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Perspectives on Procrastination and Awareness for Change 9

action, may trigger a procrastination default reaction. This hesita-
tion process may have to do with the way the brain works.
The brain may be wired to promote a later factor, or an auto-
matic slowing in decision making: the time it takes the brain to
voluntarily react to a sensory signal is longer than expected. This
may be a result of decision-making and delay issues caused by your
higher mental processes having difficulty understanding the sig-
nals from lower brain functions. The potential conflict between
lower brain processes and cognitive decision-making processes
may partially explain how a simple procrastination default reaction
starts. If you have a discomfort sensitivity triggered by this conflict,
and then you extend the delay to the level of procrastination, the
later factor suggests a possible mechanism. But whether this is the
real mechanism or the reaction is caused by something else, the
solution remains the same. You have to act to override this bio-
logical resistance.

Complex Procrastination

When procrastination includes coexisting conditions, it’s complex.
Complex procrastination is the kind of procrastination that is ac-
companied by other factors, such as self-doubts or perfectionism.
Complex procrastination is a laminated variety. You can separate
the layers and address each as a subissue. However, the layers tend
to be interconnected, so by addressing one layer, you may weaken
the connection with the others. For example, let’s say you have an
urge to engage in diversionary activities. You switch to doing some-
thing trivial, perhaps something more costly. You need to pay a
bill, but instead, you go to a casino to gamble. You then try to for-
get your new gambling debts by turning on the TV.
When you face and overcome coexisting conditions, your goal
of cutting back on procrastination doesn’t go away. You may have
eliminated one of the complex layers; however, procrastination
often has a life of its own and goes on as it did before. You still
have to deal with your procrastination habit if you want to free