0:02 If you've ever planned something big and
0:04 then done absolutely nothing about it,
0:06 it is not because you're lazy. There's
0:09 literally a neurological cycle happening
0:10 in your brain that prevents you from
0:13 pursuing your dreams. And in this video,
0:15 I'll explain how it works and how
0:17 [music] to fix it. My name is Olga. I
0:19 study cognitive science and computation
0:21 at the University of Pennsylvania. And
0:22 after the last [music] four years of
0:25 studying how the human mind works, I
0:26 think this is probably the most
0:28 fascinating and most useful thing I
0:30 learned about.
0:32 So, procrastination researcher Tim
0:34 Pychyl has spent decades studying why
0:36 people don't do the things that they
0:38 promised [music] themselves to do. And
0:41 he found that procrastination is not a
0:44 time management problem. Procrastination
0:47 is an emotion regulation problem. And
0:48 here's what it means. When you have
0:51 something important to do, like starting
0:53 a creative project or submitting an
0:55 application or doing a workout or an assignment,
0:56 assignment, >> [music]
0:56 >> [music]
0:59 >> and you think about actually doing it,
1:00 that's when your brain generates a
1:03 negative emotion. It can be self-doubt, overwhelm,
1:04 overwhelm, >> [music]
1:04 >> [music]
1:07 >> anxiety. You might have fear that the
1:08 result is not going to be good enough.
1:10 And your brain does not like negative
1:13 emotions. So, it escapes. You start
1:15 cleaning your room. You reorganize your
1:17 desk. You pick up your phone. You start
1:20 scrolling. And suddenly, that negative
1:22 feeling of dread goes away. And you feel
1:25 relief. And here's an interesting part.
1:28 That relief in itself is a reward. And
1:29 in psychology, behaviors that get
1:31 rewarded get repeated. [music]
1:34 So, your brain learns, if I avoid a
1:35 difficult task, that's when I'm going to
1:37 get that short-term feeling of relief,
1:39 which is something positive. And it
1:42 starts doing it automatically every time
1:43 you're faced with something difficult.
1:45 And your brain creates something called
1:47 an avoidance loop, where you're faced
1:49 with a difficult task, it triggers a
1:51 negative emotion, then you don't do that
1:54 task, so you feel relief. And next time
1:56 you're faced with something difficult,
1:59 you again default to avoidance because
2:00 that's what triggers relief. And here's
2:02 what's happening in your brain. Every
2:04 time you're faced with a hard task,
2:06 there are two systems that are competing
2:08 for control. And the first is your
2:10 amygdala, which is your brain's alarm
2:12 system. It is essentially responsible
2:14 for detecting threats in the
2:16 environment. And if a task is seeming
2:19 overwhelming or scary to you, it
2:21 essentially treats that task as a
2:24 threat. So, it tells you, don't do this. Run.
2:25 Run. >> [music]
2:25 >> [music]
2:27 >> This is dangerous. You have to avoid
2:29 this. And the second is the part of your
2:31 brain that actually makes you act. And
2:33 neuroscientists call it the dorsal
2:36 anterior cingulate cortex. Essentially,
2:38 it takes the fear [music] signal from
2:40 the amygdala. If needed, it shuts it
2:43 down. And then it actually pushes you to
2:44 do the things that you're supposed to be
2:45 doing. [music] And when you
2:48 procrastinate, your amygdala is winning,
2:50 which is called an amygdala hijack,
2:52 where essentially your emotional brain
2:55 overrides your irrational brain, and you
2:57 flee from the task. And here's why it
3:00 gets worse if you don't address it.
3:01 Every time you're going through the
3:03 avoidance loop, if you feel dread
3:05 towards the task, you avoid it, you feel
3:06 relief. [music]
3:08 Every time you go through this avoidance
3:10 loop, you are physically strengthening
3:13 the neural pathway for procrastination.
3:15 Because, [music] as we all know, what
3:17 you repeat, you become. So, the
3:19 procrastination circuit gets faster. It
3:21 becomes more of a default behavior for
3:24 you. And your discipline circuit weakens
3:25 like [music] a muscle that you stopped
3:28 using. So, if your brain is training
3:30 itself to avoid and procrastinate, could
3:32 you theoretically train it to do the
3:35 complete opposite? Well, Tim Pychyl
3:38 spent 20 years of his career trying to
3:40 answer that question. Well, the answer
3:43 is embarrassingly simple.
3:47 And the answer is, you have to just start.
3:48 start.
3:51 Just start. That's it.
3:53 No need to finish it. No need to perform
3:55 well. You just have to start the task
3:57 for 5 to 10 minutes [music]
3:58 and not think about the outcome.
4:00 Essentially, you have to learn to
4:02 interrupt the avoidance loop. [music]
4:04 And here's how you do it. Step number
4:06 one is to catch it and name it. When you
4:08 notice yourself procrastinating, when
4:10 you notice yourself avoiding something, [music]
4:11 [music]
4:12 think about the emotion you're
4:13 experiencing. Are you feeling
4:15 overwhelmed? Are you feeling anxious?
4:16 Are you afraid that the result is not
4:19 going to be good enough? Just naming
4:21 that emotion is enough for you to switch
4:24 from your emotional mind back into your
4:26 rational mind. And second step is to
4:30 make [music] your task stupidly small.
4:31 Essentially, think about what is the
4:34 tiniest possible action you can set for
4:36 yourself as the goal, just to make at
4:38 least a little bit of progress. >> [music]
4:38 >> [music]
4:40 >> For example, don't think that you have
4:43 to write a whole essay tonight. Think,
4:46 oh, my task is to open the document in
4:48 Google Doc and write for just 10
4:49 minutes. And don't think, oh, I have to
4:52 do this hour-long workout. I'm really
4:53 dreading it.
4:55 Think of your task [music] as just
4:58 putting on your shoes and going outside.
5:00 And the reason why simply starting
5:02 something for 10 minutes is so powerful
5:04 is because the actual process of
5:07 completing a task, it's almost always
5:09 much easier than the extreme dread you
5:11 feel before doing it. And [music] Pychyl
5:14 showed this beautifully in the study
5:17 where he gave 45 students pagers, and
5:18 that [music] was before smartphones
5:21 existed. So, he gave them pagers. He
5:23 would page them eight times a day for
5:26 five days leading up to their academic
5:30 deadline on some in some class. And when
5:32 the pager went off, the student was
5:34 supposed to report how they were
5:35 feeling, what they were doing, how they
5:37 were feeling about the academic
5:39 assignment that they had to do. The data
5:40 showed that the students consistently
5:42 procrastinated on the tasks that they
5:44 found difficult or unpleasant or
5:46 stressful. And they consistently
5:48 replaced them with activities that were
5:50 more interesting and more exciting. And
5:52 of course, we all would do that, right?
5:54 But here's what Pychyl found most
5:55 interesting. When students
5:58 procrastinated early in the week, they
5:59 would constantly justify. They would
6:01 constantly say that, oh, I work better
6:03 under pressure. I work better close to
6:04 the deadline.
6:06 I will feel like it tomorrow. And they
6:09 would say things like these to explain
6:10 why they're not doing the task they're
6:11 supposed to be [music] doing. But when
6:13 the deadline actually forced them to
6:16 start, not one of them said that they
6:17 were glad that they waited. [music] They
6:19 were all saying that they wish they had
6:21 more time. They wish they started
6:23 earlier. And that the task wasn't
6:26 actually as bad as they thought. So,
6:28 you're not actually avoiding the task.
6:30 You're avoiding the way that you think
6:33 the task is going to make you feel. And
6:35 [music] your brain is wrong about it
6:37 almost all of the time. And now you
6:39 might be thinking, well, I don't just
6:41 sit on the couch doing nothing. I'm
6:43 actually busy all the time. So, why can
6:45 I not finally start this project that
6:48 I've been putting off for months?
6:49 Well, there's an answer to that. Your
6:51 brain does not just let you sit there
6:53 doing nothing because that triggers
6:56 guilt. And guilt is another negative
6:58 emotion that amygdala is trying to escape.
6:59 escape. >> [music]
6:59 >> [music]
7:02 >> So, it disguises that avoidance as
7:05 productivity. And there's actually two
7:07 specific disguises that I want to
7:08 discuss [music] with you. And the first
7:11 disguise is perfectionism. And research
7:13 has consistently shown that people who
7:16 score higher on perfectionism are bigger
7:19 procrastinators because perfectionism
7:21 essentially makes you afraid that your
7:23 result is not going to be good enough,
7:25 which makes you not even start in the
7:28 first place. And researchers found that
7:30 more perfectionist professors actually
7:34 publish less papers than their less
7:36 perfectionist colleagues, even if you
7:38 control for how hard-working they are.
7:40 Essentially, perfectionism makes you
7:43 never start, so you never fall short.
7:45 And disguise number two is productive
7:47 procrastination. And this one gets
7:49 everyone. It's the sneakiest one because
7:50 you're not actually sitting on the
7:53 couch. You are doing something. You're
7:55 researching. You're reorganizing your
7:58 desk. You're planning something. You're
8:00 watching videos on YouTube about how to
8:02 be more productive instead of actually
8:03 doing the thing. Maybe you're even
8:06 watching this video right now instead of
8:07 working on your assignment or working on
8:09 your new project. I don't know. And
8:12 Pychyl's research calls this short-term
8:15 mood repair. When a real task triggers
8:17 anxiety or overwhelm or some negative
8:19 emotion, your brain essentially decides
8:22 to swap it for a safer and less risky
8:24 task that is still going to give you
8:26 some sense of accomplishment when you
8:27 finish it,
8:30 but it's going to be without any risk of
8:33 failure or judgment because that task is
8:35 going to be less high stakes. Like
8:37 instead of writing an essay, you spent
8:40 an hour color-coding your notes. Or
8:42 instead of applying to jobs, you spent
8:44 hours perfecting your resume for the
8:46 fifth time. And instead of starting a
8:47 business that you've dreamt of starting
8:50 for years, you read 10 books on how to
8:53 start a business. So, you feel like
8:54 you're making some progress, but the
8:57 actual scary task that you actually have
8:59 to do hasn't moved an inch. And again,
9:01 remember, you're not actually avoiding
9:04 the task. You're avoiding how you think
9:06 the task is going to make you feel. But
9:08 when you actually start doing it, you
9:10 realize that the dread of starting is
9:13 much worse than the doing most of the
9:15 time. So, now you know what the
9:17 avoidance loop looks like, how your
9:18 brain disguises it, >> [music]
9:18 >> [music]
9:21 >> and how to break it. So, subscribe if
9:22 this helped. And please let me know in
9:25 the comments what other topics or videos
9:27 or ideas you would like to see in my
9:29 YouTube channel. And I'm currently
9:31 building out my YouTube channel, so any
9:34 sort of support or likes or comments
9:35 would be greatly [music] appreciated.
