Why We Procrastinate And How To Stop

Well, Dr. Bruning, thank you to come be on our show. Now, we're going to be talking about procrastination. I would just say every discussion of procrastination should start with a confession. I am guilty of procrastinating, always wait till last week to file my tax return, and I always want to delay things. So tell us, why are we wired to procrastinate? Sure. So we are not wired at birth. Our wiring comes from experience, early experience, because that's when we have a lot of neuroplasticity, which builds the big pathways in our brain. Our brain is designed to go toward rewards, but away from threats. So even though you want to do that thing, you see it as a threat. So why do you see it as a threat? Because of something that happened in your past, because we're all wired by early experience. The most common example is that somebody told you, oh, if you do it, you're going to make a mistake. So you're so afraid of making a mistake that you'd rather do nothing. And that's a huge pathway in your brain, is anything I do, it's going to be wrong, so I'm not going to do anything. Now, is there a brain chemical that's responsible for that behavior? Sure. So cortisol is the threat chemical. And a lot of people have heard about this in the context of an animal running from a predator, because it makes you feel like you're really going to die. Fight or flight. Exactly. Yeah. A panic attack is another sort of like modern idea of it. But small bits of cortisol are widely thought of as the stress chemical. So if doing your taxes is wired to your cortisol, then as much as I want to get my taxes done, but then when I think about doing it, a cortisol pathway is activated, and this terrible feeling turns on, and then what do I do when I feel terrible? Every one of us has learned a cortisol response. There's a Chinese saying, once you're bitten by a snake, for the rest of your life you're scared of seeing the shadow of a rope. Is that how it works? Exactly. That's perfect. And I am literally afraid of seeing the shadow of a rope. I'm actually afraid of snakes, so it's a really good saying. Is there anything that the person can do to use that knowledge based on your research and to apply that and to be less of a procrastinator or parents to help their kids if they're forming those habits early on in their life? So if a person is procrastinating and we know that our brain expects a reward, then how can I break the procrastination? First give myself a really small step forward that I know I can succeed at, and then give myself a reward. So to use the cliche example of doing your taxes, we've heard like, well first I'm going to get all my tax paperwork out, and I'm going to set a timer, and I'm only going to work on it for five minutes at a time, and then I'm going to maybe watch TV for five minutes and then work on my taxes for ten minutes, and then watch TV for five, and then you get yourself going in ten minute increments, and after a while you're so into it that you don't want to stop, and that's the dopamine pathway that you've built. You have written quite a few books on this subject. Which book would you recommend for people who want to learn more about procrastination? Sure. Well, Tame Your Anxiety is a good explanation of what I just said about how bad feelings are real physical neural pathways built from real experience, and we can build new neural pathways. Thank you so much, Dr. Brewing. Thanks for having me.