Procrastination

Monday 27 July 2026 • Written by Neil Webster

We make hundreds of decisions everyday ranging from the simple (brown bread or white bread?) to the complex (leave the job or stay?).

Psychologists talk about these two decision types as employing two different processing systems:

System 1 (fast, intuitive and emotional) would help you pick the right loaf.

System 2 (slow, analytical and logical) would kick in to help you decide whether or not to stay in a job.

The problems tend to happen when clients feel they are stuck in a loop, unable to employ their decision making systems and that this is negatively impacting their mental health and wellbeing.

The first thing I would look at with a client who presents with issues around procrastination is…. Are we actually talking about procrastination here?

Let’s remember that System 2 decisions are meant to be made slowly, taking in lots of information which we filter multiple times. Clients are sometimes beating themselves up because they are taking their time over a decision that actually requires processing space. Frequently this is something with multiple practical, emotional and financial implications such as whether to leave a job or a relationship.

If it turns out, however, that the client is procrastinating excessively (in other words demonstrating repeating decision-avoidant behaviours) then the work becomes about showing them what is actually happening in their brain when they are faced with a decision.

Procrastinating clients often view themselves as ‘lazy’ and yet this is not happening because they can’t be bothered – it’s because they are scared. The amygdala (the brain’s fear centre) is reading all decisions as threats and therefore (perfectly reasonably) it’s avoiding them. That’s what our amygdala’s are supposed to do – encourage us to avoid things that might hurt us.

This knowledge alone is often very freeing for clients. They have previously been deeply ashamed of their procrastination so discovering that it both valid and explainable can really shift things.

The next part of our work together is to encourage other parts of the client’s brain to get involved in helping them make decisions and next time we’ll begin looking at how we do that.

For a deeper dive into this subject, why not give the Forres Counselling podcast a listen? 

If you want to find out more about our counselling services for couple and individuals, email info@forrescounselling.com.

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