Study finds that mindfulness is associated with reduced procrastination

Rather than answering directly, I figured I'd share my own experience with procrastination. I've been a severe procrastinator, among other things, my whole life, as far as I can remember. Over time, I've tried to use various strategies to cope: breaking the work into smaller chunks, convincing myself to work for 10 minutes and that I'd stop if I felt like it, keeping to-do lists, asking other people to tell me to do stuff, among a bevy of other strategies. I've also tried to keep up exercise and eating well, finding fulfilling hobbies, etc., but could never keep doing it for long and as a result I grew progressively out of shape as I aged. I've also tried meditation and mindfulness at times, as suggested by various articles and books I'd read when trying to cope with getting work done.

Despite finding it hard to get any work done, whether required or related to my hobbies, I could get by through all of my education with relatively good grades, mostly through studying and doing the work at the last possible moment and lots sleepless nights. I've also been lucky, I lost count of the times where events outside my control saved me from the consequences of my procrastination (professors missing classes, deadlines getting pushed back, weather, power or network outages, etc.) giving me an extra day or week to finish something I couldn't finish on time because I started too late. In general, I managed to maintain the illusion of competence at great cost to my physical and mental health. I had trouble going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning, I was constantly tired and stressed, as a consequence of which I couldn't keep up with any exercise routines and would regularly resort to unhealthy food for comfort.

Things got progressively worse as I continued my education, because the work got considerably harder. I would catch myself regularly going to sleep at 6 a.m. or later because I was finishing something that should have realistically taken me a couple of hours to do and that I had an entire week to do.

Sometime after (barely) finishing my doctorate thesis, I decided that this was not sustainable anymore and went to seek medical help. After doing a lot of tests ruling out physical causes like diabetes, which I am very glad I don't have (my lifestyle was very unhealthy), I was referred to a psychiatrist. I was diagnosed with adult ADD and after some trial and error we settled on lisdexamfetamine, along with some other drugs. I'd love to say that the medicine solved all my problems immediately, but that's not how it works. What did happen, almost immediately after I started taking lisdexamfetamine, is that all the strategies I had tried over time for dealing with procrastination actually started working. I could effectively start doing my to-do lists or working those first 10-minutes and then not stopping, I had the energy to cook healthier food and exercise. I can now fall asleep almost immediately after laying down, waking up is easier and I could easily take a nap during the day (despite the stimulant) and wake up refreshed. My doctor suggested mindfulness exercises and meditation could help, so I started again and found that I could actually do the 10 to 20 minutes of calm, collected thinking and resting.

This got a bit longer than I planned, but the tl:dr is that none of the techniques worked for me until I got medical help. The medicine didn't provide a magic pill that solved all my problems like some people expect, but it did give me ability to use the tools I already knew about in order to solve my problems and improve my well-being.

I am quite thankful that my doctor explained to me that the medicine wouldn't work by itself and that getting better is a process, and for working with me throughout. As I result I've been feeling better about myself than I ever remember feeling. I do regret not going to a doctor earlier, but in the past I was convinced I could power through, that I was one of those people that "work better under pressure" (when the truth was that under pressure was the only time I could get any work done at all), which combined with the fact that I come from a culture with a distrust of mental health professionals, I don't think anything could have convinced me to get help earlier. In effect, I procrastinated getting help.

I'm not trying to say that taking medicine is right for everyone, and I'm fully convinced a lot of people can get through their procrastination by applying existing techniques like mindfulness/meditation or other coping strategies, maybe with help from other people. But my own experience has changed my view on seeking help with mental health and taking medicine, and if procrastination is interfering with your life and health, maybe do look into going to a doctor. My experience taught me that knowing how to solve a problem does not mean being able to apply the solution.

I haven’t been perfect with it, but I have stuck with it more than anything else I’ve tried to date.

Meditation is much more than simply clearing your mind or practicing letting go of your thoughts, although those are certainly benefits. It's about completely re-orienting yourself with respect to your relationship with the world and, most importantly, other people.