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How To Cure Procrastination So Quickly It Feels Illegal — Transcript

by Justin Sung · 6,508 words · 947 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00We're going to be talking today about
0:01procrastination and how you can really
0:04end procrastination for good. I myself
0:07have actually learned even more around
0:09the neuroscience of procrastination in
0:11the last like year and a half. There's
0:13been some really good research that's
0:14come out as well that's made my own
0:15understanding of the issue much more
0:17nuanced. So, I'm excited to share some
0:18of these things with you guys and
0:19provide you with a framework of, first
0:22of all, how to think about
0:23procrastination in a productive way and
0:25understand that there are many possible
0:28solutions for it. And it's not that
0:30there are certain solutions that work or
0:32don't work; it's that you have to find
0:35the solution that works for you relative
0:38to the type of procrastination you're
0:40experiencing in that moment. So, I'll
0:42touch on that and how to think about
0:44that as well as some fairly simple
0:47solutions that should allow you to make
0:51procrastination functionally obsolete.
0:54Point number one, procrastination is not
0:57a single behavior. Procrastination
0:58[music]
0:59as a set of behaviors can happen through
1:03multiple different mechanisms and we
1:07have to understand those mechanisms to
1:09figure out which solutions are best
1:11suited to address those mechanisms. So,
1:14I want to give you this overarching
1:16definition of what procrastination
1:18actually is. You can think about it as
1:20toll over toll. This toll is two L's.
1:24What we're really talking about here is
1:26emotional toll of a task exceeding our
1:32tolerance. This is what procrastination
1:35really boils down to. All forms of
1:37procrastination, whatever the mechanism
1:39is, it means that there is a certain
1:42task and our perception on the emotional
1:45toll that that task is going to elicit
1:49exceeds the amount of emotional work,
1:53baggage, burden that we're able to
1:55tolerate at that time. And there are
1:58different things that will either
2:00increase the emotional toll or
2:03decrease our tolerance. And that's what
2:06we see manifested as procrastination.
2:10And the way they want to break this down
2:11is into a few different categories of
2:15things that cause an emotional toll and
2:17things that reduce our tolerance. So,
2:19let's start with the first one, which is
2:20the most common reason for
2:21procrastination, which is innate to the
2:24task. This one is about the task
2:27process. Specifically, we're talking
2:29about an aversive task process. So, an
2:32aversive task process is one where when
2:35you think about doing the task, it
2:37involves a lot of stuff that you don't
2:40want to do. So, this could be writing a
2:42really big essay or thinking through a
2:44really complicated problem. You just
2:46know that the amount of thinking and and
2:49mental discomfort and the effort that's
2:51going to need to go into it is going to
2:53be really high or it's just something
2:55that you innately just do not enjoy. So,
2:58one thing that people procrastinate a
2:59lot is difficult conversations with
3:01people that they care about. So, let's
3:03say that your friend did something and
3:06you felt really betrayed because of what
3:08they did. People don't want to have that
3:09conversation. They'll procrastinate that
3:11that conversation because it's a
3:13difficult thing to have and then they're
3:14not going to enjoy doing that. People
3:16will procrastinate
3:18booking something in with their dentist
3:20because they don't want to be there at
3:21the dentist and it's painful and they
3:23don't like the experience. So, this is
3:24innate to the task itself. Creating some
3:27kind of aversive emotional response. So,
3:30in this type of situation, what we're
3:32saying is that the aversion that we feel
3:35about the task exceeds our tolerance for
3:40that aversion. Increasing the tolerance
3:43we have for the aversion is possible,
3:46but it's not sustainable and it's also
3:48tiring in and of itself. Instead, what
3:50we want to do is use a strategy that
3:53reduces the emotional spike of that
3:56process. So, if you kind of think about
3:58a graph showing the emotional toll on
4:02the Y axis over time. What we are
4:05predicting is that when we start this
4:07activity, it's going to be this, you
4:09know, big emotional toll, and then maybe
4:11it lingers for a while, and you know
4:12that eventually it's going to get
4:13better, but you still like this this
4:15initial thing is is problematic. You're
4:17going to feel averse to that. And so
4:19what we can try to do is we can mellow
4:21that out. And the way that we do that is
4:23by ramping into the activity. So we
4:26spread that emotional cost over a longer
4:29period of time. And so now there is no
4:31big spike for us to feel so averse
4:35about. And this is the reason why I
4:37personally regularly, like multiple
4:39times a week, rely on this strategy,
4:40which is leaning very heavily into the
4:43Zeigarnik effect. The Zeigarnik effect,
4:45for those of you that are not familiar,
4:46is this phenomenon where when you leave
4:50something unfinished, it's easier for
4:52your brain to come back to finish it
4:54than it is to just initiate something
4:56from scratch. And this is really good
4:58because it means that you can start a
5:02task, deliberately leaving it unfinished
5:06as a setup for the next step. So let's
5:09say that I need to write this big
5:10complicated essay, and it's going to
5:12involve a lot of like organizing my
5:13thoughts, and it's a huge topic, and I
5:14just don't want to get into it. So I can
5:16deliberately choose not to finish this,
5:18and I can just take the first few parts
5:20of it, which are in and of themselves
5:22pretty simple to do like open up a
5:23document, open up all the resources that
5:25I'm going to have to read through, and
5:26just start like kind of spamming ideas
5:29and no particular order, just so that
5:31I've got stuff on the page and then I
5:32can just stop. And just save that, and
5:34I'll come back to it tomorrow. So
5:35there's two things that this activates,
5:37actually three things. Number one, it
5:39makes it easier for you to come back to
5:40it the next day because it's already
5:42started. So that inertia has already
5:45been broken. You've activated the
5:46Zeigarnik effect. So now the next day
5:48you're less likely to procrastinate. The
5:50second thing is that the next step could
5:52happen straight away. You could, because
5:55you've already gotten started, realize,
5:57"Hey, I'm actually like already in the
5:58flow of it. I don't mind just continuing
6:00anymore." Now that you've gotten
6:01started, you just choose to to complete
6:03it. What I will say though, is that
6:05although you may complete it because you
6:09don't feel like stopping, you shouldn't
6:11feel like you are tricking yourself.
6:13Some of you will feel this yourself.
6:15It's like an inevitable life feeling,
6:16I'm sure. Whenever I do laundry, I wash
6:19my clothes and then I dry the clothes
6:21and then I I then put I put them in the
6:22basket and then I just can't be bothered
6:24packing the clothes away for some
6:26reason. Like that's something that I
6:27procrastinate all the time. It just sits
6:29there in the basket and when I need my
6:31clothes, I just fish it out from the
6:33basket. It's like the giving tree of
6:36clothes. I just take it from the source
6:38directly. I don't know why. I just don't
6:40pack it away for some reason. Uh and so
6:41what I do is I zig and I can affect this
6:43all the time. We'll put away like
6:45however much I feel like putting away.
6:47Like uh I just do like a few socks. And
6:49my mentality on this is if I put away a
6:51few socks, at least that's a few things
6:54that have been put away compared to
6:56nothing being done. It's like a net
6:58positive, right? And then I do it and
7:00probably like 80%of the time, maybe 90%
7:03of the time, I'll end up just packing
7:04everything away anyway because now that
7:06I've started, I'm like, "Oh, I may as
7:07well finish." It's not a big deal. But
7:09every single time I initiate that task,
7:12I remind myself, "Justin, you do not
7:14need to finish. You can leave it. You
7:15can literally do two socks and just call
7:17it a day." You give yourself the full
7:19conscious permission to do that. And I
7:21think that's important because if you
7:23get into this mentality where you sort
7:25of secretly know that you are tricking
7:28yourself into finishing it, then it
7:30loses the impact. You have to realize
7:32that you are genuinely yourself the
7:35option to just do a little bit and stop.
7:37So, that's the that's the second
7:38benefit. So, the first thing was the
7:39fact that uh you're less likely to
7:40procrastinate on it when you come back
7:42to it. The second thing is that you may
7:44just end up finishing it because you're
7:46already in the flow. And the third thing
7:48is that even if you don't finish it, you
7:50are making legitimately good progress on
7:53the task itself. Like if there are 100
7:55steps, you've legitimately done three or
7:57four of those. So, if you continue to do
7:59this every single day for 10 minutes,
8:01just little bits chipping away here and
8:02there, then you would eventually finish
8:05the the
8:05without ever really feeling like you
8:08you've like done this big task. Hey
8:10guys, it's Justin from the future here.
8:12Uh I wanted to jump in and highlight
8:15something that I don't think I made
8:17clear enough in the original video,
8:18which is that this is iconic effect is
8:21really powerful. I would say that 70 to
8:2380%of the time the Zegarnik effect
8:26itself is enough to stop you from
8:28procrastinating. In my experience with
8:30coaching, most people most of the time
8:33have this process aversive response. And
8:35so the Zegarnik effect is really great
8:37at overcoming that. And the other thing
8:38is that there are variations of applying
8:41the Zegarnik effect in different
8:42scenarios. I don't go over some of those
8:44variations in this video. If you are
8:46interested in some of those variations
8:48and how that looks different in
8:50different kinds of situations and how
8:51you can apply that for yourself, then a
8:53great place for you to check out would
8:54be my free weekly newsletter. I talk
8:56about the Zegarnik effect a few times uh
8:58dressed in different flavors. And as you
9:00go through each of the emails, I think
9:03you'll start seeing the trend of really
9:05the principle that you need to hit to
9:07overcome this procrastination even when
9:09the cause of procrastination is
9:10different. There's also uh a bunch of
9:12other useful insights and tips uh that I
9:15share in these newsletters as well. So,
9:17if you're generally interested in
9:18staying productive, reducing
9:20procrastination, learning faster,
9:22thinking more clearly through
9:23uncertainty, this is kind of the focus
9:26of where I try to make those newsletters
9:28hit. So, if those topics are uh of
9:30interest to you, then make sure to check
9:32out my newsletter. I'll leave a link for
9:34you to sign up in the description below.
9:35It's completely free to join and you can
9:37cancel at any time. But otherwise, onto
9:39the next type of procrastination. So, so
9:42that's about task specific one. But if
9:44it's not because you're averse to the
9:46task, it may be an implication of the
9:50task. So, it's not the task is something
9:52that I dread. It's if I do the task,
9:55what I think is going to lead from that.
9:59That's the thing that we
10:00dreading. That's the thing that gives us
10:02that emotional toll. A great example of
10:04this is just straight up perfectionism.
10:06I think that many perfectionists believe
10:10that their perfectionism is because they
10:11care about having a great outcome,
10:14because they they hold themselves to a
10:15high standard. And while that is true
10:18that they do hold themselves to a high
10:20standard, I think what is very necessary
10:22for a perfectionist, this is speaking as
10:24someone who I think I generally used to
10:26be severely a perfectionist, especially
10:28when I was much younger, and then I
10:30realized some of these things and have
10:31really actively been working on it for
10:32years. Perfectionism is actually not
10:35about the outcome at all. Perfectionism
10:37is about insecurity. Perfectionism is
10:39the insecurity of the judgment that
10:42someone will make on you, or the
10:44judgment that you cast on yourself as a
10:46result of not reaching a standard. And
10:48that standard is often not even
10:50necessary. It's not actually productive.
10:52It may not even be producing the best
10:54result. So, for example, if there are
10:56three things you need to do, but then
10:57you spend all of your time on the first
10:58one, well, you've actually guaranteed
11:00[clears throat]
11:01that your result is not going to be very
11:02good. And I think perfectionists know
11:04it's not about productivity, but it's
11:06easier to believe that it's about
11:08productivity or having a high standard,
11:10because those things are societally
11:12valued. If you say, "I have a high
11:14standard for my work. I have attention
11:16to detail. I hold myself to that high
11:17standard. I am very productive." These
11:20are things that people look at and they
11:21say, "Wow, good job." Like these are
11:22good things. Hey, can you, you know, be
11:24a good influence on on my children?
11:26These are things that we believe are
11:29good attributes to have. Whereas if you
11:31say, "I spend too much time on things
11:33that are of massively diminishing return
11:35because I have an insecurity about being
11:37judged." People would say, "Well, you
11:38should work on that." And that is really
11:40the truth. And I think there is an open
11:42honesty that is necessary in accepting
11:44that, which, at least for me, allowed me
11:47to start untangling this idea of why I
11:51am spending so much time on certain
11:53things. And that in itself allows you to
11:56overcome procrastination, because as the
11:58implication is lower. So, if I don't do
12:02this task in this way exactly, so that
12:05it's correct and done to this standard,
12:08well, then there's no point. But in
12:09order to do it like this, it's going to
12:11require all of this. And that the
12:13emotional toll just builds. But really
12:15what's underlying that emotional toll is
12:17if someone says, "Well, why don't you
12:18just not do it like that? Why don't
12:21instead of doing 100 steps, why don't
12:22you just do like the 10 most important
12:24steps? You're still going to get it
12:25done. Why don't you just do that?"
12:27That's where the real issue is. Because
12:29when you ask that question, the response
12:31is, "I can't do that. Because if I do
12:33that, then this person is going to think
12:35this of me." Or like I I I can't do
12:38that. Like that's
12:39beneath my standard of work or or
12:41whatever it is, right? We're just kind
12:42of rationalizing it. And then that
12:44emotion of not being able to reach that
12:46standard and that fear and insecurity of
12:49the judgment from others or from
12:51ourselves, that creates the emotional
12:53toll. And this is a this is another
12:55separate mechanism that procrastination
12:57can happen under. Where it's really
12:59nothing about the process in and of
13:00itself, it's actually just about the the
13:02fear of judgment related to it. And so,
13:04we can apply a similar concept to
13:07overcoming this type of procrastination.
13:09Where we're taking an emotional spike
13:12and we're sort of leveling it out. And
13:14instead of like with the Zeigarnik
13:16effect where it's about starting the
13:17process, what we can do is that we can
13:20level out the risk. So, if we have a
13:22graph over here and on the x-axis is
13:25risk over time, the thing with
13:27perfectionism often is that we are
13:28anticipating that the work is going to
13:30look like this. Where we're doing some
13:32work and then we show the work to
13:34someone. We finish the work. There's
13:35like a point of completion. And then
13:37here, there's very high risk. Because at
13:40this point is where there is judgment.
13:42So, instead of doing it like this, we
13:43can even this out by doing a bit of
13:46work, exposing it, getting feedback on
13:49it, a drafting it, doing like
13:51deliberately bad things where the risk
13:55of it never really goes very high. And
13:58there are two mechanisms that allow that
13:59risk to be low. The first thing is about
14:01having a higher frequency of iteration
14:04and feedback. So, this
14:06means that it's less likely for you to
14:08spend all this time working on something
14:09and then here here it is and then you
14:11just get shot down. You're just getting
14:13more frequent feedback on it. So, this
14:14is this is mechanism number one.
14:16Mechanism number two, this is much more
14:17powerful, is that it allows us to own
14:20our vulnerability. By openly creating a
14:24draft, we're saying this is not perfect.
14:26This is not a perfect form of this
14:29result. By having frequent feedback and
14:32saying, "Hey, I'm trying to work on this
14:34thing and I'm trying to get better at
14:35it, uh but I I need a little bit of help
14:37on it. Can I have some time with you
14:39once a week to get your feedback?"
14:41Perfectionists want to be really good at
14:43something. It allows us to preserve that
14:45identity, but then align our process is
14:47a little bit more towards something
14:49that's actually truly productive. And it
14:51makes us open and actually acknowledge
14:54the fact that making mistakes is part of
14:56that journey of getting towards
14:58perfection. And now it's not as scary
15:01getting judged on something because
15:02we're actually turning that judgment
15:04into deliberate voluntary feedback that
15:07we're getting for ourselves. You know,
15:08it's like, um there's a quote that's
15:10that's sitting around in my head, and
15:12for some reason I feel like I I'm
15:13getting this quote from Tyrion from Game
15:16of Thrones, where he was like, "Turn
15:18your weakness into armor, and it can
15:19never be used against you." or something
15:21like that. You know, it's just take this
15:22insecurity, this fear of being judged,
15:24and then turn that into your own tool.
15:26And say, "Hey, I'm actively going to get
15:28feedback. I'm actively going to iterate.
15:29I'm actively going to make these drafts,
15:31which I'm saying loud and proud, the
15:33this is not perfected. There are
15:34mistakes in this. There are errors in
15:36this. I'm going to work that out later."
15:38And by deliberately doing that, it
15:40reduces that perceived risk and the
15:42emotional burden of perfectionism, which
15:45can make, naturally, make it easier for
15:47us to get on with the work and not
15:48procrastinate. So, we've covered task
15:51innate issues like aversion to the
15:54process. We have covered, um issues with
15:57the implication of the task. So, it's
15:59not that the task is hard, but the
16:01consequence of if we do the task badly.
16:04So, for example, with perfectionism.
16:06There is another one that is very, uh
16:07similar. It's tied into that. And this
16:09is the idea of a decisional
16:12procrastination. This is one that
16:14affects both the emotional toll by by it
16:16higher and lowers our tolerance of it.
16:18Decisional procrastination is when we
16:21procrastinate because there is a lot of
16:24uncertainty around how we need to do
16:28something. You have to make these
16:29decisions around your approach and
16:31whether one way of doing it is better or
16:33worse than another way, but then if we
16:35do it this way, that's going to lead to
16:37this and then I'll have to fix it with
16:39this other thing, but then that seems
16:40too complicated. So So maybe I'll just
16:42do it this way instead, but but if I
16:43have to do it this way, then I can't do
16:44it until this day and then that relies
16:46on me. So there's all these different
16:48things with thinking through the
16:49strategy. We're thinking through how do
16:51we navigate [clears throat] this thing
16:52and we're making all of these different
16:54decisions. And the reason this affects
16:56both things is number one, it increases
16:57the emotional toll because it's a lot of
16:59effort to think through it. So again,
17:02this is different to the task innate
17:03thing because the difficulty is not in
17:05the task itself. The difficulty is in
17:07terms of where the task sits relative to
17:10all the other priorities and all the
17:12other things that you're trying to do in
17:13your life. You're project managing that
17:15particular task in conjunction with
17:17everything else. It's just too much to
17:19think about and so you just decide not
17:21to do it at all. So that's the emotional
17:22toll part, but it also has a negative
17:25effect on your tolerant because often
17:28the decisions don't actually matter. It
17:29doesn't really matter if you do it this
17:31way versus this way. It's It's actually
17:33usually pretty inconsequential. If you
17:36do it this way, maybe it is slightly
17:38more optimum, but let's say you do it
17:40this other way instead. Well, so what?
17:42You just just do it that way and you can
17:43just fix the issue later. It's just not
17:45a big deal. But we can make it a big
17:47deal in our heads and we feel like we
17:48have to find this like optimum path of
17:51doing everything and we don't have faith
17:53in the fact that we would just figure it
17:54out. And so the tolerance for it goes
17:56lower because we perceive the risk of
17:59each of these decisions to be higher
18:01than it actually is. This is the one
18:03where I would say that the fix, the
18:05solution for this is a little bit more
18:07complicated, but it's easier for me in
18:09this life clinic in a way because the
18:11best fix for this is actually just to
18:13learn about decision-making frameworks.
18:16You can just upskill yourself on making
18:18decisions to structure and organize your
18:20thinking so that you can just make these
18:22decisions faster and more easily and
18:24more accurately. So, that's the first
18:25thing is just get better at
18:28decision-making. The other thing is to
18:30simply timebox your decisions. So,
18:32timeboxing is a strategy where you give
18:34yourself a dedicated amount of time to
18:35think about something and then by the
18:36end of it, it's it's it's done. Like you
18:38have to finish it in a certain amount of
18:40time. So, if I give myself 10 minutes to
18:42think about a certain decision, by the
18:44end of that 10 minutes, I I have to
18:45arrive at a decision. And you enforce
18:47that. You get get to the 10 minutes and
18:49still be like, "Oh, I'm not really
18:50sure." Get as sure as you can be because
18:53once that 10 minutes is up, you have to
18:54take that decision and just go with it.
18:56So, timeboxing can be really useful for
18:58like those daily decisions where you
19:01probably know that in the grand scheme
19:03of things, 10 years from now or, you
19:06know, lying on your deathbed, you're not
19:08going to be looking back and thinking,
19:10"Oh, if only I'd picked the most optimum
19:12path to go grocery shopping before I
19:15went to the gym." It's like you're
19:16definitely not going to be thinking
19:17about that. So, those are the types of
19:19things that you could just give
19:20yourself, "I'm going to think about this
19:21for 2 minutes. And in 2 minutes, I'm
19:23going to arrive at a decision and I'm
19:24going to move on." And that in itself is
19:26a form of
19:27uh of training that gets you used to
19:29just making certain decisions and
19:31evaluating risk a little bit more
19:32proactively. The reason that sometimes
19:34the decisions take so long is because we
19:36spend a lot of time being uncertain and
19:39just feeling the uncertainty without
19:41being productive in what we're thinking
19:43about. Because we don't know how to
19:44balance different factors against each
19:46other, we just feel each factor. And
19:49then we lit up and we think about a
19:50different factor and we just feel that
19:52one. And then we compare, how do we feel
19:54about this versus how do we feel about
19:56this one? And we think, "Oh, wait, I
19:58can't really remember how I felt
19:59anymore. Let me just try again
20:00tomorrow." And then late at night,
20:01you're thinking,
20:02"Oh, what if I do this?" And you just
20:04feel it, you know? You just like
20:06decision-making on vibes alone. Like
20:08really analytically. And you can not get
20:11very far with that. And you can waste
20:13like days, weeks just vibing through
20:16your decision-making in this way and not
20:18really make any productive progress.
20:19When actually if you have a framework
20:21for thinking, you can work through that
20:22uncertainty rapidly within like minutes.
20:25So, that's the reason why the most
20:26important thing is just to learn how to
20:28make decisions. It's an actual skill.
20:30So, that's decisional. So, that's the
20:31third one. The next one, which also
20:35affects tolerance, reduces your
20:36tolerance, is something that I call
20:38pressure-dependent procrastination. So,
20:42pressure dependence here is when you
20:44figure out that you are able to overcome
20:49procrastination by leaving things to the
20:51last minute. And so, you use the urgency
20:54or the deadline of a task to
20:56artificially increase your tolerance so
20:59that you just get things done. And there
21:01are two There are There are two
21:03different types of this, and this is why
21:04it gets a a little bit interesting, is
21:06that there is strategic delay, which is
21:09very different to just rationalization.
21:12Strategic delay is when you know that a
21:15certain task doesn't need to happen
21:18earlier. You know that the outcome is
21:19not going to be any different if you
21:21leave it till later, and you know that
21:23you can just do it in a short amount of
21:24time. So, you deliberately just leave it
21:26until it has to be done, and then you do
21:28it then. So, this is okay. And there are
21:30a lot of things in life where you feel
21:32like you have to do it today, but
21:33actually you don't have to do it today.
21:35You can do it next week, and it would
21:36actually just be totally fine. And that
21:38could be a healthy way of managing your
21:39priorities, because part of
21:41prioritization, I always say, is that
21:42you have to say no to almost everything.
21:44Only when you say no to almost
21:46everything can you say yes to the things
21:47that really matter. So, part of saying
21:49no is about delaying that until when you
21:50really need to do it. So, that is
21:52strategic delay. It's a slippery slope
21:54sometimes comparing that with
21:56rationalization, cuz rationalization is
21:59you convince yourself that I'm a person
22:03who operates best under pressure. I
22:06leave things to the last minute because
22:07I'm the best version of myself when when
22:09I'm like that. That is more just like
22:12rationalizing the fact that you
22:14procrastinate, but you
22:17like are dependent on requiring high
22:20amounts of pressure. This is dangerous,
22:23because this is not an objective
22:25assessment of whether something should
22:27be delayed or not, and there are lots of
22:29things that you should not delay, even
22:31if it feels like it's not going to be
22:33important. But, what I'm referring to
22:34here is the difference between something
22:35that's important versus something that's
22:36urgent. There are things that can be
22:38urgent but not important. There are
22:40things that are important but are not
22:42urgent. And often, the things that are
22:43important but not urgent, we don't feel
22:46that it's important. Because our brain's
22:48intuitive way of assessing importance is
22:51mostly based on urgency. We're a
22:53short-term wired organism. And so, we're
22:56not really good at I think this term is
22:58called distant horizon rewards. It's
23:01basically when the reward is a is in the
23:03long term. We're not really good at
23:06feeling that that is very valuable. So,
23:09there are many things that are important
23:12enough that could really be needle
23:15movers and game changers, trajectory
23:18setting things in your life, that if you
23:21leave it until it is urgent, you
23:24actually just don't have enough time. A
23:25a great example of this is actually
23:27learning skills. A lot of people leave
23:29their learning skills until it's just
23:31before an exam. You can't really get
23:33great at learning and undo like a decade
23:36of bad habits within like 2 weeks. So,
23:38by leaving it until you became urgent,
23:40you kind of screwed yourself, really.
23:42And there are lots of these little
23:43things. Most skill development initially
23:45is important but not urgent. And most
23:47skill development, if you leave it until
23:49it's urgent, uh is too late. So, this is
23:52the issue with if you leave things
23:53that's like pressure dependent. If you
23:55have to create that artificial urgency
23:57for yourself. And it's also not healthy
23:58because it puts you in a high stress
23:59state chronically, which is not good for
24:02your mental health and not good for your
24:03physical health. So, what what's the
24:05solution to this? Uh the solution to
24:07this is to learn to be productive
24:10without having to put pressure on
24:12yourself. And there are sort of two ways
24:14that we can handle this. The first is
24:16that you artificially create the
24:18pressure for yourself earlier on. So,
24:20you just spend more time planning, or
24:22you create a like a fake deadline that
24:24is way way way in advance. And so,
24:26you're kind of still in this
24:27pressure-dependent state, but you're
24:29creating healthier pressure in a way
24:32because it's not sort of the hard
24:34deadline. This does work short-term, and
24:37I think it's good for just conditioning
24:38you out of having this like ultimatum
24:41do-or-die type of mentality. So,
24:43definitely use that if you really
24:44strongly resonate with this type of
24:45procrastination, but that's not also a
24:47sustainable solution because of the fact
24:49that, number one, you will one day
24:51realize that that first deadline that
24:53you set for yourself is not the true
24:55deadline. And number two, because it
24:58doesn't take you away from this
24:59pressure-dependent mindset. And so,
25:01what is a little bit more sustainable
25:03with this is to spend additional time
25:07upfront being clear about your planning
25:10and do the reverse goal setting, which
25:13some of you will have encountered, which
25:15is where you you take the goal that
25:16you're trying to reach and you reverse
25:18engineer what has to happen for you to
25:21reach that goal. And the reason is that
25:23often our ability to think about
25:26reaching complex goals intuitively is
25:28very limited. We often don't know all
25:30the steps that have to happen and all
25:32the wiggle room. So, if we just leave it
25:34based on feeling, when that feeling of
25:37urgency arrives, it's often when it's
25:40already far too late anyway. And so, by
25:43doing deliberate planning upfront and
25:45saying, "In order for me to reach this
25:47particular goal, here's everything that
25:49actually needs to happen." We get a
25:50realistic picture of the scope of work
25:53that it takes. And what you'll see is
25:55that if you do not reach a certain
25:57deadline by a certain time, you are
25:59going to fall behind. And this creates
26:01in a way that same sense of urgency
26:04because you realize that to reach this
26:06goal 6 months a year from now, you
26:08actually do have to be starting that
26:10today, but it's healthier and more
26:12sustainable in that it's dependent on an
26:15active process of logical objective
26:18planning that you're going through
26:20rather than just arbitrarily saying,
26:22"Hey, I'm going to do it by this
26:23deadline. I'm going to give myself just
26:24a week." And then you're still just
26:26relying on this short-term emotional
26:28push to get there. You cannot easily get
26:32to a point where your brain naturally
26:34values long-term reward more than
26:37short-term reward. That's not easy to
26:39do. It is possible. It takes years and
26:43lots of experience like repeated
26:45experience having reaped these
26:46life-changing rewards over and over
26:48again. So if you you know play your
26:50cards right maybe 7 years from now you
26:52will start feeling this. But again
26:54that's like a really long-term strategy.
26:56So what is much more viable as a
26:58practical solution is to just get to a
27:00point at least where you are willing to
27:02do the planning necessary to scope out
27:06all the steps required to reach your
27:07goal. And then if you're trying to do
27:08that and you procrastinate that that's
27:10probably a type of decisional
27:12procrastination. And so now you have to
27:13go and either time box it or do those
27:16decision-making modules so that you've
27:17got a framework to think through. So
27:18that's pressure dependence. There's two
27:20more and I'm going to talk about them
27:21really quickly. The first one is a
27:23generalized anxiety generalized anxiety
27:24disorder. The second one here is about
27:26ADHD or ASD. The reason I'm going to
27:29talk about these two quickly is because
27:30they are more medical sort of conditions
27:33and they and they really do require like
27:34specialist input if it's actually
27:35holding you back in in your life to a
27:37meaningful degree. So generalized
27:39anxiety disorder this is you have a very
27:41low tolerance because you are fearful of
27:45responsibilities and commitment to to
27:48something or doing something and getting
27:50it wrong. It's different from
27:51perfectionism because perfectionism is
27:53specifically because of a judgment that
27:55you or others make. It's it's specific
27:57to the judgment. Most people will
27:59classify perfectionism as a form of
28:01anxiety as like a subset. I think it's
28:03useful to think about them differently
28:04because you may not resonate with this
28:06idea of perfectionism in terms of
28:07judgment but you may resonate with this
28:09idea of generally being anxious about
28:11agreeing to responsibilities and having
28:15this pressure on yourself to do things
28:17in a certain way or to perform in a
28:18certain way. And so that can reduce your
28:20tolerance of how much you're able to to
28:22hold on to and your overall resilience.
28:24What's the solution for this? I would
28:26highly recommend that you see a clinical
28:27psychologist for CBT
28:29cognitive behavioral therapy or
28:30acceptance commitment therapy. Like an
28:32clinical intervention because anxiety
28:35can be often is life-changing, it's like
28:37life-defining. And there are really
28:39effective strategies of working through
28:40anxiety, but those strategies are
28:42actually very specific. And these are
28:44not things that most people will
28:46naturally just figure out by themselves.
28:47And if you do, it's going to take you a
28:50really, really, really long time. And
28:51this is not worth it. So, one of the
28:53things people say is like, "I just can't
28:54afford like a psychologist." I mean,
28:56there's not a lot of things that are
28:58worth the money more than a clinical
29:01psychologist if you actually struggle
29:03with this. The rest of your life is
29:05going to be through this lens. The
29:06chances that you can just kind of
29:08naturally just figure it out is is
29:10either low or it's unnecessarily
29:12painful. And so, that you know, I would
29:14strongly recommend that. And it's the
29:15same thing that I would recommend if you
29:17have ADHD or ASD. If you haven't been
29:19formally assessed, get assessed. If you
29:21have been assessed, but you're not
29:22working with a clinical psychologist
29:24around ADHD interventions, do that as
29:26well. The way ADHD works is that the
29:28executive functioning part of your brain
29:30and the part in involved in task
29:32initiation and time perception do not
29:35function like a neurotypical brain. And
29:37so, there are sort of a wide-ranging set
29:42of complications that make it harder for
29:44you to initiate a task. And you sort of
29:46all see that as procrastination. But
29:47it's much more complicated than that.
29:49And simply just doing the Zeigarnik
29:51effect may not be enough. The good news
29:53is, if you do have ADHD, the Zeigarnik
29:55effect is is is very helpful. So,
29:57everything that I've told you about
29:59process aversive solutions, so all of
30:01this stuff, everything I've told you
30:02about, you know, this stuff over here,
30:05that all still applies. If you work with
30:07a psychologist, they will probably teach
30:09you this as well. And they'll also teach
30:11you some other strategies. But this idea
30:12of kind of ramping up into the task,
30:14just breaking a task down into like
30:16really small pieces, being very
30:18structured and routined when you do
30:20stuff instead of just kind of like
30:21jumping into it, that is all going to be
30:24very effective for you. But it may still
30:26not be enough alone, which is why I
30:27recommend that you do work with a
30:29clinical psychologist around that if you
30:31are not already, because there's a limit
30:33to how much you can kind of just
30:35self-psychologist yourself. So, yeah,
30:37these are the six uh main mechanisms: 1
30:402 3 4 5 6. And so, the idea is figure
30:45out what type of procrastination you are
30:48being affected by on any given time
30:50depending on your context, and then use
30:52a strategy that is going to be most
30:54effective for that type. So, for me,
30:56most of the time it's related to this,
30:59so I'm using the Zeigarnik effect a lot.
31:01I used to have this not so much anymore
31:04because I've kind of trained myself out
31:06of that. In terms of decision-making, I
31:07often do time-boxed decision-making. I
31:10have spent a long time learning about
31:12decision-making frameworks and getting
31:13really fluent at those. Another thing is
31:15making important decisions when you are
31:18feeling more energized, so your
31:20prefrontal cortex, which is the part of
31:21your brain involved in making decisions,
31:23this gets fatigued very easily. So, if
31:25you do all of your planning at the end
31:26of the day and you're already tired,
31:28you'll be making decisions all day,
31:29you're just not going to want to do
31:31that, and the quality is going to be
31:32diminished. So, do this type of
31:34important decision-making when you're
31:35feeling fresh, like at the beginning of
31:37your day, when you can really, really
31:38focus, and your prefrontal cortex is not
31:41fatigued. A really good way to tell
31:44whether your prefrontal cortex is
31:45fatigued or not is how bothered you can
31:48be making decisions that you know are
31:50good for you but take effort. So, if you
31:52can't be bothered doing things that you
31:53know are good for you, and the reason
31:55you can't be bothered doing it is just
31:56it takes effort, like you're ordering
31:58takeout instead of cooking a meal for
31:59yourself because you just can't be
32:00bothered, that's a very accurate way to
32:03measure prefrontal cortex fatigue. So,
32:05if that's happening, that's not a great
32:07time to be making important life
32:08decisions and doing important planning
32:10for yourself. So, that's another quick
32:11little tip. And in terms of the
32:12pressure-dependent one, if you think
32:15that you are doing strategic delays but
32:16you're not quite sure, I would err on
32:18the side of caution and just assume that
32:20you're just rationalizing because the
32:22human brain's ability to like
32:23rationalize is very strong.

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