangerous the situation of performing actions is, where there is anxiety and fear, assessed the reality of the risks, learned to look for cognitive errors and distortions. 4. We performed an interesting exercise. Try it, maybe it will help you too. Take 2 A4 sheets and divide each of them into two columns. On the first sheet there will be the following columns: short-term and long-term benefits of avoiding problems, and on the second - short-term and long-term benefits of solving problems. Then we analyzed which benefits were greater and drew conclusions about Mikhail’s strategy. 5. There is another interesting way to overcome procrastination, as soon as it occurs, track it and ask yourself: what is happening now? Am I procrastinating again? It is important to realize this. Next, the following thought may come to your mind: “I can’t act.” Try to reformulate it into the following: “I can’t do anything to act or become better.” Say this phrase to yourself out loud. You can repeat it several times. And feel if you have resistance to this phrase? Is there really nothing you can do? Which of the techniques did you like? Which one will you try to apply today? If the article resonates with you, I would love your feedback and thumbs up! If you want to learn how to work with procrastination, I’m waiting for you at a consultation. You can sign up on WhatsApp +7987-541-27-85