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00:00:00 - None of us are immune. Procrastination sneaks up on us all, some worse than others. In this video, we'll go over the science of procrastination and provide you with actionable advice to overcome it. What's going on guys? Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com. Piers Steele describes an equation useful in understanding procrastination. He argues that motivation is equal to expectancy times value divided by impulsiveness times delay. Whereby, motivation is the willingness to do work, which is essentially the opposite of procrastination.

00:00:40 - Breaking down the equation, expectancy refers to how much you expect to succeed at doing the task and thereby getting the anticipated reward. The more you expect being successful, the less likely you're going to procrastinate on it. Value refers to how much you enjoy doing a task and how much you're going to enjoy the reward. The more value you derive from a task or the reward, the more likely you're going to get straight to work. Impulsiveness refers to your tendency to get distracted by other things.

00:01:08 - High impulsivity lures you to Instagram or Facebook instead of doing the work at hand. Delay refers to the time lapse until receiving the anticipated reward. The longer the delay, the more likely you are to procrastinate as you figure it's something you can just take care of later. Now we want to maximize expectancy and value as they are directly proportional to motivation and we want to minimize impulsiveness and delay as they are inversely proportional.

00:01:37 - Let's go over actionable steps on how to use the equation to our advantage and overcome procrastination. First, break down the steps. With any task you need to do, whether studying for an exam or completing a project, break it down to smaller steps. Doing so will increase expectancy in our procrastination equation as smaller tasks seem much easier to accomplish than larger projects. While everyone has a different sweet spot, I find that being hyper specific with timelines is very helpful for me.

00:02:08 - For example, if I need to study for an exam next week and I have several lectures and practice problems to go through, I will take a few minutes to think which lectures I should complete on each day as well as how many practice problems. I input everything into Things 3, which is my personal to-do app of choice, but you should obviously use whatever tool you prefer. You can see an example of a highly structured daily and weekly timeline I created in Excel in my Step 1 Study Schedule video.

00:02:36 - This high level of structure works for me and for my personality, but it definitely does not work for everyone. Again, figure out what works best for you. Number 2, keep the task small. The hardest part in getting work done is just starting. One of my favorite study hacks to address this is the Pomodoro Technique. In short, you work 25 minute blocks, each separated by a 5 minute break. During each block, you focus on just one small task. In my Pomodoro Technique video, I go over in more detail what the technique is and exactly how to use it.

00:03:11 - This was actually revolutionary for my study habits. I only started using it in med school. And you may be thinking, how does this actually help me get started on my work? Going back to our equation, this increases expectancy. If I sat down to study and I told myself I need to study for 5 hours, I would definitely get distracted very very easily. But if I instead tell myself I only need to study for 25 minutes on this one little task, it becomes far less daunting.

00:03:40 - And it becomes much easier to not only get started, but also stay focused for the 25 minute Pomodoro. Number 3, set the bar low. This is yet another trick to increase the expectancy in our equation. Set the goal to something less than what you are actually capable of. I have used this recently for my own meditation practice. When I set out to meditate 20 minutes every day, I only got around to doing it a couple times per week. It just felt like I never had time to actually sit down and do 20 minutes of meditation, so I rarely did.

00:04:12 - Instead, I lowered my expectations by aiming to meditate just 2 minutes every day. By lowering the bar, I found myself meditating most days.

00:04:21 - And even though I set the goal as just two minutes, I almost always exceeded it. Number four, hack pleasure from the experience of studying. Do you ever feel like studying is boring? What if you don't actually support the immediate outcomes of the task? Let's say you don't know what you want or maybe you have unclear priorities. These examples all point to low value in our equation. Increasing value will help us overcome procrastination. So how do we increase value? One way is by giving yourself a reward for completing a task.

00:04:52 - For example, you can reward yourself with a healthy and tasty meal or by hanging out with your friends after and only after you finish your chemistry homework. If you need help with self-discipline like this, check out our self-discipline video. Alternatively, you can improve the experience of the work itself. As you progress in your medical education, the work gets more and more focused on material you actually enjoy. However, at the beginning, you may have to grind through subjects that you don't find stimulating.

00:05:22 - To improve the experience of studying, consider mixing up your study environments or listening to great study music. If you want a taste of my own personal study music, check out the insider email newsletter where I share some of my favorite study songs every week. You can sign up on the MedSchoolInsiders.com website. Number five, use Parkinson's Law to your advantage. The idea that you can complete your task at a later time can crush even the most productive individuals. Enter Parkinson's Law.

00:05:51 - Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted to it. Meaning, if you have only 30 minutes of work to do, but you allot two hours of work to do it, then you'll end up spending the entire two hours. As I've stated in other videos, I use this technique frequently by creating artificial deadlines that force me to get work done more efficiently. These artificial deadlines decrease delay in our motivation equation, thus decreasing the likelihood of procrastination.

00:06:20 - The trick is to not be too aggressive with your timeline as it can lead to unnecessary stress. With time, you will get more accurate at gauging how long a task will take and how to use Parkinson's Law to your advantage. Number six, be deliberate with your study environment. We can all agree that one of the biggest killers to our productivity are distractions. Creating distractions through sheer willpower is unlikely to be fruitful long term. Rather, approach it prophylactically by crafting a work environment that minimizes distractions.

00:06:52 - In doing so, we're decreasing impulsivity from our motivation equation. For me, this translates to placing my phone on airplane mode, putting my Mac on Do Not Disturb, and going full screen with the work at hand. If working at home distracts you, then opt for a library or a coffee shop instead. Above all, make sure you minimize your digital distractions. I have found that any other type of distraction pales in comparison to the focus killing nature of notifications from your phone, smartwatch, or computer.

00:07:26 - And last, number seven, understand your personality type. The issue with advice in general is that one suggestion can work wonders for one individual, but not for another. Of the previous six tips, I am doubtful that any of them will not work for you, but I am confident that some will work much better than others. Now, a big part of optimizing your own life, whether that's productivity or study habits, diet, exercise, or anything else, is understanding oneself. One of the tips that didn't make this list, for example, is accountability.

00:08:00 - And that's because it's highly effective for some individuals with a certain personality type but significantly less so for others. I go over how you can determine your personality type, as well as specific strategies for each personality type, such as accountability, that you can use to your advantage in my four tendencies video. Link in the description below. I'd love to hear from you what other tools, tricks, or hacks you use to overcome procrastination. Have you found loss aversion useful for you? How about accountability groups?

00:08:32 - Share with the rest of us what has worked for you down below and let's help each other out. Thank you all so much for watching. Shout out to my Patreon supporters that help make videos like these possible. If you liked the video, make sure you press that like button. Hit subscribe if you have not already and I will see you guys in that next one.

Speaker 1 (00:00:07) - It's 5pm, and you've just realized that report you've been putting off is due tomorrow. It's time to buckle down, open your computer, and check your phone. Maybe catch up on your favorite YouTube channel? Actually, you should probably make dinner first. You usually like cooking, though it's hard to enjoy with this work hanging over your head. And, oh, it's actually pretty late. Maybe you should just try again in the morning. This is the cycle of procrastination, and I promise you, we have all been there.

Speaker 1 (00:00:44) - But why do we keep procrastinating even when we know it's bad for us? To be clear, putting something off isn't always procrastinating. Responsible time management requires deciding which tasks are important and which ones can wait. Procrastination is when we avoid a task we said we would do for no good reason, despite expecting our behavior to bring negative consequences. Obviously, it's irrational to do something you expect to harm you.

Speaker 1 (00:01:15) - But ironically, procrastination is the result of our bodies trying to protect us, specifically by avoiding a task we see as threatening. When you realize you need to write that report, your brain responds like it would to any incoming threat. Your amygdala, a set of neurons involved in emotional processing and threat identification, releases hormones, including adrenaline, that kick off a fear response. This stress-induced panic can overpower the impulses from your prefrontal cortex, which typically help you think long-term and regulate your emotions.

Speaker 1 (00:01:55) - And it's in the midst of this fight, flight, or freeze response that you decide to handle the threat by avoiding it in favor of some less stressful task. This response might seem extreme. After all, it's just a deadline, not a bear attack. But we're most likely to procrastinate tasks that evoke negative feelings, such as dread, incompetence, and insecurity.

Speaker 1 (00:02:20) - Studies of procrastinating university students have found participants were more likely to put off tasks they perceived as stressful or challenging, and the perception of how difficult the task is increases while you're putting it off. In one experiment, students were given reminders to study throughout the day. While they were studying, most reported that it wasn't so bad. But when they were procrastinating, they consistently rated the idea of studying as very, very stressful, making it difficult to get started.

Speaker 1 (00:02:55) - Because procrastination is motivated by our negative feelings, some individuals are more susceptible to it than others. People who have difficulty regulating their emotions and those who struggle with low self-esteem are much more likely to procrastinate, regardless of how good they are at time management. However, it's a common misconception that all procrastinators are lazy. In the body and brain, laziness is marked by low energy and general apathy.

Speaker 1 (00:03:26) - When you're feeling lazy, you're more likely to sit around doing nothing than distract yourself with unimportant tasks. In fact, many people procrastinate because they care too much. Procrastinators often report a high fear of failure, putting things off because they're afraid their work won't live up to their high standards. Whatever the reason for procrastination, the results are often the same.

Speaker 1 (00:03:54) - Frequent procrastinators are likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, ongoing feelings of shame, higher stress levels, and physical ailments associated with high stress. Worst of all, while procrastination hurts us in the long run, it does temporarily reduce our stress level, reinforcing it as a bodily response for coping with stressful tasks. So, how can we break the cycle of procrastination? Traditionally, people thought procrastinators needed to cultivate discipline and practice strict time management.

Speaker 1 (00:04:31) - But today, many researchers feel the exact opposite. Being too hard on yourself can layer additional bad emotions onto a task, making the threat even more intense. To short circuit this stress response, we need to address and reduce these negative emotions. Some simple strategies include breaking a task into smaller elements, or journaling about why it's stressing you out and addressing those underlying concerns. Try removing nearby distractions that make it easy to impulsively procrastinate.

Speaker 1 (00:05:07) - And more than anything, it helps to cultivate an attitude of self-compassion, forgiving yourself and making a plan to do better next time. Because a culture that perpetuates this cycle of stress and procrastination hurts all of us in the long term.