As creative professionals, architects are prone to procrastination. In his acclaimed book The War of Art, author Steven Pressfield breaks down the many reasons why procrastination is a prevalent part in the creative process. “Procrastination is the most common manifestation of [creative resistance] because it’s the easiest to rationalize,” Pressfield wrote. “We don’t tell ourselves, 'I’m never going to write my symphony.' Instead we say, 'I’m going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.'”

For some experts on the topic, procrastination in the creative process is a necessary evil. One such expert is Alice Boyes, a former clinical psychologist and author of the book Stress-Free Productivity. On a recent episode of the Harvard Business Review IdeaCast, Boyes explains that “lots of forms of problem solving benefit from an incubation period where you take a pause between when you hear the problem and when you start working on it.”

“If you’re doing things that are creative, if you’re doing things that are hard, you’re going to need more recovery time,” Boyes adds. “You’re going to need more working up to doing things. Potentially you’re going to need more reflection after you’ve done something.”

While this necessary breathing space may fall into the category of necessary or productive procrastination, Boyes concedes that excessive procrastination remains a problem that must be overcome. To achieve this, she uses the HBR IdeaCast episode to outline three areas which can help us overcome procrastination, and get to work.

Habits

Just as Pressfield warned that procrastination itself can become a habit, Boyes believes that training the mind to avoid procrastination by building preventative habits.

“Habits make behaviors more automatic,” Boyes says. “The classic example that’s always used in any intro psychology textbook is driving. Once we’re not a novice driver anymore, whenever we sit in the driver seat of a car, we go through a sequence of behaviors without really even thinking about what we are doing.”

Avoiding sources of procrastination will result in this effort becoming automatic over time. — Alice Boyes

For Boyes, making the effort to consciously avoid sources of procrastination will result in this effort becoming automatic over time. A consistent ritual we build when designing, modeling, and drawing, for example, means we require less self-control over time to perform these tasks, while our ability to resist distractions will become easier.

In addition to borrowing the productivity hacks, systems, and rituals of other people, Boyes also recommends a degree of self-analysis; looking back at times when we accomplished tasks without distraction, and identifying systems, habits, or conditions which may have contributed to that success.

“When you successfully do a novel task, look at the system that you used to get it done,” Boyes says. “Especially if it was something that you either felt really intimidated by or you had put off for a long time and finally got around to doing it.”

 Emotions

One of Boyes’ most interesting observations is the role that emotions play in procrastination, and how negative emotions can be used as a fuel to overcome it. “You don’t need to reduce your negative emotions,” Boyes explains. “Like if you feel guilt. Guilt is a useful emotion because it causes us to want to repair things.”

When you learn that diverse emotions are incredibly healthy, you can fear them a lot less and have a more open attitude toward them. — Alice Boyes

In particular, Boyes believes that fear and uncertainty are natural emotions during the creative process. “When you’re doing work that has more potential to be impactful, it’s usually more uncertain,” Boyes explains. “People want to do things with certain outcomes and they tend to procrastinate more with things with uncertain outcomes. But we all know that a lot of these things with uncertain outcomes are the things that have the higher potential for reward.”

Rather than shutting out these emotions during the design process, Boyes believes we should embrace the fear that comes from the unknown or uncertain. “The presence of ambivalent emotions tends to put us on alert,” Boyes continues. “And when we’re on alert more, that’s often what sparks creativity. Creativity comes from noticing unusual associations between things or noticing things that we don’t usually notice. So when you learn that actually diverse emotions are incredibly healthy, you can just fear them a lot less and have a more open attitude toward them.”

Thought patterns

When we understand the emotional forces behind procrastination, Boyes believes we are well placed to alter our thought patterns, allowing us to reframe a given task in a way that reduces our tendency to procrastinate.

Being able to help the person see ways of approaching tasks from the perspective of their strengths is something that’s useful [for overcoming procrastination]. — Alice Boyes

“My spouse is always asking for tech help with their computer,” Boyes explains. “I hate providing tech help, but I obviously have the value of being a supportive spouse. I hold a value of the two of us being in a relationship where we make up for each other’s weaknesses. So even though I don’t like providing tech help, I like the idea that I will compensate for her weaknesses and she will compensate for mine, and that we’ll support each other through that.”

For Boyes, this reframing of a difficult, tedious, or intimidating task into one which allows us to exercise our values and strengths is a powerful tool for overcoming procrastination not only in ourselves but in our colleagues.

“Drawing that out of people is a skill that any manager should have,” Boyes argues. “Being able to help the person see ways of approaching tasks from the perspective of their strengths is something that’s useful [for overcoming procrastination].”

Do you have any specific tips, habits, or tactics for overcoming procrastination in architecture? Let us know in the comments below.