Procrastination is an annoying habit that many people pick up, and it can be difficult to cure, especially if you keep putting off coming up with how to do it! It doesn't have to be that way, though, because procrastination can be cured like all other bad habits.

Humans are built upon habits. We form them all the time, from brushing our teeth every morning to flirting with the cutie at the news stand outside of work. We don't realize it, but the more we reinforce these behaviors, the more we train ourselves to keep doing them.

This applies particularly to activities that we find enjoyable, such as watching TV, relaxing, and...you guessed it, putting off working. It isn't that you want to procrastinate, just that at the moment it's more enjoyable than doing the actual work.

The famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud said that the mind is made up of three different areas, the Id, the Ego, and the Super-Ego. We're going to concentrate on the first two, in this case.

The Id is what influences us to do things that benefit us in the short-term, such as putting off that research project. The Ego, on the other hand, is more focused on the long term. It's what makes us feel bad that we procrastinate, and what has motivated you to try to figure out how to cure the problem!

The trick to beating your procrastination is to identify which drives are coming from which part of you. If you're being motivated by a short-term gain, such as having some free time to watch television, then your motivation is coming from the Id. Knowing that your mind is, essentially, split into two types of motivations is the first step in overcoming the problem and becoming more motivated!