How Can You Tell the Difference Between Procrastination and Cognitive Problem-Solving?

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Knowing how to tell these two scenarios apart can help you plan your work better, find solutions, and even locate shortcuts.

So what’s the difference?

Think of one scenario that you’ve experienced recently where you just can’t continue working.

Were you postponing something because you knew it’s going to be hard to do, so you came up with different ways to distract yourself so you won’t have to think about it?

Or were you taking a much needed break to give your brain time to solve a problem?

Let’s say that you’re starting a new academic year at university and the classes are underway, with a lot of new course materials you know you have to read through. If you’re avoiding sitting down for a study session because you anticipate the chapter will be extremely difficult to understand and learn, so you spend two hours scrolling through Tik Tok videos instead, then yes — you are procrastinating. Most often the culprit hiding behind procrastination is fear of failure. The only way to overcome this habit is to look at your fear directly and address it head-on. If you are having problems with procrastination, check out another story I wrote on Medium that outlines 5 steps to overcome this…