The real irony is that I put off releasing this video for months. Thanks for bearing with me while I’m on the road (with questionable audio and even MORE questionable interior design 🦙)
I think through the steps of things I've been putting off, but that just makes me feel like it's already been done, so I procrastinate even more. It doesn't help that I view time as the one thing I can never get back, so giving it up to do something I don't really want to do is a very hard sell. I'd rather give someone money instead. I can always get more of that. 😊
@@Friendship1nmillion this is a really great question! A psychologist is on the practice side, and a behavioural scientist is on the research side. In most countries, "psychologist" is a practising health professional, like a counsellor or therapist, and they need to have certain licenses. A behavioural scientist studies human behaviour: some are researchers, some work in companies. Some people also go by cognitive scientist or psychological scientist depending on their specialty/country.
I often find that I procrastinate when a task feels overwhelming. One way I can beat that is to ask, "what is the smallest next task I can do to move me forward?" Maybe that's just opening an email and reading it. Maybe it's opening a template file and renaming it with the project name. Maybe it's writing a single sentence. Whatever it is, I find that once I've actually started, I tend to keep going on the NEXT smallest task, and eventually I realize that I've just started working. Hopefully this will be helpful to other people too!
I do the same thing when I have an overwhelmingly long to-do list. I look to find the easiest task and do that, then the next easiest. My list keeps shrinking until it's only the big, scary things left. Those things aren't so big and scary when they aren't surrounded by the clutter of other little tasks.
Yes, I've found that the longer I avoid doing something, the more anxiety I get about doing it, but the anxiety comes more from the avoidance than from the task itself. Once I take a small action towards it, lots of the anxiety just starts to go away.
The problem with this logic is twofold. One you are deciding it isn't urgent enough but other people might be counting on you to chip in on that end so that they can do their part and it becomes a problem if you don't do your part by the time they need you to do it even though technically you could do it later that puts a stress on other people wondering if you'll really do your part in time. The other problem is that if you leave things for the last minute you're always going to do the minimum of a task because you won't have time to do a better job and you're running a risk of not doing it at all because of some unforseen complication, let's say a power shortage or an emergency then you won't have time to do it... So my advice is...do what you have to whenever you can. sometimes that can be hard...you have to fight the feeling of - i have time... I'll do it "later" - If later means on the last minute i stop myself...
@@dementiasorrow Most things in life are only important if you think they are. Structurally as a society, most needs are human made and not basic needs. Thus many people seem to feel they have to do things because that’s what society says you need to do. In reality life can be as simple or complicated as you wish. I choose not to clutter my life with the unimportant or mundane. Yet here I am thriving by my standards and not anyone else’s
It also helps me forgive myself by coming to videos like this & realising that so many others have this problem. Especially if it begins to give you anxiety, so many people face that same feeling and it helps to put it into perspective. It's not just a "me" problem - it's completely normal.
I'm so frustrated by procrastination that I ended up reading a lot of researches on it. Sometimes I think, I should've pursued the research on procrastination😂
As soon as something you love becomes work, you'll start "procrastinating". In fact, you simply don't want to do that work. So don't. Find something else that you enjoy doing.
I gotta write this down: Procrastination -- actions Productivity -- inefficient work system I'm going to be sharing this video with my peers working in a school based research lab. Always such great information.
good job using gotta instead of "should". XD PS: Actually, it doesn't matter dude as long as you and your colleagues have a fun time grasping this idea.
It’s tough though. It feels like when I come up with a solution, my brain simultaneously come up with a counter-solution to keep the procrastination dream alive lol.
I think a big thing that helped me was recognising that my "laziness", my behaviour of procrastination and even outright just not /doing/ things I wanted to do, isn't a character flaw. It's a symptom. Adding this notion that procrastinating isn't the opposite of producticity has helped even more, so thank you
Of course, you simply don't enjoy your life in its current form. So figure out what you enjoy doing and do that. Don't care about the money, that's a poor people trap.
Many procrastinators have a weak or non-existent completion high: that feeling of satisfaction that you get when you've finished a task. Some of us sometimes even lack the feeling of relief, or just a reduction in our level or anxiety, at the end of a piece of work. In such cases there is no emotional payoff in work, relationships, hobbies or even self-care. The only way to get anything done is to let your inner bully drive you or to wait until the anxiety of missing a deadline is greater than the revulsion or anxiety at starting a task. Procrastinators aren't lazy. Many of us will spend hours at something that requires more effort and focus than our assigned task; doing something with no deadline, that need not be successful and that may be unfamiliar is far preferable to normal work.
Very nice video! It seems to me that we all really need to stop falling into the procrastination guilt trap by changing the way we think about productivity and procrastination!
I don’t think I appreciated the clarification of differences between productivity and procrastination so much before. I’m probably like many people who see productivity as the opposite of procrastination, but your explanation of the terms and how the confusion leads to more problems really hit me. Very good information to come back to when I fall back into my usual procrastination habits and guilt tripping.
One advice struck me as interesting. I tend to think so much about what I need to do, and how to do it, that I don't get it done. In my mind I basically already did it, but there's no tangible outcome. And then I'm no longer in the mood to get it done, so I procrastinate. So I've been teaching myself the opposite: Don't overthink it and just do it instead. I can do the thinking work while I'm actually doing it.
More of this please!... To stop judgment, I've started saying, "Each day is a new day." I'll screw multiple things up, not complete my list, not even start a project that's due ... But I know tomorrow is a new day. I'll start again and do a little better each time.
The meta conversation on how we interact with self improvement content is one we badly need to have. What I take away from this video is that fixing procrastination by itself is an idea that we have on a cognitive level but not on an emotional one. After having been to therapy for a couple of months I now get the feeling that it is vital that we as patients reach such conlusions on our own. What I would find interesting to see is how much of a difference it makes when we are being shown things like coping strategies vs. us figuring them out on our own.
Surprisingly my procrastination has now even extended to exams( the online exams specifically) , the 1st question is the one I complete with meticulous details and almost mess up the rest one's and I don't know how normal is it but when I get an extension for certain papers I procrastinate even more
Sounds like it's connected to anxiety. If you do things in a rush at the last minute, you can tell yourself that if you had spent your time the 'proper way' then you would have gotten a perfect result. Therefore, actually taking the full amount of time to work on the paper is a big risk to your sense of self - you have to give up on the imaginary you that could have been perfect and face reality. You are a normal person, not a superhuman who just lacks willpower. And any attack on our identity is TERRIFYING, so of course you're anxious, and when you're anxious you come up with anything to avoid facing that threat.
Kind of the same. It happened so many times that I'd get so close to the deadline that I would decide to just not do the work at all, despite the fact that objectively, a flawed work is better in the long term than a 0. It's also still better to give the work two days late and lose 20 to 40% depending on the teacher than having a zero.
I associate my procrastination with performance anxiety. "If it isn't done it can't be flawed or not perfect" It's an anxiety circle for me combined with me wanting to do everything perfectly. Knowing this helps me to know what I'm against so that I can actually do something about it. Usually I give myself time do do my stuff and start small or I use one of my coping mechanisms while starting ( example putting music while reading e-mails... Quite often I'll end up turning the music off when I start responding to e-mails).
I like the way you went from your list on the board to a cut-away and then back with the next myth already written. This prevented you from having to jump ahead in time and do some skipping. You did a really fine job on this and you researched it well.
Yep. Thank you. As someone with ASD and chronic depression from age 5 procrastinating and the "shoulds" have been my constant battle. And the frustration of wanting to do things but being stuck in my head really hurts. I can tell the difference now when my brain just won't due to no energy verse having energy but choosing not to do things. It is that constant lack of choice that hurts the most.
In fact, I have procrastinated watching this video for two hours before I finally watched it. I am a huge procrastinator, and yes, as you said, it's not about productivity, it's about handling my fear of emotions. 😖
A much better discussion of procrastination than most videos give, but still unsatisfying in the end. There are multiple sources of procrastination ( fear, physical unpleasantness, emotional unpleasantness, vagueness, overwhelmed, etc. ) and each one needs a different strategy to defeat ( visiting your aunt maybe fine if you bring an old family album to flip through to keep the conversation focused on pleasant topics whereas a task that overwhelms needs to be broken down into bite size tasks or time boxed ). I think delineating all the sources of procrastination, all the strategies for overcoming them, and matching them up would be an excellent set of videos.
Vanessa, Your style of production with switching between filming locations and switching outfits is really engaging to keep this from sounding like a lecture in a classroom. I really enjoyed this video on procrastination. Keep up the good work. - Justice Constantine
Well done, I believe 5:40 that is the real reason. A really challenging problem is not unlike going to a war. Your instincts kick in to protect you, forcing you to leave the task to last minute just in case an alternative appears. It is basically an instinctive self preservation. Best way is to overcome the fear, reminding yourself there is nothing to loose; not forcing yourself to be productive. Forcing yourself into challenging tasks are also stressful, which is not healthy.
One of the heaviest reasons for me procrastinating in a lot of things was because I was afraid of trying and getting it wrong. The fear of the "punishment" of answering something wrong, which is a mindset pushed hard by the educational system, convinced me to stop trying. Maybe knowing that can help you as well. You're not doing it because someone told you to, you're doing it because you wanted to.
A lot of my creative process looks like procrastination on the outside, on the inside I can be holding out for a new/better idea. Both thinking and taking a break from thinking about a project can be crucial. Then the looming deadline inspires me to take action, and by necessity I have to sort out my perfectionist wish list from what can actually be accomplished in the remaining time. But I know taking action sooner in process can totally invaluable too- they're are discoveries I can only make by actually taking action. An idea in your head always has the potential to be perfect-but it's useless if it stays there. I never know what the proper balance is, but deadlines are crucial for me. Projects that can be done almost anytime will inevitably never see daylight.
I have this issue so much, when I have a clear task and the motivation I'm one of the hardest workers, but when I'm given freedom and time my mind wanders and I procrastinate.
And here I am watching this video while procrastinating an important work that I intended to do. But now I know how I can handle this situation. Thank you @BrainCraft !! :)
In discovering my autism lately (not yet officially diagnosed, but quite sure I am autistic) I have learned a lot about procrastination, demand avoidance, etc. It's really quite fascinating, from what I've learned so far!
I think I procrastinate because there’s little benefit from being efficient at work. Either way I work the same schedule. This is why we need to base performance on accomplishments and not time!!
@@mikeroni People building them will get replaced, too. All once we have general AI. Obviously, machine learning today is not even close to that, if it ever will be, but eventually true AI will exist, and no one is safe. Not even the programmers.
I have masters in procrastination. Recently I have started flow time technique, wherein I enter details of what I am going to do in excel sheet. As soon as I start my work, I just open the excel sheet and enter what I will be doing for next one hour. I have observed that most of the time I follow and sometimes sit a stretch for 2.5 to 3 hours without any distractions. Flow time method is working for me.
This was so important to me, so thank you😊 Also i found that when I procrastinate I mostly just do everything BUT the thing I am 'supposed' to do. I sometimes even study one thing instead of the other or I will read a whole book or clean so I am not always NOT productive I just put other things before something I don't really want to do.
I've seen some videos on procrastination and I've got to say this is the most useful one I've seen. That is simply because most of these types of videos try to attack the problem with a bunch of techniques, but you addressed the concept of procrastination by exposing the core of the problem, which is the attitude and also revealing the construct in its empirical validity to the audience (myself included), which differentiates it from possible layman misconceptions. Very well thought out video in my opinion. Helped me understand the construct better. Thank you!
Procrastination in the context of Ph.D. work is in a category by itself. I've heard a talk by someone who wrote a programming language as his "dissertation procrastincation project". Me, I wrote a book and wrote some major software.
The best way I found to fight procrastination is to set up tiny work targets, like "I'll open my email program and editing tool". Just that. I KNOW my next "short target" will be writing the header, and the next will be "titling" each paragraph, and all these steps will be done sequentially, like working straight, but I won't feel the "pain" of writing that email. Tricking myself!
I try to take a 5-10 minute break every 30 minutes. It’s makes things so much easier, and I don’t have any sort of frustration that builds up from working 2 hours straight. Another cool benefit is that the time that I’m working literally flies by, and it just like, “oh another break”, “oh another break” I highly recommend trying this out if you’re doing any summer classes or whatever.
For me procrastination is PART of the prodictivity process. My brain works on the task on hand while I give it space for doing so by procrastinating and entertaining it on surface level. And after a phase of procrastinating I do the job very efficiently.
I choosed science as a stream, then learned English, spent last 3 years reading, watching and experimenting just(not just) to know an single answer.....whats wrong with me, and i was about to give up(as i always was) then i saw this YT notification yesterday.....and OMG....all my doubts just vanished. You are doing great...love ya!
I do the 45 minutes work and 15 minutres break/times for myself. It's amazing. You get creative, have time to reflect on decision, easy to change task or idea if needed. And I take time in nature, with my dog, eating healthy, drinking water, going for a small walk in that 15 minutes. Great video again. Coudnt't agree more with the idea.
As a fresh Master of Science in engineering, I definitely exploited this method during my thesis. I spent about 9 months on my thesis and 90% of the work was done during the last 4-5 weeks
I think there are 3 things really helpful: 1) Stop doing procrastination things, even that you can procrastinate pooping, you will procrastinate more if you are playing games; 2) Start the task even if you don't want it because probably you project a feeling worst than it will be; 3) Physical exercises during the breaks;
I work best under pressure. I intentionally wait until the last day, the last minute, because that's when I get REALLY productive. When I have plenty of time to do something, I never give it my all. I do my best work when I have limited time. Sounds crazy, but it works for me.
This video came at a perfect time for me! I've been frequently reading theory this past week on the problems with bringing "optimization" and "efficiency" into more areas of life. And I literally just watched a WheezyWaiter video on procrastination, and was reflecting on respecting the value of all the non-work parts of life Plus my therapist was helping me work on those "should" statements I've been using to put a lot of pressure on myself just this morning!
Wow, the "should" statements tactic it turns out would be a massive mindset change for me, as I now catch myself with the "should" frame all the time. I'm excited by the prospect of ridding myself of that frame of mind; but it's going to take some time, for sure.
This has been very difficult for me, at the point i've lowered my grades at university, mainly because I dont feel like studying and later i feel strongly negative emotions against not "beeing productive"... What you communicate in this video is something i've always had in my mind and tried to use to not feel terrible for grabing a book or just listening to some music. Now that i know that it is effectively somthing healthy to do, i hope my days will become more bearable. Thank you
Pychyl and Wohl's work on procrastination is amazing stuff. Their work on the different forms of delay or procrastination is a huge eye-opener for my university students. They break delay/procrastination into 6 different forms. When understanding the different forms of delay combined with the information of this video, procrastination becomes something very different than we believe or have been taught. Great info and skills from this vid!
Thank you so much! 🙏🏻 This video gave me several aha moments.. I felt instantly liberated and secure.. it worked for me like some kind of audio-visual psychotherapy.. this was quite an epiphany! Wish I seen it years ago.. thank you infinitely ❣🌹
Things I procrastinate the most usually consist of workflows that are hard to imagine, like writing. I know what I need to do: sit down and write. I also know the scope and the structure. But I don't have the slightest idea of how I will actually do it. Either I will rush and write some trash in the end, or I will rewrite the essay for multiple times.
This is why people with ADHD struggle with procrastination, since we tend to have difficulty with self-control and regulation. Not to mention the forgetfulness aspect of it all, where you get distracted out of lack of self control and then forget you had something to do at all.
I discovered a long time ago that something was wrong about how people think when everyone around me was telling me I was lazy when I was constantly playing outdoors, or playing video games. In my view I was far less lazy than them who couldn't wait to sit, and watch T.V.. I have no judgment against them for wanting to watch T.V., but I might have a smidgen of judgement about their accusations of laziness towards me. As an adult I have become a serial procrastinator, but I still get more done than anyone I know personally.
My trick is to use the phrase, "Procrastination & Motivation are just examples of confirmation bias - your brain wanting to continue what it's already doing." I don't wait for motivation to strike. I accumulate it through action!
THINKING causes everything. Procrastination, day-dreaming, stressing out, everything. I can't think and live at the same time. When I want to live the moment, I need to stop thinking and creating a world in my own mind, with what ifs. Living in the moment requires you to be out of the world you created in your mind. And living in the moment also causes excitement.
This resonates with me a lot, and my parents judge the hell out of me because they are still stuck in the trap. I figured out my inner critic problem a long time ago but my parents have taken it upon themselves to be outer critics.
My method for preparing for exams. Step 1: find or make a conspectus. Step 2: read through it or a part of it. Step 3: take a break. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until ready or tired
The real irony is that I put off releasing this video for months.
Thanks for bearing with me while I’m on the road (with questionable audio and even MORE questionable interior design 🦙)
Was waiting for this one since you announced on Instagram stories 💚.
@@prakash_77 🦙💜
So what's the difference between a " Behavioural Scientist " and a Psychologist ❓🧐🤔 ✏📋ℹ♑
I think through the steps of things I've been putting off, but that just makes me feel like it's already been done, so I procrastinate even more. It doesn't help that I view time as the one thing I can never get back, so giving it up to do something I don't really want to do is a very hard sell. I'd rather give someone money instead. I can always get more of that. 😊
@@Friendship1nmillion this is a really great question! A psychologist is on the practice side, and a behavioural scientist is on the research side. In most countries, "psychologist" is a practising health professional, like a counsellor or therapist, and they need to have certain licenses. A behavioural scientist studies human behaviour: some are researchers, some work in companies. Some people also go by cognitive scientist or psychological scientist depending on their specialty/country.
Watching this video while procrastinating is what I call a pro-gamer move.
Yeah, and half way through I paused this video to procrastinate on some other video...
Weirdly, I'm actually not procrastinating by watching it. I'm watching it on my phone while I get ready for work
truth.
tell me about it 😑
@@chestersnap 👍🏻👍🏻
I often find that I procrastinate when a task feels overwhelming. One way I can beat that is to ask, "what is the smallest next task I can do to move me forward?" Maybe that's just opening an email and reading it. Maybe it's opening a template file and renaming it with the project name. Maybe it's writing a single sentence. Whatever it is, I find that once I've actually started, I tend to keep going on the NEXT smallest task, and eventually I realize that I've just started working. Hopefully this will be helpful to other people too!
Great tip!
Great tip. Thank u.
That's a great method, instead of running headfirst into the seemingly impossible task and hitting a brick wall, nibble the edges.
I do the same thing when I have an overwhelmingly long to-do list. I look to find the easiest task and do that, then the next easiest. My list keeps shrinking until it's only the big, scary things left. Those things aren't so big and scary when they aren't surrounded by the clutter of other little tasks.
Yes, I've found that the longer I avoid doing something, the more anxiety I get about doing it, but the anxiety comes more from the avoidance than from the task itself. Once I take a small action towards it, lots of the anxiety just starts to go away.
BC: Stop using should statements
My brain: You really shouldn't use should... smh
"I feel better not using should" :)
@@Sandsack2311 How do you make that look so easy? ☹
@@Sandsack2311 "I should feel better not using should"
Back to square one with me.
@@RosheenQuynh I should be able to make things look easy.
Saved this video. I'll watch it later.
stole my joke
@@betabenja did you saved the rights on it?
"Procrastination isn't about time management; it's about emotion management." ~my therapist, also a lot of other people
Illamanate was the pun I didn’t know I needed.
As soon as I heard that pun I began scrolling for a comment about the pun
Which notebook should I illaminate so I could be more of a wreck havoc procrastinator?
Life hack: if you want to clean your home, just enroll in a phd program. In the days preceding your manuscript being due, you will clean like crazy.
I’m not lazy. The job just isn’t urgent (or necessary) most of the time
This is the thought process that I use to manage things, life is way too short to get hung up on the minutiae of the everyday
@@Hollytargaryen Totally agreed.
The problem with this logic is twofold. One you are deciding it isn't urgent enough but other people might be counting on you to chip in on that end so that they can do their part and it becomes a problem if you don't do your part by the time they need you to do it even though technically you could do it later that puts a stress on other people wondering if you'll really do your part in time. The other problem is that if you leave things for the last minute you're always going to do the minimum of a task because you won't have time to do a better job and you're running a risk of not doing it at all because of some unforseen complication, let's say a power shortage or an emergency then you won't have time to do it...
So my advice is...do what you have to whenever you can. sometimes that can be hard...you have to fight the feeling of - i have time... I'll do it "later" - If later means on the last minute i stop myself...
@@dementiasorrow Most things in life are only important if you think they are. Structurally as a society, most needs are human made and not basic needs. Thus many people seem to feel they have to do things because that’s what society says you need to do. In reality life can be as simple or complicated as you wish. I choose not to clutter my life with the unimportant or mundane. Yet here I am thriving by my standards and not anyone else’s
It also helps me forgive myself by coming to videos like this & realising that so many others have this problem. Especially if it begins to give you anxiety, so many people face that same feeling and it helps to put it into perspective. It's not just a "me" problem - it's completely normal.
💯
I'm so frustrated by procrastination that I ended up reading a lot of researches on it. Sometimes I think, I should've pursued the research on procrastination😂
As soon as something you love becomes work, you'll start "procrastinating". In fact, you simply don't want to do that work. So don't. Find something else that you enjoy doing.
That would have been such a productive move :)
Break your large task into smaller ones. Work on each small task 30 min at a time, twice or thrice a day. In a few days , you will be done. 😁
My father in law actually did his dr thesis on procrastination....
That's basically what Vanessa did too
I gotta write this down:
Procrastination -- actions
Productivity -- inefficient work system
I'm going to be sharing this video with my peers working in a school based research lab. Always such great information.
good job using gotta instead of "should". XD
PS: Actually, it doesn't matter dude as long as you and your colleagues have a fun time grasping this idea.
It’s tough though. It feels like when I come up with a solution, my brain simultaneously come up with a counter-solution to keep the procrastination dream alive lol.
It's almost as if we are wired not to be active haha
LOL, I wanted to give it 5 thumbs-up :D
English is such a weird language! Just look at the "tough though" (pronounce it in your head, too)
I think a big thing that helped me was recognising that my "laziness", my behaviour of procrastination and even outright just not /doing/ things I wanted to do, isn't a character flaw. It's a symptom. Adding this notion that procrastinating isn't the opposite of producticity has helped even more, so thank you
Of course, you simply don't enjoy your life in its current form. So figure out what you enjoy doing and do that. Don't care about the money, that's a poor people trap.
Many procrastinators have a weak or non-existent completion high: that feeling of satisfaction that you get when you've finished a task. Some of us sometimes even lack the feeling of relief, or just a reduction in our level or anxiety, at the end of a piece of work. In such cases there is no emotional payoff in work, relationships, hobbies or even self-care. The only way to get anything done is to let your inner bully drive you or to wait until the anxiety of missing a deadline is greater than the revulsion or anxiety at starting a task.
Procrastinators aren't lazy. Many of us will spend hours at something that requires more effort and focus than our assigned task; doing something with no deadline, that need not be successful and that may be unfamiliar is far preferable to normal work.
that info about the non-existent completion high feels so relatable to me. did you read research about this? I'm curious to learn more about it :)
Procrastinate by watching the video...my favourite
What helps me is telling myself "It doesn't need to perfect. It just needs to be done."
Very nice video! It seems to me that we all really need to stop falling into the procrastination guilt trap by changing the way we think about productivity and procrastination!
Spot on 😄
Procrastination isn’t equivalent to laziness if the work eventually gets done: This idea might help me start forgiving myself for procrastinating
I don’t think I appreciated the clarification of differences between productivity and procrastination so much before. I’m probably like many people who see productivity as the opposite of procrastination, but your explanation of the terms and how the confusion leads to more problems really hit me. Very good information to come back to when I fall back into my usual procrastination habits and guilt tripping.
Phew.. Now I won't feel bad when I binge watch youtube instead of writing that literature review.
Get out of academia, it's shithole where youth goes to die. Don't waste your time on a broken system.
@@levyroth too late for me. Definitely have seen what you mean but might as well finish it
@@levyroth Says a high school dropout
I procrastinated so much during my PhD with PhDcomics. Thanks Jorge, I needed those breaks!
JESUS CHRIST I NEEDED THIS
LITERALLY
TODAY
One advice struck me as interesting. I tend to think so much about what I need to do, and how to do it, that I don't get it done. In my mind I basically already did it, but there's no tangible outcome. And then I'm no longer in the mood to get it done, so I procrastinate.
So I've been teaching myself the opposite: Don't overthink it and just do it instead. I can do the thinking work while I'm actually doing it.
More of this please!... To stop judgment, I've started saying, "Each day is a new day." I'll screw multiple things up, not complete my list, not even start a project that's due ... But I know tomorrow is a new day. I'll start again and do a little better each time.
The meta conversation on how we interact with self improvement content is one we badly need to have. What I take away from this video is that fixing procrastination by itself is an idea that we have on a cognitive level but not on an emotional one.
After having been to therapy for a couple of months I now get the feeling that it is vital that we as patients reach such conlusions on our own. What I would find interesting to see is how much of a difference it makes when we are being shown things like coping strategies vs. us figuring them out on our own.
"When you put something off till the last minute, it only takes a minute!"
Surprisingly my procrastination has now even extended to exams( the online exams specifically) , the 1st question is the one I complete with meticulous details and almost mess up the rest one's and I don't know how normal is it but when I get an extension for certain papers I procrastinate even more
Sounds like it's connected to anxiety. If you do things in a rush at the last minute, you can tell yourself that if you had spent your time the 'proper way' then you would have gotten a perfect result. Therefore, actually taking the full amount of time to work on the paper is a big risk to your sense of self - you have to give up on the imaginary you that could have been perfect and face reality. You are a normal person, not a superhuman who just lacks willpower. And any attack on our identity is TERRIFYING, so of course you're anxious, and when you're anxious you come up with anything to avoid facing that threat.
Kind of the same. It happened so many times that I'd get so close to the deadline that I would decide to just not do the work at all, despite the fact that objectively, a flawed work is better in the long term than a 0. It's also still better to give the work two days late and lose 20 to 40% depending on the teacher than having a zero.
I associate my procrastination with performance anxiety.
"If it isn't done it can't be flawed or not perfect"
It's an anxiety circle for me combined with me wanting to do everything perfectly. Knowing this helps me to know what I'm against so that I can actually do something about it. Usually I give myself time do do my stuff and start small or I use one of my coping mechanisms while starting ( example putting music while reading e-mails... Quite often I'll end up turning the music off when I start responding to e-mails).
'imagine yourself doing the thing'
me: *procrastinate by imagining myself doing the thing while not actually doing it*
I like the way you went from your list on the board to a cut-away and then back with the next myth already written. This prevented you from having to jump ahead in time and do some skipping. You did a really fine job on this and you researched it well.
I bloody love this. Literally sat procrastinating on my master dissertation and 2 assignments. And this comes up 😅
Vanessa is such a big positive force for me. I should stop beating myself up and have more compaction towards myself.
THANK YOU!
Yep. Thank you. As someone with ASD and chronic depression from age 5 procrastinating and the "shoulds" have been my constant battle. And the frustration of wanting to do things but being stuck in my head really hurts. I can tell the difference now when my brain just won't due to no energy verse having energy but choosing not to do things. It is that constant lack of choice that hurts the most.
In fact, I have procrastinated watching this video for two hours before I finally watched it. I am a huge procrastinator, and yes, as you said, it's not about productivity, it's about handling my fear of emotions. 😖
A much better discussion of procrastination than most videos give, but still unsatisfying in the end. There are multiple sources of procrastination ( fear, physical unpleasantness, emotional unpleasantness, vagueness, overwhelmed, etc. ) and each one needs a different strategy to defeat ( visiting your aunt maybe fine if you bring an old family album to flip through to keep the conversation focused on pleasant topics whereas a task that overwhelms needs to be broken down into bite size tasks or time boxed ). I think delineating all the sources of procrastination, all the strategies for overcoming them, and matching them up would be an excellent set of videos.
In my case, a lot of it is dietary. I feel as though my brain works differently based on what foods i eat
Vanessa, Your style of production with switching between filming locations and switching outfits is really engaging to keep this from sounding like a lecture in a classroom. I really enjoyed this video on procrastination. Keep up the good work. - Justice Constantine
Well done, I believe 5:40 that is the real reason. A really challenging problem is not unlike going to a war. Your instincts kick in to protect you, forcing you to leave the task to last minute just in case an alternative appears. It is basically an instinctive self preservation. Best way is to overcome the fear, reminding yourself there is nothing to loose; not forcing yourself to be productive. Forcing yourself into challenging tasks are also stressful, which is not healthy.
One of the heaviest reasons for me procrastinating in a lot of things was because I was afraid of trying and getting it wrong. The fear of the "punishment" of answering something wrong, which is a mindset pushed hard by the educational system, convinced me to stop trying. Maybe knowing that can help you as well. You're not doing it because someone told you to, you're doing it because you wanted to.
A lot of my creative process looks like procrastination on the outside, on the inside I can be holding out for a new/better idea. Both thinking and taking a break from thinking about a project can be crucial. Then the looming deadline inspires me to take action, and by necessity I have to sort out my perfectionist wish list from what can actually be accomplished in the remaining time. But I know taking action sooner in process can totally invaluable too- they're are discoveries I can only make by actually taking action. An idea in your head always has the potential to be perfect-but it's useless if it stays there. I never know what the proper balance is, but deadlines are crucial for me. Projects that can be done almost anytime will inevitably never see daylight.
Wonderful video. Thank you so much.
I have this issue so much, when I have a clear task and the motivation I'm one of the hardest workers, but when I'm given freedom and time my mind wanders and I procrastinate.
This video made so much sense. Life changing. thank you
And here I am watching this video while procrastinating an important work that I intended to do. But now I know how I can handle this situation. Thank you @BrainCraft !! :)
In discovering my autism lately (not yet officially diagnosed, but quite sure I am autistic) I have learned a lot about procrastination, demand avoidance, etc. It's really quite fascinating, from what I've learned so far!
I live by the procrastinator's motto: "The sooner you start getting behind on your work schedule, the more time remains to catch up."
I like that, but I have a different motto: "Never put off until tomorrow anything you can put off until the day after".
I think I procrastinate because there’s little benefit from being efficient at work. Either way I work the same schedule.
This is why we need to base performance on accomplishments and not time!!
Soon you will be replaced by an AI system and you won't be singing the same tune.
@@levyroth smh, I build AI systems…get outta here with your irrelevant grumpy comment
@@mikeroni Soon you will be replaced, and Skynet will be active ;)
@@mikeroni People building them will get replaced, too. All once we have general AI. Obviously, machine learning today is not even close to that, if it ever will be, but eventually true AI will exist, and no one is safe. Not even the programmers.
@@cortster12the point is the last to go the last to worry 🤷♂️ by the time it comes for my job it won’t matter
I have masters in procrastination. Recently I have started flow time technique, wherein I enter details of what I am going to do in excel sheet. As soon as I start my work, I just open the excel sheet and enter what I will be doing for next one hour. I have observed that most of the time I follow and sometimes sit a stretch for 2.5 to 3 hours without any distractions. Flow time method is working for me.
I could have been the first commenter, but I procrastinated and decided to watch the video first
K E E P T H E P R O C R A S T I N A T I O N J O K E S C O M I N G
Honestly, people should just do that period... I don't get why people comment beforehand
I added this vid to my watchlist, but I didn't watch it for a few weeks. Glad I did, it brought me some helpful insights. Thanks!
This was so important to me, so thank you😊
Also i found that when I procrastinate I mostly just do everything BUT the thing I am 'supposed' to do. I sometimes even study one thing instead of the other or I will read a whole book or clean so I am not always NOT productive I just put other things before something I don't really want to do.
I've seen some videos on procrastination and I've got to say this is the most useful one I've seen. That is simply because most of these types of videos try to attack the problem with a bunch of techniques, but you addressed the concept of procrastination by exposing the core of the problem, which is the attitude and also revealing the construct in its empirical validity to the audience (myself included), which differentiates it from possible layman misconceptions. Very well thought out video in my opinion. Helped me understand the construct better. Thank you!
Thank you for the great video. Loved the llama chewing gum in 3:55
Procrastination in the context of Ph.D. work is in a category by itself. I've heard a talk by someone who wrote a programming language as his "dissertation procrastincation project". Me, I wrote a book and wrote some major software.
The best way I found to fight procrastination is to set up tiny work targets, like "I'll open my email program and editing tool". Just that. I KNOW my next "short target" will be writing the header, and the next will be "titling" each paragraph, and all these steps will be done sequentially, like working straight, but I won't feel the "pain" of writing that email. Tricking myself!
Thanks this is helpful. and yes I was watching this while procastinating ofc
I try to take a 5-10 minute break every 30 minutes. It’s makes things so much easier, and I don’t have any sort of frustration that builds up from working 2 hours straight. Another cool benefit is that the time that I’m working literally flies by, and it just like, “oh another break”, “oh another break”
I highly recommend trying this out if you’re doing any summer classes or whatever.
I could never with what I do... 😩
For me procrastination is PART of the prodictivity process. My brain works on the task on hand while I give it space for doing so by procrastinating and entertaining it on surface level. And after a phase of procrastinating I do the job very efficiently.
I choosed science as a stream, then learned English, spent last 3 years reading, watching and experimenting just(not just) to know an single answer.....whats wrong with me, and i was about to give up(as i always was) then i saw this YT notification yesterday.....and OMG....all my doubts just vanished.
You are doing great...love ya!
In doing your best every day, it's crazy when you realize how much "your best" can vary on a day-to-day.
Thank you for sharing this!! Helpful and made me feel better!
I do the 45 minutes work and 15 minutres break/times for myself. It's amazing. You get creative, have time to reflect on decision, easy to change task or idea if needed. And I take time in nature, with my dog, eating healthy, drinking water, going for a small walk in that 15 minutes.
Great video again. Coudnt't agree more with the idea.
Watching Schitt's Creek isn't procrastinating, it's an excellent use of your time.
As a fresh Master of Science in engineering, I definitely exploited this method during my thesis. I spent about 9 months on my thesis and 90% of the work was done during the last 4-5 weeks
Thank you 🥺. I really needed this ❤️
Self fulfilling prophecies are a major problem with many people, now I'm aware of it and how to adjust my behaviour to break these loops.
Thank you for leaving in "Illamanate"!
Saving this to my watch later list is top notch procrastination
I think there are 3 things really helpful: 1) Stop doing procrastination things, even that you can procrastinate pooping, you will procrastinate more if you are playing games; 2) Start the task even if you don't want it because probably you project a feeling worst than it will be; 3) Physical exercises during the breaks;
I really thank you for this video, it actually helped a lot
I needed to hear that, thank you!
I didn't know I need this, but I did. Thank you.
I work best under pressure. I intentionally wait until the last day, the last minute, because that's when I get REALLY productive. When I have plenty of time to do something, I never give it my all. I do my best work when I have limited time. Sounds crazy, but it works for me.
That's why in some works you are overwhelmed by tasks to be under pressure all the time not to waist it and keep you productive:p
If you start earlier, you have time to revise and refine aspects of your work. So no.
This video came at a perfect time for me! I've been frequently reading theory this past week on the problems with bringing "optimization" and "efficiency" into more areas of life.
And I literally just watched a WheezyWaiter video on procrastination, and was reflecting on respecting the value of all the non-work parts of life
Plus my therapist was helping me work on those "should" statements I've been using to put a lot of pressure on myself just this morning!
So CGT/DBT/ACT strategies are key to lessen procrastination. Very helpful video, thanks!
Wow, the "should" statements tactic it turns out would be a massive mindset change for me, as I now catch myself with the "should" frame all the time. I'm excited by the prospect of ridding myself of that frame of mind; but it's going to take some time, for sure.
This has been very difficult for me, at the point i've lowered my grades at university, mainly because I dont feel like studying and later i feel strongly negative emotions against not "beeing productive"... What you communicate in this video is something i've always had in my mind and tried to use to not feel terrible for grabing a book or just listening to some music. Now that i know that it is effectively somthing healthy to do, i hope my days will become more bearable. Thank you
I procrastinate when it's a job I don't want to do, to big to start easily, but mostly because I am lazy and looking for the distraction.
Pychyl and Wohl's work on procrastination is amazing stuff. Their work on the different forms of delay or procrastination is a huge eye-opener for my university students. They break delay/procrastination into 6 different forms. When understanding the different forms of delay combined with the information of this video, procrastination becomes something very different than we believe or have been taught. Great info and skills from this vid!
Any papers you’d recommend other than the one Vanessa showed in her video?
Thank you, this was very insightful!
Thank you so much! 🙏🏻
This video gave me several aha moments.. I felt instantly liberated and secure.. it worked for me like some kind of audio-visual psychotherapy.. this was quite an epiphany!
Wish I seen it years ago.. thank you infinitely ❣🌹
Thanks! I may find the way to succeed in life... Finally
Things I procrastinate the most usually consist of workflows that are hard to imagine, like writing. I know what I need to do: sit down and write. I also know the scope and the structure. But I don't have the slightest idea of how I will actually do it. Either I will rush and write some trash in the end, or I will rewrite the essay for multiple times.
Thank you for this video, this is very useful.
I often see RUclips as an outlet for procrastination, but this video was helpful. Thanks Vanessa. :)
Added this to my 'watch later' list :)
Best video I've seen about procrastination.
This insight was really helpful to me as well. Now I can think about the things i didn't know I had to think.
Thank you so much
❤️
This is why people with ADHD struggle with procrastination, since we tend to have difficulty with self-control and regulation. Not to mention the forgetfulness aspect of it all, where you get distracted out of lack of self control and then forget you had something to do at all.
Added this to watch later
I discovered a long time ago that something was wrong about how people think when everyone around me was telling me I was lazy when I was constantly playing outdoors, or playing video games. In my view I was far less lazy than them who couldn't wait to sit, and watch T.V.. I have no judgment against them for wanting to watch T.V., but I might have a smidgen of judgement about their accusations of laziness towards me. As an adult I have become a serial procrastinator, but I still get more done than anyone I know personally.
I'll watch this later. I promise. I'll put it on my schedule as soon as I get one.
Thankyou, needed this info
My trick is to use the phrase, "Procrastination & Motivation are just examples of confirmation bias - your brain wanting to continue what it's already doing."
I don't wait for motivation to strike. I accumulate it through action!
THINKING causes everything. Procrastination, day-dreaming, stressing out, everything.
I can't think and live at the same time. When I want to live the moment, I need to stop thinking and creating a world in my own mind, with what ifs.
Living in the moment requires you to be out of the world you created in your mind.
And living in the moment also causes excitement.
This resonates with me a lot, and my parents judge the hell out of me because they are still stuck in the trap. I figured out my inner critic problem a long time ago but my parents have taken it upon themselves to be outer critics.
My method for preparing for exams. Step 1: find or make a conspectus. Step 2: read through it or a part of it. Step 3: take a break. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until ready or tired
I just love the way you spiced up the art direction and the backgrounds for the scenes! Keeping it fresh, @Vanessa! Love it!
Why can't I like this video 10 times. This is exactly what I'm doing now when I'm supposed to write a paper.