Procrastination as a Relationship Problem

People who struggle with procrastination don’t have a condition, they have a relationship problem.

To have the flexibility to do what you want in the long-term, you need to have the character to do things that you don’t want to in the short-term. You need to be able to negotiate with yourself and trust the present and future versions of yourself to follow through on their ends of the bargain.

Procrastinators fundamentally don’t trust themselves. The relationship between their present and future selves is based on compulsion instead of trust and mutual benifit. If you look at procrasination as a relationship problem, the solution is not more discipline, it is more introspection into the motivation between the two parts of yourself and more win win trade between the present and the future.