Researchers Say This 5-Second Rule Could Banish Your Procrastination For Good

According to a Spanish proverb, "Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week." If you too, like many of us, procrastinate doing things today — because, you know, they can wait until tomorrow — then this proverb certainly rings true! Even though procrastination may have a negative connotation (and procrastinators may experience a certain degree of shame), the act of putting things off until later is actually quite common.

In his book, "The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Stuff Done," Piers Steel, professor of human resources and organizational dynamics at the University of Calgary, says that around 95% of the people surveyed admitted to some form of procrastination. So, if you're guilty of sometimes putting off a task, there's no need to be ashamed — but you might want to consider breaking the unhealthy habit. Thankfully, researchers say that a five-second rule will banish your procrastination for good (and so will this 2-minute to-do list rule!).

The five-second rule is credited to motivational speaker and author Mel Robbins and her book, "The 5 Second Rule: Transform Your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage." The rule basically boils down to this: When faced with a task, you have five seconds to jump right in and start doing it. If you don't act within those five seconds, chances are, you'll put it off until later, and later sometimes becomes never. 

While people might assume that procrastination is the result of laziness or poor time management, researchers now agree that it's actually a more complex issue stemming from our emotions. According to Dr. Timothy A. Pychyl and Dr. Fuschia M. Sirois, professors of psychology and editors of the book "Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being," the reason we procrastinate doing something is because we don't really want to do it. And we don't want to do it not because we're lazy, but because these actions are emotionally stressful for us. As such, this leads to productivity paralysis.

Appearing on an episode of the podcast "Speaking of Psychology," Dr. Sirois explained that emotions are at the core of procrastination. "When we look at procrastination then in terms of emotion regulation, one way to think about it is that we are not avoiding the task, per se," she said. "What we're avoiding is the negative emotions associated with that task."

Motivational speaker Mel Robbins seconds this. "Our brains are designed to stop you at all costs from doing anything that might hurt you," Robbins explained in an interview with Fearless Soul. Procrastination, therefore, has nothing to do with motivation, but rather with hesitation. During that micro-moment of hesitation before acting on a task, the brain receives a stress signal and magnifies the problem in what is known as the "spotlight effect." As Robbins explained, this is our brain's way of protecting us by forcing us to pull away from the situation. Preventing your brain from going into panic mode during those brief moments of hesitation might just be the key to dealing with procrastination. Enter the five-second rule.

"From the moment you have the idea ... you've only got five seconds to take action, otherwise it's gone," Mel Robbins explained in a live presentation. During that time, you get trapped in the knowledge-to-action gap. You know what you have to do, but you can't bring yourself to do it. To outsmart your brain, action must be taken immediately. Otherwise, according to Robbins, the brain will do what it is wired to do: Protect us emotionally by stopping us from doing what's stressful.

However, when you count backward from five to one, you interrupt your habit loops — and those loops are what contribute to avoiding tasks that trigger negative emotions. These habitual actions happen automatically — without us consciously thinking about them. And, these are the learned "autopilot" behaviors that happen in our basal ganglia (our brain's emotional control center, so to speak) that our primitive brain uses to protect us. By breaking this chain, we awaken the prefrontal cortex (which would be the equivalent of a control center), which in turn encourages us to make the decision to act. 

If you want to banish procrastination for good, then you've got to nip this habit in the bud. Outsmart your brain, break the chain of the learned behavior, and switch off your autopilot by taking advantage of the five-second rule. After all, you steer the wheel of your brain – you are the decision-maker!