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  • Sometimes the urge to put off something unpleasant -- like homework or calling to make a doctor’s

  • appointment -- is just too strong to resist.

  • Even though you know youre going to have to do it eventually, and you can feel the

  • pressure building.

  • Let’s face it: procrastination affects all of us. At least a little bit.

  • But procrastination is more complex than just laziness or bad time management. In fact,

  • every subfield of psychology has a slightly different way of looking at it.

  • A neuropsychologist might call it a failure of executive function, or how you plan ahead

  • and prioritize things.

  • A social psychologist, on the other hand, might see it as a problem related to emotion

  • regulation, or trying to avoid bad feelings like stress.

  • And evolutionary psychologists think it could be partly genetic.

  • Even though all their approaches to studying it are a little different, researchers can

  • agree that procrastination is not so great for us.

  • So why do we do it, and how can we beat it?

  • Procrastination probably goes back as far as humans not wanting to do things.

  • A Greek poet even wrote about it in 700 BCE, basically warning not to put off your work,

  • or your life will kinda suck.

  • And according to a 2014 study by researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder,

  • it might even be part of our evolutionary makeup.

  • To try to figure out if there’s a genetic component to procrastination, researchers

  • asked pairs of twins about their work habits.

  • And the key thing is: they compared fraternal twins, who share only some of their DNA like

  • any set of siblings, with identical twins, who share all of their DNA.

  • Because each set of twins grew up together -- with basically the same environmental influences

  • -- comparing their responses could help see if their genetics corresponded at all to their

  • procrastination habits.

  • The researchers developed a mathematical model to calculate whether procrastination seemed

  • to be inherited. They found that about half the time, differences in procrastination habits

  • could be because of differences in genetics.

  • Which is the case with lots of inherited behavioral traits -- they have some variation due to

  • environmental factors.

  • Not only that, but they reproduced a finding from other studies -- that genetic variations

  • in procrastination habits are related to genetic variations in another trait: impulsivity.

  • In other words, the researchers found that putting things off and acting impulsive are

  • behaviors that might be inherited together.

  • Both these traits are also probably related to goal-management, which they said could

  • be something to focus on in future research.

  • They also suggested an evolutionary reason why the procrastination and impulsive behaviors

  • might be linked.

  • Early human life was focused mainly on short-term survival. You don’t have time to think about

  • next month when you don’t know if your tummy’s going to be full tomorrow.

  • So our ancestors who prioritized short-term goals -- making rash decisions and putting

  • off the things with more distant and uncertain rewards -- couldve been better at surviving.

  • And then they mightve passed down some of their behavioral traits to their kids.

  • But these days, our world of skyscrapers and smartwatches places far more importance on

  • long-term goals.

  • Save for retirement! Plan your vacation six months in advance!

  • So that genetic factor that prioritized the short-term over the long-term is suddenly

  • not so much in our favor, but it still makes us prone to procrastination.

  • But, hold up. You can’t just blame your procrastination on your genes.

  • There are lots of related psychological factors to procrastination and impulsivity, like how

  • you manage your goals and self-regulate.

  • On a neuropsychological level, procrastination can be described as a problem with executive

  • function, which is the skill set that allows us to plan, prioritize, and carry out tasks.

  • Executive function is basically the ability to say “I’m gonna do the thing!” And

  • then do it.

  • Procrastination is the opposite: “I know I need to do the thing, but I’m not gonna

  • do it right now.”

  • Which is why it’s often seen as an failure of executive function.

  • In 2010, researchers from the City University of New York found that undergraduate students

  • own reports of their executive function could predict their tendency to procrastinate.

  • There are lots of different types of executive function skills, which provide multiple steps

  • where procrastination can happen.

  • For example, one student might sit down to get started on an assignment, but then spend

  • ages getting their study materials together.

  • Another person might plan to work, but have trouble getting focused enough to just sit

  • down and start.

  • They get stuck at different points in the process, but they both end up putting off

  • work.

  • Other social psychology researchers describe procrastination as a failure of mood regulation.

  • Canadian psychology professor Timothy Pychyl says that procrastination isgiving in

  • to feel good.”

  • Were cashing in a short-term good feeling even though we can be pretty sure it’s going

  • to come back to haunt us later.

  • In other words, procrastination is an attempt to avoid bad feelings, like the stress or

  • unpleasantness of the task itself.

  • We can rationalize this to ourselves pretty easily.

  • You may not want to start writing a big essay when youre tired, so you tell yourself

  • youll do it later when youve had some rest. Nothing wrong with that.

  • Researchers like Pychyl argue that the trouble is when you do this all the time, with smaller

  • excuses -- habitually putting off tasks and pushing off those bad feelings.

  • But future-you will eventually have to confront that stress.

  • So procrastination isn’t just about time management and setting goals.

  • Mood regulation comes in when you accept those feelings of stress and recognize that theyre

  • not going to just disappear later.

  • It sounds like basic self-discipline, but it can be tricky to deal with the emotions

  • that come with large or difficult tasks. And weve all avoided negative feelings at some

  • point or another.

  • Mood regulation and executive function both relate to what psychologists call self-regulation,

  • so these definitions are just slightly different approaches to studying procrastination.

  • Is procrastination really that bad, though?

  • Lots of people claim they procrastinate on purpose because they work better under pressure.

  • And certain kinds of procrastination do have some benefits.

  • Like if you go to the gym to avoid starting a paper -- sure, you didn’t get the paper

  • done, but hey, you went to the gym!

  • But youll be hard pressed to find psychology researchers who are in favor of procrastination.

  • Everyone puts things off every now and then, but people who do so chronically are sometimes

  • found to have higher levels of stress. And there may be a complex link to things like

  • depression and anxiety.

  • In fact, there might even be physiological consequences of procrastination.

  • One 2015 study in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine even found that serial procrastinators

  • had trouble managing high blood pressure and heart disease. Mainly since it’s not a good

  • idea to procrastinate taking care of your health.

  • And because there are so many different approaches to studying procrastination, there are also

  • a lot of suggestions for how to beat it.

  • So don’t be surprised if someone’s list of tips on Tumblr doesn’t work for you.

  • That being said, there have been a few scientific studies done on what makes people more likely

  • to overcome their procrastination.

  • Most of these studies are conducted on undergrad psychology students, and focus on academic

  • procrastination -- basically, putting off school assignments until right before theyre

  • due.

  • The authors of the City University of New York study -- the one that focused on executive

  • function -- suggested ways instructors could work with students to help them engage with

  • big tasks.

  • Instead of assigning one big project at the end of the semester, for example, it could

  • be broken up into periodic deadlines or quizzes.

  • People tend to procrastinate less when the deadline is closer. And when the task is broken

  • up into small chunks, they feel like theyve accomplished something every time they turn

  • in one of those chunks.

  • This makes students feel generally more positive, and it could make getting started easier,

  • because the task seems less intimidating.

  • So breaking up a task into bite-size pieces could be a good strategy, both for instructors

  • and for anyone who’s trying to get something done.

  • Remind yourself that you don’t have to do it all at once -- tackle it a bit at a time,

  • and reward yourself for making progress.

  • Dr. Pychyl’s research group -- the one that studied mood regulation -- also studied how

  • academic procrastination could be linked to how students viewed their future selves.

  • In an earlier study, a group of researchers at Stanford had asked people to imagine their

  • future selves. They also asked them to picture their present selves, as well as a stranger.

  • And the whole time, the team monitored the subjectsneural activity.

  • When some people pictured their future selves, neurons were activated in a similar pattern

  • to when they pictured their present selves. Those people felt a high degree of continuity

  • with who they would be in the future.

  • But other people’s mental images of their future selves activated a pattern of neurons

  • that looked like they were picturing a stranger.

  • Pychyl’s research group built on those results, and found that the people with less future

  • self-continuity -- the people who saw their future selves as strangers -- tended to procrastinate

  • more.

  • Basically, these students didn’t feel as strongly that they’d be the ones feeling

  • the consequences. Just let future-you -- somebody else -- deal with it.

  • So maybe you can try to beat your procrastination by remembering that future you isalso

  • you.

  • It sounds kind of silly when you put it that way, but it just means that you should remember

  • that youre going to have to do it sooner or later -- whether it’s present-you or

  • future-you.

  • And youre probably not going to like it any more later.

  • This also means acknowledging your bad feelings about doing whatever it is you have to do.

  • Have anxiety about getting started?

  • These researchers recommend accepting that feeling -- rather than using it to avoid your

  • work -- and understanding that getting things done is a way to help get rid of that bit

  • of stress.

  • There’s definitely no one-size-fits-all cure for procrastination -- yet. Different

  • studies can offer different advice, and since were all different people, it can help

  • to have multiple perspectives and strategies to try.

  • In the end, though, all of this research seems to boil down to self-regulation, and confronting

  • something you don’t want to do instead of avoiding it.

  • It may sound easy in theory, but it isn’t always.

  • And if youre watching this video to procrastinate working on something -- go get started!

  • Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, which was brought to you by our patrons on

  • Patreon. If you want to help support this show, just go to patreon.com/scishow. And

  • don’t forget to go to youtube.com/scishow and subscribe!

Sometimes the urge to put off something unpleasant -- like homework or calling to make a doctor’s

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