How to Stop Procrastinating: Motivation vs Willpower (Or Something Deeper?)
- Rachelle
- Feb 13
- 7 min read
Updated: Feb 17
A controversial perspective on why procrastination happens - and how to break free by aligning goals or desired behaviours with your values.
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Understanding Procrastination: Why Do We Delay Tasks?
The Hidden Factor: Values Alignment
Motivation vs Willpower: What’s the Difference?
The Energy Equation: How Values Unlock Energy
How to Identify and Align Goals with Your Values
Motivation vs. Willpower: Which Should You Rely On?
Taking Control of Your Productivity (Without Willpower or Motivation)
Understanding Procrastination: Why Do We Delay Tasks?
What Is Procrastination?
Despite what the voice inside your head telling you otherwise, procrastination isn’t laziness - it’s a stress response. It happens when there’s a misalignment between what we think we should do and what we actually feel compelled to do.
Instead of moving forward by taking action, we sit in limbo, trading long-term benefits for short-term relief. We then distract ourselves from the uncomfortableness of our position by distracting our attention to focus on something else. Anything else.
But what if procrastination isn’t a moral failing - but an alignment problem?
The Science Behind Procrastination: Time Inconsistency
Our brains are wired for instant gratification, a phenomenon called time inconsistency. The Present You prioritises immediate comfort, while the Future You wants meaningful progress. This internal conflict is why you scroll social media instead of taking action and moving forwards towards long-term goals.
The Procrastination-Action Line: What Stops Us from Starting?
The hardest part of any task is the moment before we begin ‘the doing’. This is where procrastination thrives—the space between intention and action.
What fuels the resistance? Commonly, it is put down to a version of the following 3 things:
Fear (of failure, imperfection, or judgment)
Overwhelm (too many steps, unclear path)
Lack of urgency (no immediate consequence)
These are all normal, natural and valid. However, there’s something deeper at play—values misalignment.
The Hidden Factor: Values Alignment
Procrastination is often a sign of internal misalignment.
If a task feels pointless, we delay it.
If a goal doesn’t match our core values, we resist it.
If an action feels unsafe, we avoid it.
For most, the go-to response to get ourselves to do something is to wait for motivation to move us or use our internal willpower. This leads us to the debate between motivation, willpower, and values.
Motivation vs Willpower: What’s the Difference?
What Is Motivation? (Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation)
Motivation comes in two forms:
Extrinsic: Driven by external rewards (money, approval, deadlines, your mum and dad’s love).
Intrinsic: Driven by personal fulfillment and values.
But motivation is unreliable. It fades when discomfort rises; you’ve pushed yourself to do it for so long without any perceived progress, you have low energy because you’ve haven’t slept well, something has come up that you have priorities, fill in the blank here with your own experience because let’s be honest, we have all experienced this.
Why Motivation Fails: The Myth of Waiting for Inspiration
"I’ll do it when I feel motivated."This is one of the biggest procrastination traps.
Motivation isn’t a prerequisite for action—action creates motivation. The first step fuels momentum.
What Is Willpower? (How Self-Control Works and Why It’s Unreliable)
Willpower is finite. It depletes with stress, decision fatigue, and emotional exhaustion. Studies (like this one, or this one, or this one, or... there are so many) show that relying solely on self-control leads to burnout and inconsistency. I'd like to point out here, despite what your inner critic may tell you, this means a lack of willpower is not a moral failing on your part.
The Willpower Depletion Effect: Why Self-Control Is Limited
Forcing yourself through tasks without emotional alignment drains energy. This is why you break your diet at night by eating a handful of biscuits or avoid hard thinking after stressful days. Willpower isn’t a sustainable or reliable productivity strategy.
Motivation vs. Willpower vs. Values: What’s the Real Key?
So…
Motivation is fleeting. It depends on mood and circumstance.
Willpower is unreliable. It drains quickly.
What now?
Values Alignment. Values alignment creates effortless action. When a goal aligns with your identity and purpose, resistance fades.
The Energy Equation: How Values Unlock Energy
The New Formula for Taking Action
I like math. The answer is always consistent, it's reliable. So here is the math for taking action:
(Intention × Values Alignment) – Resistance = Action
When a task aligns with your core values, you don’t need discipline - you feel drawn to it.
How to Align Your Goals to Your Values
Discover your deep “why” (not just the external reason).
Use accountability and rewards (link tasks to something meaningful).
How to Minimise Resistance
Reduce friction (set up your environment for focus).
Reframe discomfort (shift perspective on difficult tasks).
Simplify the process (break tasks into micro-steps).
How to Identify and Align Goals with Your Values
Why Values Drive Energy More Than Willpower and Motivation
When your goals reflect your true values, taking action becomes effortless. Most people struggle with follow-through because they set goals based on external expectations rather than what truly matters to them.
When your goals align with your core values, they feel natural, meaningful, and exciting - which makes taking action feel effortless rather than forced.
Misaligned Goal: An Example
You set the goal because you felt like you “should” (not because you actually wanted to).
The goal was influenced by external pressure (parents, teachers, or peers).
It sounded good in theory but didn’t connect to a deeper reason for you.
Example:
"I want to study every day for four hours because top students do that."
If you don’t enjoy rigid schedules, this will feel forced and exhausting.
You might push through for a few days but eventually lose motivation and drain your willpower because the goal isn’t linked to something personally meaningful.
Aligned Goal: An Example
When studying aligns with your core values, it feels motivating rather than a burden. You study not because you have to, but because it supports something you truly care about.
Example:
"I want to study consistently because I love understanding how things work, and I want to apply this knowledge in real life."
If curiosity, growth, or mastery are core values for you, studying becomes a natural habit rather than a chore.
You might not need to "force" study time—you look forward to learning because it connects to something bigger than just grades.
Step-by-Step Guide to Identifying Your Core Values
This is the most exciting part! This is where you get to learn about yourself.
Reflect on past experiences that brought you joy and look for common themes—these patterns will reveal your core values.
This process is included in the Free Values Linking Worksheet.
The Values Linking Process: Aligning Goals for Inspired Action
When a task aligns with your core identity, resistance disappears.
Here is a 4 step process you can follow that will help you identify what is truly important to you and link your goal or desired behaviour to your values.
How to Minimise Resistance
Alignment to my values is the first step: this sets me up for success. If you're familiar with the 80/20 rule, values alignment is the 20% effort for 80% outcome. My motivation and willpower are also incredibly useful tools and here are some ideas that might help you to use yours:
The 5-Second Rule: Jumpstarting Action
Count down from 5—then act. This interrupts hesitation and moves you into motion. Mel Robbins has great content on this.
The 10-Minute Rule: Overcoming Resistance
Commit to just 10 minutes. Once you start, momentum often takes over. Dr Piers Steel did a great episode on the Minds and Mics podcast with Nick Wignall about this concept.
The Two-Minute Rule: Making Action Easier
If a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. David Allen in his book Getting Things Done highlights this principle.
Making the Consequences Immediate
Celebrities and business mogels (think Elon Musk and the 2029 deadline for SpaceX to land on Mars) do this all the time. Even politicians (a Mexican wall?!).
Public deadlines & accountability partners create urgency.
Self-imposed penalties (like donating money if you fail) drive action.
Using Temptation Bundling
Pair a habit you need with a reward you enjoy. A personal example: drink a glass of wine while cleaning.
Designing Your Environment for Productivity
Set up your space so it encourages action (remove distractions, prepare tools in advance). This is such a basic concept, it is often overlooked. As children we learned to put away the dolls house toys before getting the train set out. Same principle.
The Power of Habits
The Ivy Lee Method: Prioritisation Through Values
Each night, write six key tasks for the next day - prioritised by importance. Personally, I’ve not yet mastered 6, 3 priorities work for me.
The Seinfeld Strategy: Visualising Consistency
Track progress with a habit tracker - seeing progress builds momentum. A bullet journal or app is really useful.
The "70% Rule": Taking Imperfect Action
Don’t wait for perfection—start when you’re 70% ready. This can be really challenging. Attaining perfection is often instinctive for women raised in conservative or religious environments, and delaying taking action until the perfect strategy is found can be debilitating. I've so much to say on this topic, I will save if for it’s own article.
Strengthening Willpower Without Force
How to Build and Sustain Willpower Without Burnout
Automate decisions to avoid decision fatigue. Ie. wear the same outfit daily - think Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. Personally, I like choosing my outfit depending on where I'm at in my monthly cycle, my commitments for the day and what colours I would benefit from so this does not work for me, however, meal prepping was a game changer). Using my calendar to make ‘appointments’ with myself for certain things is also really working for me at the moment.
Create non-negotiable rituals to reduce mental load. Ie. I have a shower every night, I also brush my teeth while I'm in there. Ew. I know. But it works for me.
The Role of Environment in Willpower
Remove temptation (out of sight, out of mind).
Pre-emptively decide (get your gym clothes out the night before).
Motivation vs. Willpower: Which Should You Rely On?
My answer? Neither. Rely on Alignment.
Consistency in taking action comes from internal alignment, not external pressure.
Our values hold infinite energy. This is how you work with your energy, not against it. Instead of forcing yourself to "just do it" with your finite willpower or waiting for motivation to come out of nowhere, try asking yourself:
How does this task truly align with who I am and what is important to me?
Conclusion: Taking Control of Your Productivity (Without Willpower or Motivation)
Key Takeaways: Motivation vs Willpower vs Values
Procrastination isn’t about laziness—it’s about misalignment.
Willpower and motivation fluctuate, but goals linked to your values create sustainable action.
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