Article
Closing the Loop : Escaping the Cycle of Executive Dysfunction and Procrastination
February 6, 2025 | 16-20 minutes
Hello, my name is Colley and I’m a procrastinator. I have been since I was in utero and decided to hang out there well past my due date. And I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that you probably procrastinate too. The truth is, most of us do at least sometimes. And for those of us who are differently-wired, trying to reduce our procrastination can be a huge and confusing challenge.
The internet is flooded with quick fix articles that promise that if we do this one thing we’ll stop procrastinating. At least half of those articles will at some point mention a timer. But here’s the issue for those of us who are neurodivergent—when there’s any executive dysfunction in play, the picture becomes more complex.
If we are struggling with the mental requirements to plan and execute a task, setting a timer for five minutes or just getting started doesn’t help because we often literally don’t know where to start. Then the stress—or distress—caused by the executive function challenges feels pretty cruddy and our brains scream at us to run away, run away, just like the knights in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.
And when we give into that urge, knowing that we’re going to regret it later, we’re officially procrastinating. And as if that’s not enough to deal with, the procrastination creates more stress—or distress—and operating under stress makes our executive function system glitch even more.
But we don’t have to be trapped in this boggy mess. Once we see the cycle and dig into understanding the triggers that set it in motion, we can learn to side step them instead—at least more of the time. Basically, executive dysfunction predisposes us to procrastination and procrastination mires us further in executive dysfunction. Developing a deeper understanding of the psychology of procrastination and the mechanisms of executive function as well as interplay between the two can help us develop greater awareness around our own tendencies and more effectively choose tools to manage it.
And to my past self who thought, not me! I operate best under stress. In fact, I need it to get most tasks started. Well, I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t helping myself either.
This Is Your Brain on Procrastination
Before we can work towards stopping the procrastination to executive dysfunction to eternal procrastination cycle, we need to clarify what’s happening. There are all kinds of reasons that tasks (which in this case means anything you need or want to do, from sending an email for work to taking a shower to practicing your favorite hobby) get delayed, and not all of them are procrastination. For example, If we’re waiting for someone else to provide required information for a task, then that’s unavoidable delay, not procrastination.
Procrastination, specifically, is “to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse-off for the delay.” Though different psychologists might have slightly different definitions of procrastination, this one from Dr. Piers Steel is the most helpful one for separating it from executive dysfunction.
The key points here are that we are choosing to wait on a task, and that we know that there will be some negative consequence to waiting. Knowing that there will be a cost, why would we wait and doom future self to dealing with the fallout?
At its most basic, procrastination is an avoidant coping mechanism. Something about the task feels uncomfortable. Maybe it’s hard. Maybe it’s—heaven forbid—boring. Whatever it is, we don’t want to feel those uncomfortable feelings, which generates an impulse to put it off. Now we’re in tension. Forcing ourselves to do the task will result in discomfort. Putting the task off until later offers sweet release. And with our built-in tendency towards temporal discounting—our brains’ tendency to value immediate rewards over those in the future—the instant relief of giving into to the impulse to delay feels much more valuable than than any future relief or satisfaction we might experience from getting the task done.
And it feels so easy to put it off because as we anticipate how much better we’ll feel when we put this task off, we imagine that future self will also feel good. If future self feels better than now self, they won’t mind doing the task. This drives the classic, “I don’t feel like it now, but I will later.” To make it worse, even if we do realize that future self will not be happy with us for this, it’s hard to care. The research shows that we don’t really identify strongly with future self. In fact, we think about them similarly to the way we think of a random actor in a movie. Sure, we know who they are, but we aren’t really connected to them. Thus, it’s very difficult to put our need right now—to feel better by letting ourselves off the hook for the task—over future self’s need to have this task done.
Ultimately, procrastination is all about how we feel; it’s an emotional regulation issue. The task brings up emotions we’d rather not experience because they’re unpleasant and they push us closer to the edges of our emotional zone of tolerance. Our brain then tries to regulate those emotions, and essentially determines that avoiding them in the first place, at least for now, seems like a great approach.
The issue is that there’s a cost, and not just the potential negative consequences of delaying the task. We know that the task isn’t done, and it’s just waiting and ready to come bite us later. This tends to make us feel pretty awful, actually. In fact, researchers have dedicated multiple studies to the stress, anxiety, self-blame, and other negative emotions that tend to suck us in after procrastinating. So even though we’ve relived the discomfort of the task itself and feel better in the moment, we’ve traded that for longer-term feelings of worry and guilt. These sequelae will come back to haunt us later.
Executive Dysfunction Junction
Since procrastination is all about the feels, then it might be starting to look like it has nothing to do with time management. This is absolutely true. Since time management is the process of planning how we spend our time and executing that plan, it’s an executive function job. We might be both poor at time management and huge procrastinators, but fixing our time management challenges won’t fix our procrastination, no matter how many amazing planners we buy. Understanding more about executive functioning will help us to understand why.
Our executive functioning system is a huge and hugely complex “constellation of cognitive abilities that drive goal-oriented behavior and are critical to the ability to adapt to an ever-changing world.” The first thing to understand regarding this system is that it’s a construct. It’s not a single structure in the brain that we can point to. Although it’s heavily concentrated in the frontal lobes, and its development through childhood and adolescence and decline in the elderly years parallels maturation and degeneration of the prefrontal cortex, it is distributed over many other areas of the brain as well. It can be disrupted in development, by brain injury, or by neurochemical imbalance.
Because it’s an extremely intricate construct, different neuroscientists might use slightly different models of the executive functions, and for most of us it’s not necessary to get a deep understanding of all its parts. A helpful overview is that there are four main parts that are interdependent.
Working memory holds information and allows us to manipulate it in our heads.
Inhibition allows us to disrupt our default impulse to respond to a stimulus in one way and instead choose another.
Set shifting helps us to recognize differences in our circumstances and change what we’re doing in accordingly.
Fluency reflects how easily we process and generate information.
Each of these four functions is vast and complex on its own, but since they are all interdependent, deficits in one area will often ripple into the others.
With all that's going on up there, we might wonder less how the executive in the brain functions and more how it doesn't dysfunction in everybody.
The truth is, it does to some extent. Nobody's executive function is perfect or always online, and each individual's is unique. For some of us, our executive function is impacted to the point that it's routinely disruptive to our lives. This is when we might receive a diagnosis like ADHD. While everyone occasionally misplaces their keys, for example, for individuals with significant executive dysfunction, such challenges are both persistent and pervasive. Basic interventions that work for most people may not be effective, and the impact of these challenges is substantial.
This is because in this vast, complex system, each individual has their own personal series of deficits rippling through their neural networks. These ripples create challenges that are not always predictable. This is also why strategies that work for one person may not work for another, even with the same diagnosis. There are, by some estimates, as many neurons in our brains as there are stars in the Milky Way. Every neuron has hundreds or thousands of connections to other neurons, each of which can be part of transmitting any disruptions downstream.
It’s like imagining the route map for an airline, but instead of a single airline it’s all the airlines in the world, and instead of going to cities, they’re going to all the stars in the Milky Way. We know that in real life when one part of the route map goes down, like Chicago is having a snowstorm, the impacts ripple over to distant routes and nodes. And what if Las Vegas is having terrible thunderstorms? We could imagine two travelers going to San Francisco from New York with one routed through Chicago and the other through Vegas. Both are stuck in the same place, but for different reasons.
The same thing happens in our heads, which are vastly more complex. Therefore, even something that looks the same on the surface, like time blindness, can arise from a different deficit in our individual brains and may require a different tool to address it. When we’re dealing with the impacts of our executive dysfunction in multiple areas, everything becomes more difficult. It can be hard to know where to start.
Stuck in the Spin Cycle
So here’s the cycle: Something about a task feels unpleasant or aversive. If we have a brain with executive dysfunction, then many, many things about a task might feel aversive—from figuring out how to start to sequencing the steps to finding the materials needed to complete it and on and on. When something about a task is aversive, we experience the urge to avoid it by delaying the task. As soon as we give in, we’re procrastinating. Our procrastination creates feelings of stress and anxiety, which in turn reduce the effectiveness of our executive functioning system. And it becomes even easier to procrastinate. It’s vicious.
This is how we get into situations where we take ten years to complete a thirty-minute task, or is that just me?
And, if we are neurodiverse, there may be even more factors exacerbating this cycle.
Those of us who have difficulty processing our sensory input can feel distressed and overwhelmed before we even get to dealing with tasks. We’re already running so close to the edge of our emotional zone of tolerance, that even the tiniest bit of difficultly surrounding a task can send us running away.
Those of us who have any deficits in our executive functioning systems that make us more impulsive will have greater difficultly ignoring the impulse to delay a task when it strikes. In fact, for many of us, when we see a task that our executive functioning system has trouble parsing for some reason, we’ve often given in to the impulse to delay before we’ve even registered what the problem is.
Those of us with executive functioning challenges may also have difficulty regulating our emotions, as emotional regulation is one of the myriad responsibilities of the executive functioning system. This means that our emotions are often swinging in a wider arc than we might otherwise experience, and since procrastination is a failure of emotional regulation, we’re primed for it. And we’re even more likely to pick an avoidant comping mechanism, because having big emotions swamp us can be scary. So we are pushed to avoid rather than risk triggering them.
Those of us who have difficulty task initiating because of our executive dysfunction will often try to harness our emotions to slingshot ourselves into starting a task. This typically looks like waiting until close to the due date in order to generate a sense of urgency. Unfortunately, it’s not only difficult to time this perfectly—getting close enough to be urgent but still leave time to do good work—it also risks setting off the big emotions we often experience. Sometimes, we can create so much anxiety in this process that instead of getting fired into action, we end up so overwhelmed that we grind to a complete halt.
And, as if all of the above weren’t enough, we’ve received a plethora of negative messages over our lifetimes, even from well-meaning or beloved people, that reflect that we “shouldn’t” be having trouble with this or that if we would “just” make a little effort, we could get it done. We’ve internalized many of these messages over the years, and then we start to see getting stuck in this cycle as a failure of character, which makes us feel even worse, which makes us even more avoidant.
But It’s Not Hopeless
Before we delve further into how to disrupt the procrastination and executive dysfunction cycle, we need to recognize that every intervention starts with self-compassion. This might seem obvious, or for some of us even eye-roll-worthy, but it's truly a required foundation for making any progress. Self-compassion becomes even more important if we've internalized negative messages and find ourselves frequently using words like 'should' or 'just' in our thoughts. We may be tempted to try to guilt ourselves into progress, but “shame is the enemy of functioning.” This idea, from KC Davis, reminds us that if we want to function more effectively, we must be more compassionate with ourselves.
Davis also encourages us to stop moralizing our coping mechanisms. Coping mechanisms exist for a reason. They are there to protect us and keep us in our emotional zones of tolerance. They are not inherently good or bad. The times that we run into trouble with our coping mechanisms is when, just like anything else in our life, they have consequences. Some of the results of our coping mechanisms can have negative impacts on our lives, as is the case with procrastination. We are harming ourselves when we engage in it.
In fact, Dr. Timothy Pytchyl, who taught me much of what I know about procrastination, initially got into procrastination research because he realized that when procrastination is high, well-being is low.
So if procrastination is a frequent coping mechanism and it causes us to be further stressed and anxious or even to lose out on opportunities that matter to us, then it’s worth addressing. But not because it’s bad, or because we’re bad or deficient in some way for doing it. Only because we as human beings deserve to allow ourselves to have compassion for our challenges and we also deserve to work towards coping in ways that have fewer negative repercussions.
We start there, with adjusting our perspectives on our procrastination. Instead of trying to deal with it because it’s such a “terrible” habit or because we “shouldn’t” do it, we can try to deal with it because we want the best for ourselves the same way we would for a loved one or best friend. We want to be free of the consequences of procrastination that have impacted us, so that we can live the lives that we want for ourselves.
Disrupting the Cycle
To break up the cycle, we have to stop seeing procrastination as a single behavior in which every instance of procrastination occurs the same way. Remember that sometimes task aversion happens because our executive functioning systems don’t know what to do with a task. This will typically almost immediately lead to negative feelings and the impulse to run away, which we’ve often given into before we have even recognized where the whole thing started. Other times, however, we may be feeling low or tired for reasons that have nothing to do with the task. So the task seems more aversive to us because we didn’t get enough sleep the night before, and we’re tempted to procrastinate because we literally don’t feel like it.
These are only two of the many possible paths that can lead to procrastinating—one of which is based in our executive functioning challenges and the other in our physical and emotional state. We’re going to need different approaches to disrupt the cycle depending on what we’re dealing with. And we already know that we’re going to start with a self-compassionate perspective, which will help us lead with curiosity and an open mind. The more we are curious about our experiences and open to whatever we discover about them, the more likely it becomes for us to make progress.
Framework for Moving Forward
The underlying concept of this framework is that our State (our physical, emotional, and mental state of being), our Strategy (our plan for moving forward), and our Story (what we're telling ourselves about what we're dealing with) all work as multipliers for one another. In math, anything multiplied by zero yields zero. But anything multiplied by a number bigger than one grows.
State x Strategy X Story = Make Your Life Better
When we've got a great plan for getting something done, but we're so exhausted that we can barely keep our eyes open, or we're telling ourselves that we can never do this thing, we likely aren't getting anywhere. The same is true if we're in a great mood and hyping ourselves up, but we've got no idea or plan on how to get the thing done. This approach works really well for exploring the procrastination and executive dysfunction cycle because it separates out how we feel from what we understand.
We can use this framework to figure out where we're getting caught in the cycle, then pick a tool that will address that issue. This is why often we've tried various hacks or suggestions in the past, and they haven't worked for us or only worked sometimes. Tools that are pointed at the wrong part of the cycle won't do much. It's like trying to use a hammer to turn a screw—it's not effective.
This framework originated with Tony Robbins, and was further popularized in this excellent video about how to change your life in the next 100 days by Struthless.
We can imagine this framework as a circular flowchart. For each of the three multipliers, there is a recommended exercise to determine if it's a point of difficulty. We can start at any point, but it's often helpful to begin with strategy. This helps us identify if executive dysfunction is driving the procrastination train before we waste too much time dealing with the negative emotions it may be generating. And it's often useful to cycle through more than once because there may be more than one trigger point at play in any given challenge.
Here’s How It Works
When you’re struggling with a task (THE THING), determine whether the issue is logistical (executive dysfunction), emotional (procrastination), or some combination of both by moving through Strategy, State, and Story.
FIRST : Strategy (Logistics Check) — If you can’t mentally rehearse the task or visualize the steps, the issue is likely executive dysfunction.
Exercise : Mental Rehearsal — Visualize yourself doing the task. If the steps are unclear, then use an executive functioning tool like clarifying what the task actually is or breaking it into smaller chunks to move forward.
Key Question : Do I know how to do THE THING?
SECOND : State (Self Check) — If you feel stuck despite knowing how to do the task, then assess your physical, emotional, and mental state—often perceived as energy levels.
Exercise : Check the Weather Report — Observe how your body, emotions, and mind feel, then summarize them as a forecast, like “cloudy with a chance of headache.” If you find that your state does not match the one required for the task, then you can work to change your state (like taking a walk) or change the task (like be willing to do a good enough job instead of the best one).
Key Question : Do I have the energy for THE THING?
THIRD : Story (Mindset & Narrative Check) — If you have the energy but still aren’t doing the task, then you can explore the internal stories you’re telling yourself.
Exercise : Investigative Journalist — Free-write your thoughts about the task without any filter or judgment, then read back to analyze the narrative looking for your stories. If you find they aren’t helping you, then try a tool from cognitive behavioral therapy or acceptance and commitment therapy, many of which are easily available online.
Key Question : Is the story I’m telling helping me do THE THING?
Each step helps diagnose the contributing causes so you can apply the right tool to move forward.
Conclusion
Getting stuck when trying to get our work done isn’t just about time management or not feeling like it—it’s often a complex interplay of both cycling between executive dysfunction and procrastination. When our brains struggle to plan and initiate tasks, the typical advice to “just start” or “use a timer” falls flat. Instead of pushing through with brute willpower, we need to step back and assess what’s really happening. Are we stuck because we don’t know how to begin? Because we don’t have the energy? Because the story we’re telling ourselves is holding us back?
DOWNLOAD RESOURCE
Notion Progress Desk Template with State x Strategy x Story framework and toolkit.
By identifying whether the root cause of our procrastination is strategy, state, or story—or a combination of them—we can choose the right tools to move forward instead of spinning in cycles of avoidance and frustration. Ultimately, the goal isn’t perfection or eliminating procrastination entirely. Instead, we want to reach towards better understanding our brains, working with them instead of against them, and finding ways to make progress that actually fit how we function.
So next time we find ourselves stuck, we can take a moment. We can ask ourselves where the real block is. And instead of running away like we’re an extras in a Monty Python movie, we can try a different approach. When we meet ourselves with curiosity instead of criticism, we create the space to break free from the cycle, one step at a time, most of the time.
