The Science of Procrastination

Alright ladies and gentlemen, we need to talk.

Right now, not tomorrow, not next week, right now.

Procrastination 

The dreadful thing that slows us down in our assignments, school work, personal life… everything.

Truthfully, I was procrastinating working on this article. I turned it in late.

Anyways, today I just want to talk about what goes on in our brains when we procrastinate. It helps to know what goes on.

Now, let me connect each of these parts to an area in the brain.

1. Rational Decision making - Prefrontal Cortex

2. Instant Gratification - Limbic System

3. Panic Monster - Hypothalamus

This is tied to the limbic system.

The limbic system is essentially a bunch of parts of the brain together which control and regulate emotions. They control and regulate hormones like adrenaline and cortisol (more later) and deal with stimulations. So you can see where this is going… The limbic system lives in the now. It wants instant gratification. It has no thoughts or anything to do with the prefrontal cortex. Essentially procrastination is a fight between the prefrontal cortex and limbic system.

Now, back to our example. Let’s say you started the essay. You’re now ready to work and get everything done. The limbic system, or the instant gratification monkey, enters and says, “Oh that sounds great and all, but how about we do this completely random thing that will end up taking 3 hours and we completely forget the essay.” The prefrontal cortex argues and says “no”.

However, the procrastinator is a procrastinator, so the control of the brain passes over to the monkey. The monkey is VERY strong. It needs immense willpower to overcome the procrastinator, but it has a weakness: 

The panic monster. (That’s what the video calls it.)

I’ll call it the hypothalamus gland, but in reality it is just cortisol. The hypothalamus is a gland in the limbic system that sends signals to the glands in the body that release cortisol. That’s the hormone that causes stress. There is A LOT more detail to this, but let’s just go over the basics.

Back to the example. As the deadline approaches, and the monkey is in firm control, the brain starts noticing how close the deadline is. And, depending on how much the monkey is in control, the brain will start to panic and release the panic monster. That’s what scares the monkey. The instant gratification part has pretty much no control now. The prefrontal cortex is now back in control, is able to start working and then turn it in. 

As you can see that’s what happens when you procrastinate. It really is a bad thing. Some people say, “Oh he’s a procrastinator”, but he isn’t. It’s his brain battling for control.

I agree with the video. There is no such thing as a non-procrastinator. We all procrastinate to a certain degree. We all have that instant gratification that lives in the now and doesn’t want to work. And, we all want to rest and play to a certain extent. I would say that it is just a matter of how much you procrastinate.