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July 31st, 2025
​A newsletter by Anne-Laure Le Cunff​

🪤 Why the deadline high is a trap

You’ve probably said it or heard it: “I work better under pressure.”

It feels true because when the deadline looms, your brain kicks into overdrive. That last-minute rush can feel productive (even thrilling!) but it’s not increased performance. It’s rushed performance to compensate for weeks of avoidance and inaction.

Procrastination isn’t about time management. It’s about emotion regulation. When a task feels uncertain or unpleasant, your brain looks for an escape hatch.

At the core of this dynamic is a conflict between two brain regions. In a simplified way, the limbic system (your emotional, reward-seeking center) wants comfort right now. The prefrontal cortex (your logical, future-planning center) wants long-term success.

But the limbic system can be faster and stronger. So unless you deliberately intervene, the part of your brain that prioritizes scrolling over writing that report will usually win.

What makes this even trickier is that there are long-term costs to procrastination. At first, you feel relief. But studies show that over time, procrastinators experience more stress, worse health, and lower performance.

That deadline high? It’s the trap. It rewards the brain for procrastinating, making you more likely to rely on panic again next time. Over time, this wires your brain to depend on urgency instead of intention.

So, how can you break this cycle without relying on pressure or guilt?

• Explore the task that scares you. Procrastination is often fear in disguise, whether that’s fear of failure, judgment, or discomfort. Use the Triple Check tool in Tiny Experiments (chapter 5) to engage with your procrastination with curiosity so you can regain a sense of agency.
• Start small to regain momentum. Commit to just 10 minutes of focused work. This trick lowers the barrier enough to engage your prefrontal cortex. Still struggling to get started? Reframe your task as “write one sentence” or “open the doc.”
• Add “micro-costs” for avoidance. Want to scroll? Make it inconvenient. Sign out, put your phone in another room, or block websites. These small friction points can delay impulsive decisions long enough for your rational brain to intervene.

Procrastination isn’t a moral failure. It’s a natural brain bias toward immediate reward, but it comes with long-term costs.

Each time you choose action over avoidance, you’re not just checking off a to-do, you’re teaching your brain to not rely on the deadline high. And there’s no need for self-blame in that process – just curiosity.

👀 Into the Mind of...

CHRIS GUILLEBEAU

Each week I ask a curious mind about their habits, routines, and rituals. This week we’re learning from entrepreneur and mental health advocate Chris Guillebeau, author of the book Time Anxiety.

1. One daily practice you can’t do without? I have a 2,000+ day streak of closing my Apple Watch circles. I plan my international travel around making sure I can exercise every day — and yes, I admit it's a bit compulsive.

2. One anchor ritual to reconnect with yourself? I like to ask and answer simple questions of myself. A few of my favorites are Did today matter? And What do I want more of / less of? It's a simple, intuitive practice that helps me de-stress and feel more alive.

3. One habit you wish you had? The ability to always know what to do next. It's more of a superpower than flying or invisibility!

Read Time Anxiety

🛠️ Brain Picks

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Many thanks to our sponsors and partners for supporting the Ness Labs newsletter! Want to appear here? Please email support@nesslabs.com.

🗓️ Brain Trust

If you enjoy the newsletter, you’ll love our community of curious minds conducting tiny experiments within a safe space and learning together. Here is an overview of upcoming events this week:

• Learn how to stay creative in uncertain times. Join our next Creative Hour with Gosia Fricze​ where we’ll explore what it looks like to keep your creativity alive when things feel unpredictable or unstable.​
• Eliminate anxiety without medication or meditation. What if the very things that give you relief in the moment are actually keeping you trapped in an endless cycle? In this workshop, Ryan Bush will expose the hidden mechanisms that keep anxiety in place, and why most advice is making it worse.
​• Make progress on your projects. Our Pomodoro-based coworking sessions are hosted twice a week by Kathryn Ruge, Javier Luis Gomez, and Joshwin Greene, covering all timezones. Then, join Ashley Crouch and Benjamin Covington for a weekly review on Sunday.
​• Host your own workshop. Do you have an idea for a short presentation and Q&A or a workshop you’d like to trial? Test your first iteration in the Ness Labs community and get feedback. We promote all sessions here in the newsletter.

All of these and future events are included in the price of the annual membership ($49), as well as access to our courses, recordings of all our previous sessions, a dedicated space to track your tiny experiments, and a growing collection of case studies.

Until next week, take care!
Anne-Laure.