Am I just lazy?
So yes, I have been procrastinating over the past few weeks and it got me wondering why I do this and what is going on in my head from a scientific point of view? I’ve done a bit of reading on the neuroscience behind it (full disclosure I am not a qualified neuroscientist!) and this is what I’ve learnt.
First thing, am I just lazy and it is just me? No! [cue - big sigh of relief!] There are two parts of the brain which have a bit of a battle with each other …
Amygdala - super old (in evolutionary terms) part of the brain which has been around a long time and is pretty much automatic and very loud at times. It is the part that tells you to get out when you are in danger i.e. the here and now decisioning e.g. there is a lion, run!
Prefrontal Cortex - newer (in evolutionary terms) than the amygdala and therefore not as loud. This is the part of the brain which makes us different from animals who just respond to stimulus. It is the ‘higher functioning’ part that makes decisions about the future
As an example … “I should go for a run but there is the next episode on Netflix about to play”
The prefrontal cortex has done the thinking and knows that in the future I will feel better for a run and there will be rewards
But … the amygdala knows that the next episode will be amazing and that reward is pretty much immediate
The question is which part wins? As the amygdala is older (but not necessarily wiser) it often wins out and here is the procrastination “I’ll just do this first as I’ll get a reward immediately”. The good news is that all is not lost as there are ways we can work with ourselves to change the odds on which part will win.
I love this quote from Dr. Tim Pychyl, professor of psychology and member of the Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa “procrastination is an emotion regulation problem, not a time management problem”. So how do we tackle emotional regulation? Here are a few thoughts with links to what I think happens in the amygdala / prefrontal cortex (spoiler alert - you’ve probably heard these before!).
Move the focus to the present - what will you get from x now? E.g. going for a run will yes make me healthier in the long run but right now I can try my new gym stuff
The amygdala is satisfied as the reward is pretty much immediate
Break things down into smaller chunks. How can you turn your long-term goal into short-term tasks? E.g. change I need to clean the house into I will clean the kitchen today
The amygdala is satisfied as it can see the rewards are just around the corner and less daunting to get to them!
Remove decision making from the equation altogether e.g. lay your run clothes out for the run the night before and in the morning it isn’t a question of shall I go for a run, you just are doing what you’ve already decided
Your amygdala can have a holiday as it doesn’t even get to take part!
Time boxing e.g. I don’t need to finish the blog, I just need to work on it for 30mins
The amygdala loves a short-term goal :)
A few other things to think about having in the toolkit if the above aren’t working for you:
Rewards (but not too far out). Remember the star chart as a child? There is a reason it works. Think about how satisfied your amygdala is seeing those rewards!
Accountability - I use this one quite a lot but couldn’t find out the science behind why it works (please let me know if you know!!!). What I find is that if I tell someone I’m going to do something then it happens and I play with this
e.g. I told my sister-in-law that I would clean out the car when I got home last week (I had been procrastinating on this for months!). Low and behold I got home and immediately cleaned out the car
Get the worst thing over and done with. Again the amygdala will help drive us away from something even when it isn’t a tiger! So to help get over the hump try taking out the tiger first so you’re just left with the kittens (OK work with me on this analogy!) then likelihood is you’ll get the whole thing done
This is the bit I was surprised by in my science wanderings …
Science has shown that meditation such as mindfulness really helps with reducing procrastination as a recurring feature. There is research showing that if you are a heavy procrastinator then you have a larger amygdala but (and this is the good bit!) there is also research that shows after an 8 weeks mindfulness meditation course the amygdala appears to shrink. Awesome right! So it would seem to me that if you really want to tackle procrastination at the root causes then mindfulness would be a good idea.
Hopefully you’ve found this interesting and useful. I really enjoyed bonding with my science geek side and reading up on all the neuroscience :) If you’d like to talk about how coaching can help with those things you’ve been procrastinating over please do contact me via my website here.