If you speak to people, they'll tell you that it doesn't feel voluntary: "I feel like I have no control over it." For some people, it feels totally involuntary, like they can't help themselves. SL: What's your one biggest tip for stopping procrastination? TP: One of my pet expressions is, "Just get started." And it's important you don't say, "Just do it" - that's overwhelming. But just get started. Whenever we face a task, we're not going to feel like doing it. Somehow adults believe that their motivational state has to match the task at hand. We say, "I'm not in the mood."

Our motivational state rarely matches the task at hand, so we always have to use self-regulation skills to bring our focus to it. So at first it will be, "Okay, I recognize that I don't feel like it, but I'm just gonna get started." SL: What's the evidence that just beginning a task, even in a very small way, makes it easier to follow through? TP: We know from psychological research by <a href="http://www.psych.rochester.edu/people/elliot_andrew/">[Andrew] Elliot </a>and others that progress on our goals feeds our well-being. So the most important thing you can do is bootstrap a little progress. Get a little progress, and that's going to fuel your well-being and your motivation.

Tax Day is a horror for many procrastinators. For many people, a little procrastination isn't harmful - like 15 minutes lost in Facebook or putting off doing the laundry for a few days. But then there are things like taxes. And all the people who keep meaning to start saving for retirement, but never do.

Why your brain loves procrastination

Keith Goh