I DREAM BIG BUT DO NOTHING. the neuroscience behind why & how to fix — Transcript

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1. 0:00If you've ever planned something big and
2. 0:02then done absolutely nothing about it,
3. 0:04it is not because you're lazy. There's
4. 0:06literally a neurological cycle happening
5. 0:09in your brain that prevents you from
6. 0:10pursuing your dreams. And in this video,
7. 0:13I'll explain how it works and how
8. 0:15[music] to fix it. My name is Olga. I
9. 0:17study cognitive science and computation
10. 0:19at the University of Pennsylvania. And
11. 0:21after the last [music] four years of
12. 0:22studying how the human mind works, I
13. 0:25think this is probably the most
14. 0:26fascinating and most useful thing I
15. 0:28learned about.
16. 0:30So, procrastination researcher Tim
17. 0:32Pychyl has spent decades studying why
18. 0:34people don't do the things that they
19. 0:36promised [music] themselves to do. And
20. 0:38he found that procrastination is not a
21. 0:41time management problem. Procrastination
22. 0:44is an emotion regulation problem. And
23. 0:47here's what it means. When you have
24. 0:48something important to do, like starting
25. 0:51a creative project or submitting an
26. 0:53application or doing a workout or an
27. 0:55assignment,
28. 0:56>> [music]
29. 0:56>> and you think about actually doing it,
30. 0:59that's when your brain generates a
31. 1:00negative emotion. It can be self-doubt,
32. 1:03overwhelm,
33. 1:04>> [music]
34. 1:04>> anxiety. You might have fear that the
35. 1:07result is not going to be good enough.
36. 1:08And your brain does not like negative
37. 1:10emotions. So, it escapes. You start
38. 1:13cleaning your room. You reorganize your
39. 1:15desk. You pick up your phone. You start
40. 1:17scrolling. And suddenly, that negative
41. 1:20feeling of dread goes away. And you feel
42. 1:22relief. And here's an interesting part.
43. 1:25That relief in itself is a reward. And
44. 1:28in psychology, behaviors that get
45. 1:29rewarded get repeated. [music]
46. 1:31So, your brain learns, if I avoid a
47. 1:34difficult task, that's when I'm going to
48. 1:35get that short-term feeling of relief,
49. 1:37which is something positive. And it
50. 1:39starts doing it automatically every time
51. 1:42you're faced with something difficult.
52. 1:43And your brain creates something called
53. 1:45an avoidance loop, where you're faced
54. 1:47with a difficult task, it triggers a
55. 1:49negative emotion, then you don't do that
56. 1:51task, so you feel relief. And next time
57. 1:54you're faced with something difficult,
58. 1:56you again default to avoidance because
59. 1:59that's what triggers relief. And here's
60. 2:00what's happening in your brain. Every
61. 2:02time you're faced with a hard task,
62. 2:04there are two systems that are competing
63. 2:06for control. And the first is your
64. 2:08amygdala, which is your brain's alarm
65. 2:10system. It is essentially responsible
66. 2:12for detecting threats in the
67. 2:14environment. And if a task is seeming
68. 2:16overwhelming or scary to you, it
69. 2:19essentially treats that task as a
70. 2:21threat. So, it tells you, don't do this.
71. 2:24Run.
72. 2:25>> [music]
73. 2:25>> This is dangerous. You have to avoid
74. 2:27this. And the second is the part of your
75. 2:29brain that actually makes you act. And
76. 2:31neuroscientists call it the dorsal
77. 2:33anterior cingulate cortex. Essentially,
78. 2:36it takes the fear [music] signal from
79. 2:38the amygdala. If needed, it shuts it
80. 2:40down. And then it actually pushes you to
81. 2:43do the things that you're supposed to be
82. 2:44doing. [music] And when you
83. 2:45procrastinate, your amygdala is winning,
84. 2:48which is called an amygdala hijack,
85. 2:50where essentially your emotional brain
86. 2:52overrides your irrational brain, and you
87. 2:55flee from the task. And here's why it
88. 2:57gets worse if you don't address it.
89. 3:00Every time you're going through the
90. 3:01avoidance loop, if you feel dread
91. 3:03towards the task, you avoid it, you feel
92. 3:05relief. [music]
93. 3:06Every time you go through this avoidance
94. 3:08loop, you are physically strengthening
95. 3:10the neural pathway for procrastination.
96. 3:13Because, [music] as we all know, what
97. 3:15you repeat, you become. So, the
98. 3:17procrastination circuit gets faster. It
99. 3:19becomes more of a default behavior for
100. 3:21you. And your discipline circuit weakens
101. 3:24like [music] a muscle that you stopped
102. 3:25using. So, if your brain is training
103. 3:28itself to avoid and procrastinate, could
104. 3:30you theoretically train it to do the
105. 3:32complete opposite? Well, Tim Pychyl
106. 3:35spent 20 years of his career trying to
107. 3:38answer that question. Well, the answer
108. 3:40is embarrassingly simple.
109. 3:43And the answer is, you have to just
110. 3:47start.
111. 3:48Just start. That's it.
112. 3:51No need to finish it. No need to perform
113. 3:53well. You just have to start the task
114. 3:55for 5 to 10 minutes [music]
115. 3:57and not think about the outcome.
116. 3:58Essentially, you have to learn to
117. 4:00interrupt the avoidance loop. [music]
118. 4:02And here's how you do it. Step number
119. 4:04one is to catch it and name it. When you
120. 4:06notice yourself procrastinating, when
121. 4:08you notice yourself avoiding something,
122. 4:10[music]
123. 4:11think about the emotion you're
124. 4:12experiencing. Are you feeling
125. 4:13overwhelmed? Are you feeling anxious?
126. 4:15Are you afraid that the result is not
127. 4:16going to be good enough? Just naming
128. 4:19that emotion is enough for you to switch
129. 4:21from your emotional mind back into your
130. 4:24rational mind. And second step is to
131. 4:26make [music] your task stupidly small.
132. 4:30Essentially, think about what is the
133. 4:31tiniest possible action you can set for
134. 4:34yourself as the goal, just to make at
135. 4:36least a little bit of progress.
136. 4:38>> [music]
137. 4:38>> For example, don't think that you have
138. 4:40to write a whole essay tonight. Think,
139. 4:43oh, my task is to open the document in
140. 4:46Google Doc and write for just 10
141. 4:48minutes. And don't think, oh, I have to
142. 4:49do this hour-long workout. I'm really
143. 4:52dreading it.
144. 4:53Think of your task [music] as just
145. 4:55putting on your shoes and going outside.
146. 4:58And the reason why simply starting
147. 5:00something for 10 minutes is so powerful
148. 5:02is because the actual process of
149. 5:04completing a task, it's almost always
150. 5:07much easier than the extreme dread you
151. 5:09feel before doing it. And [music] Pychyl
152. 5:11showed this beautifully in the study
153. 5:14where he gave 45 students pagers, and
154. 5:17that [music] was before smartphones
155. 5:18existed. So, he gave them pagers. He
156. 5:21would page them eight times a day for
157. 5:23five days leading up to their academic
158. 5:26deadline on some in some class. And when
159. 5:30the pager went off, the student was
160. 5:32supposed to report how they were
161. 5:34feeling, what they were doing, how they
162. 5:35were feeling about the academic
163. 5:37assignment that they had to do. The data
164. 5:39showed that the students consistently
165. 5:40procrastinated on the tasks that they
166. 5:42found difficult or unpleasant or
167. 5:44stressful. And they consistently
168. 5:46replaced them with activities that were
169. 5:48more interesting and more exciting. And
170. 5:50of course, we all would do that, right?
171. 5:52But here's what Pychyl found most
172. 5:54interesting. When students
173. 5:55procrastinated early in the week, they
174. 5:58would constantly justify. They would
175. 5:59constantly say that, oh, I work better
176. 6:01under pressure. I work better close to
177. 6:03the deadline.
178. 6:04I will feel like it tomorrow. And they
179. 6:06would say things like these to explain
180. 6:09why they're not doing the task they're
181. 6:10supposed to be [music] doing. But when
182. 6:11the deadline actually forced them to
183. 6:13start, not one of them said that they
184. 6:16were glad that they waited. [music] They
185. 6:17were all saying that they wish they had
186. 6:19more time. They wish they started
187. 6:21earlier. And that the task wasn't
188. 6:23actually as bad as they thought. So,
189. 6:26you're not actually avoiding the task.
190. 6:28You're avoiding the way that you think
191. 6:30the task is going to make you feel. And
192. 6:33[music] your brain is wrong about it
193. 6:35almost all of the time. And now you
194. 6:37might be thinking, well, I don't just
195. 6:39sit on the couch doing nothing. I'm
196. 6:41actually busy all the time. So, why can
197. 6:43I not finally start this project that
198. 6:45I've been putting off for months?
199. 6:48Well, there's an answer to that. Your
200. 6:49brain does not just let you sit there
201. 6:51doing nothing because that triggers
202. 6:53guilt. And guilt is another negative
203. 6:56emotion that amygdala is trying to
204. 6:58escape.
205. 6:59>> [music]
206. 6:59>> So, it disguises that avoidance as
207. 7:02productivity. And there's actually two
208. 7:05specific disguises that I want to
209. 7:07discuss [music] with you. And the first
210. 7:08disguise is perfectionism. And research
211. 7:11has consistently shown that people who
212. 7:13score higher on perfectionism are bigger
213. 7:16procrastinators because perfectionism
214. 7:19essentially makes you afraid that your
215. 7:21result is not going to be good enough,
216. 7:23which makes you not even start in the
217. 7:25first place. And researchers found that
218. 7:28more perfectionist professors actually
219. 7:30publish less papers than their less
220. 7:34perfectionist colleagues, even if you
221. 7:36control for how hard-working they are.
222. 7:38Essentially, perfectionism makes you
223. 7:40never start, so you never fall short.
224. 7:43And disguise number two is productive
225. 7:45procrastination. And this one gets
226. 7:47everyone. It's the sneakiest one because
227. 7:49you're not actually sitting on the
228. 7:50couch. You are doing something. You're
229. 7:53researching. You're reorganizing your
230. 7:55desk. You're planning something. You're
231. 7:58watching videos on YouTube about how to
232. 8:00be more productive instead of actually
233. 8:02doing the thing. Maybe you're even
234. 8:03watching this video right now instead of
235. 8:06working on your assignment or working on
236. 8:07your new project. I don't know. And
237. 8:09Pychyl's research calls this short-term
238. 8:12mood repair. When a real task triggers
239. 8:15anxiety or overwhelm or some negative
240. 8:17emotion, your brain essentially decides
241. 8:19to swap it for a safer and less risky
242. 8:22task that is still going to give you
243. 8:24some sense of accomplishment when you
244. 8:26finish it,
245. 8:27but it's going to be without any risk of
246. 8:30failure or judgment because that task is
247. 8:33going to be less high stakes. Like
248. 8:35instead of writing an essay, you spent
249. 8:37an hour color-coding your notes. Or
250. 8:40instead of applying to jobs, you spent
251. 8:42hours perfecting your resume for the
252. 8:44fifth time. And instead of starting a
253. 8:46business that you've dreamt of starting
254. 8:47for years, you read 10 books on how to
255. 8:50start a business. So, you feel like
256. 8:53you're making some progress, but the
257. 8:54actual scary task that you actually have
258. 8:57to do hasn't moved an inch. And again,
259. 8:59remember, you're not actually avoiding
260. 9:01the task. You're avoiding how you think
261. 9:04the task is going to make you feel. But
262. 9:06when you actually start doing it, you
263. 9:08realize that the dread of starting is
264. 9:10much worse than the doing most of the
265. 9:13time. So, now you know what the
266. 9:15avoidance loop looks like, how your
267. 9:17brain disguises it,
268. 9:18>> [music]
269. 9:18>> and how to break it. So, subscribe if
270. 9:21this helped. And please let me know in
271. 9:22the comments what other topics or videos
272. 9:25or ideas you would like to see in my
273. 9:27YouTube channel. And I'm currently
274. 9:29building out my YouTube channel, so any
275. 9:31sort of support or likes or comments
276. 9:34would be greatly [music] appreciated.
277. 9:35And I'll see you in the next one.