The Neuroscience of Procrastination
health and wellness
Have you ever looked at an assignment or chore and thought, “I’ll do it later” or “I have time?”, then before you know it, the deadline is here and you still haven’t done it! The panic sets in! This is called procrastination. Kudos to you if you don’t relate.
Let’s start off by defining what procrastination is. It comes from the Latin term “procrastinus” - “pro”, meaning forward and “crastinus” meaning “until tomorrow.” Basically, procrastination is the act of postponing an action or task until the future, knowing that there will be negative consequences. Given this, why do we procrastinate?
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just because of laziness or lack of motivation. It actually played an evolutionary advantage–mainly it helped our ancestors stall for time to think of solutions for life-threatening situations. However, it’s not so useful in the modern world, where we don’t have such threats.
We have a limbic system (automatic thinker) and prefrontal cortex (front part of our brains that plans and executes tasks). Generally, the limbic system seeks immediate pleasure and instant gratification, whereas our prefrontal cortex (PFC) plans out our task and allocates time for various steps. Procrastination results from a conflict between these systems where the limbic system wins after enticing us with millions of distractions.
If we all have both these systems, why do some people procrastinate when others don’t? According to neuroscientific research, there are structural differences between procrastinators’ and non-procrastinators’ brains. Namely, procrastinators have bigger volumes of amygdalas, the part of the brain that processes fear, resulting in a tendency for avoiding or delaying tasks out of fear. More recent studies by Zhang et al. found (through fMRI scans) that several parts in the PFC are not connected properly, which also hampers the ability to plan and execute tasks. While up to 46% of this behavior can be attributed to genetics, a majority of this behavior is due to environmental and other external factors.
Great news! We can fix this problem with some strategies. 1. We should earn our rewards instead of feeding the limbic system with instant gratification before completing a task. 2. We should also break our tasks down into smaller, manageable components that don't overwhelm our limbic systems. 3. Just start the task (even if we don’t think we’re ready). Our brains are more compelled to finish a task that we start. 4. Dedicate blocks of time for tasks and rewards so our brains know what to expect. 5. Finally, put away all distractions (e.g. social media) and avoid multitasking to ensure that we complete tasks on time thoroughly.
In conclusion, procrastination negatively affects our productivity and behavior. Though our genetics play a significant factor in determining our propensity to procrastinate, we can mitigate this by changing our environment and employing various strategies such as monotasking, breaking down tasks into manageable chunks (with deadlines) and dedicating time blocks for tasks and leisure activities.