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

If you've ever planned something big and

then done absolutely nothing about it,

it is not because you're lazy. There's

literally a neurological cycle happening

in your brain that prevents you from

pursuing your dreams. And in this video,

I'll explain how it works and how

[music] to fix it. My name is Olga. I

study cognitive science and computation

at the University of Pennsylvania. And

after the last [music] four years of

studying how the human mind works, I

think this is probably the most

fascinating and most useful thing I

learned about.

So, procrastination research or Tim

Pychyl has spent decades studying why

people don't do the things that they

promised [music] themselves to do. And

he found that procrastination is not a

time management problem. Procrastination

is an emotion regulation problem. And

here's what it means. When you have

something important to do, like starting

a creative project or submitting an

application or doing a workout or an

assignment,

>> [music]

>> and you think about actually doing it,

that's when your brain generates a

negative emotion. It can be self-doubt,

overwhelm,

>> [music]

>> anxiety. You might have fear that the

result is not going to be good enough.

And your brain does not like negative

emotions. So, it escapes. You start

cleaning your room. You reorganize your

desk. You pick up your phone. You start

scrolling. And suddenly, that negative

feeling of dread goes away. And you feel

relief. And here's an interesting part.

That relief in itself is a reward. And

in psychology, behaviors that get

rewarded get repeated. [music]

So, your brain learns, "If I avoid a

difficult task, that's when I'm going to

get that short-term feeling of relief,

which is something positive." And it

starts doing it automatically every time

you're faced with something difficult.

And your brain creates something called

an avoidance loop, where you're faced

with a difficult task, it triggers a

negative emotion, then you don't do that

task, so you feel relief. And next time

you're faced with something difficult,

you again default to avoidance because

that's what triggers relief. And here's

what's happening in your brain. Every

time you're faced with a hard task,

there are two systems that are competing

for control. And the first is your

amygdala, which is your brain's alarm

system. It is essentially responsible

for detecting threats in the

environment. And if a task is seeming

overwhelming or scary to you, it

essentially treats that task as a

threat. So, it tells you, "Don't do

this. Run.

>> [music]

>> This is dangerous. You have to avoid

this." And the second is the part of

your brain that actually makes you act.

And neuroscientists call it the dorsal

anterior cingulate cortex. Essentially,

it takes the fear [music] signal from

the amygdala. If needed, it shuts it

down. And then it actually pushes you to

do the things that you're supposed to be

doing. [music] And when you

procrastinate, your amygdala is winning,

which is called an amygdala hijack,

where essentially your emotional brain

overrides your irrational brain, and you

flee from the task. And here's why it

gets worse if you don't address it.

Every time you're going through the

avoidance loop, you feel dread towards

the task, you avoid it, you feel relief.

[music]

Every time you go through this avoidance

loop, you are physically strengthening

the neural pathway for procrastination.

Because

>> [music]

>> as we all know, what you repeat, you

become. So, the procrastination circuit

gets faster. It becomes more of a

default behavior for you. And your

discipline circuit weakens like [music]

a muscle that you stopped using. So, if

your brain is training itself to avoid

and procrastinate, could you

theoretically train it to do the

complete opposite? Well, Tim Pychyl

spent 20 years of his career trying to

answer that question. Well, the answer

is embarrassingly simple.

And the answer is, you have to just

start.

Just start. That's it.

No need to finish it. No need to perform

well. You just have to start the task

for 5 to 10 minutes [music]

and not think about the outcome.

Essentially, you have to learn to

interrupt the avoidance loop. [music]

And here's how you do it. Step number

one is to catch it and name it. And when

you notice yourself procrastinating, and

you notice yourself avoiding something,

[music]

think about the emotion you're

experiencing. Are you feeling

overwhelmed? Are you feeling anxious?

Are you afraid that the result is not

going to be good enough? Just naming

that emotion is enough for you to switch

from your emotional mind back into your

rational mind. And second step is to

make [music] your task stupidly small.

Essentially, think about what is the

tiniest possible action you can set for

yourself as the goal, just to make at

least a little bit of progress.

>> [music]

>> For example, don't think that you have

to write a whole essay tonight. Think,

"Oh, my task is to open the document in

Google Doc and write for just 10

minutes." And don't think, "Oh, I have

to do this hour-long workout. I'm really

dreading it."

Think of your task [music] as just

putting on your shoes and going outside.

And the reason why simply starting

something for 10 minutes is so powerful

is because the actual process of

completing a task, it's almost always

much easier than the extreme dread you

feel before doing it. And [music] Pychyl

showed this beautifully in the study

where he gave 45 students pagers. And

that [music] was before smartphones

existed. So, he gave them pagers. He

would page them eight times a day for

five days leading up to their academic

deadline on some in some class. And when

the pager went off, the student was

supposed to report how they were

feeling, what they were doing, how they

were feeling about the academic

assignment that they had to do. The data

showed that the students consistently

procrastinated on the tasks that they

found difficult or unpleasant or

stressful. And they consistently

replaced them with activities that were

more interesting and more exciting. And

of course, we all would do that, right?

But here's what Pychyl found most

interesting. When students

procrastinated early in the week, they

would constantly justify. They would

constantly say that, "Oh, I work better

under pressure. I work better close to

the deadline.

I will feel like it tomorrow." And they

would say things like these to explain

why they're not doing the task they're

supposed to be [music] doing. But when

the deadline actually forced them to

start, not one of them said that they

were glad that they waited. [music] They

were all saying that they wish they had

more time. They wish they started

earlier. And that the task wasn't

actually as bad as they thought. So,

you're not actually avoiding the task.

You're avoiding the way that you think

the task is going to make you feel. And

[music] your brain is wrong about it

almost all of the time. And now you

might be thinking, "Well, I don't just

sit on the couch doing nothing. I'm

actually busy all the time. So, why can

I not finally start this project that

I've been putting off for months?"