Creative Juices and Procrastination as the Catalyst

Procrastination is indeed a thief of time. I got talking to one of my friends two days ago, complaining to him how much I had to do and how I blamed myself for waiting until the deadline was so close before starting. He shared a similar experience with me as he is currently studying for an MBA. Anyway, he said in his own case, the creative juices do not flow well until a couple of days to the deadline. I feel the same way too if I would be completely honest. I feel like my brain works on a sort of overdrive when it knows that there’s no other choice but to get work done. I feel like the adrenaline is sort of connected creative juice pump ( there should be some scientific explanation) but I also feel it’s a mindset problem. 

Your creative juices are yours and as a tap, they should flow when you open it and let it run. But when you choose to keep the tap closed, how do you expect the flow?I have made decisions over time to stop procrastinating just as much as I have made decisions to lose a few pounds but I end up going in a similar circle over and over again. 

One thing that has begun to work for me, however, is setting my own deadlines and writing it down. My personal deadline could be as much as one-two weeks before the actual deadline depending on the volume of work I have to do. My deadline is then divided into tiny bits of work to be done per day. I then write down these bits and do a thorough assessment of my achievements at the end of the day.

I do not always meet these targets and when I don't, it seems to have an effect on my brain. An effect which opens the creative juice tap and just lets it flow. On the days that  I meet this target, I'm usually super excited and tend to reward myself for a job well done. Despite my efforts and little progress with overcoming procrastination, I still struggle with it.

Please tell me how you deal with procrastination and how you get your juices to flow. I'd love to hear from you.