I Stopped Procrastinating for Good With This Science-Backed Mindset
You can probably guess where it came from…
I’ve been a chronic procrastinator for the majority of my life.
In the 11th grade, I remember staying up until 2 AM to write a semester’s worth of short stories — the night before they were due.
Ultimately, I scored an average of 80%, which led to a lifetime of proud procrastination.
But, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned that procrastinating is nothing to be proud of.
And, in fact, it can be quite detrimental to one’s growth as a human.
Here’s how you can stop procrastinating once and for all. By adopting this simple, science-backed mindset.
Why do we procrastinate?
We all do it.
Let’s not kid ourselves. When you have something important, stressful, or scary in front of you, the last thing you want to do is conquer it.
Motivation is closely linked to your dopamine levels. And low levels of dopamine are what contribute to that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach — the one that prevents you from getting anything meaningful done in your life.
As neuroscientist and internet productivity darling, Andrew Huberman, says,
“A peak in dopamine is followed by a trough in dopamine. That trough in dopamine is experienced as pain.”
He goes on to explain that procrastination is experienced in our brains as a craving to feel good. And, since hard work is… well, hard, we distract ourselves with easier tasks.
So, on the surface, the answer to why we procrastinate is quite simple — we’re avoiding hard work.
But, it goes much deeper. And has an incredibly easy solution…
Adopt this science-backed mindset.
So, I won’t ramble on about the intricate ‘sciency’ details of how your brain works and why procrastination is so common.
But, it’s important to understand procrastination is directly correlated to motivation. And motivation is controlled by your body’s natural brain drug — dopamine.
So, to conquer procrastination you must first understand the basics of how dopamine interacts with your brain, and how it can contribute to consistent motivation.
Here’s a brief explanation of dopamine and how it interacts with your brain…
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter released by your brain to make you feel happy, motivated, and optimistic (amongst other things). It’s the natural brain drug responsible for anything you do. Be it sex, exercise, work, or craving naughty foods at night.
Almost everything we do in life is modulated by how we feel — namely a desire to feel good. So, in that sense, dopamine controls everything we think, feel, and do.
As Andrew Huberman writes in his “Neural Newsletter”,
“The simplest way to think about dopamine is that when our dopamine levels are elevated, we tend to focus our attention on outward goals… When dopamine levels are low, we feel unmotivated, derive less pleasure from pursuits and feel physically tired.”
Knowing this, our brains delve out dopamine as a reward for accomplishing challenging tasks. We reach peak levels of dopamine just before reaching a goal, and experience a crash thereafter.
Thus, creating the roller coaster ride of emotion that is human life.
So first, you must adopt this mindset.
When you procrastinate, it’s often at the very beginning of a task or just after the thrill of completing one. I like to imagine myself on a roller coaster ride, sitting still at the bottom of the tracks, staring up at the giant peak in front of me.
While in your trough of dopamine, it can feel impossible (not to mention painful) to pull yourself up that hill. So, the natural human response is to find something easier to do — to find a hill to ride down.
Although it may feel counter-intuitive, the answer to overcoming procrastination isn’t to find something easier to do. It’s to raise your baseline levels of dopamine — by finding something more difficult than what’s in front of you.
Instead of looking for another peak, raise the height of the tracks. Here’s how…
How to never procrastinate again.
As we’ve learned, dopamine operates on a rollercoaster of peaks and troughs.
On an episode of The Huberman Lab, Andrew says,
“The depth of the trough after a dopamine peak is proportional to how high that peak was… and how steep it was.”
In other words, what goes up must come down.
And, if your answer to overcoming procrastination is to drink another cup of coffee or force your way through, you will only be met with an equal crash afterward.
As it turns out, the quickest and most effective way to raise your dopamine baseline is to engage in tasks that are harder than what’s in front of you.
I like to say there are really only 2 emotions:
- Pain
- Pleasure
Every thought, feeling, and intricate emotion you have can be boiled down to either:
- Chasing pleasure
- Running from pain
And, when you procrastinate, you’re doing both. Running from the painful feeling of effort and searching for a more pleasurable experience.
It’s why folding laundry will appear attractive when you finally sit down to write your memoir. Or, you’ll suddenly feel motivated to organize your desktop when you need to make a major life decision.
These once challenging tasks now seem attractive — easy.
Like many things in life, your perception of these tasks changes drastically based on what they’re being compared to. So, to conquer procrastination, you must change your perception of what’s painful — hard.
You can do this, with a simple change in mindset.
“The dopamine system works according to what feels hard or easy, in the moment.”
In simpler terms, perception is reality.
And, the quickest way to overcome procrastination is to do something harder than what’s in front of you. To make what you’re avoiding the easier alternative.
Personally, I procrastinate new tasks. Or, tasks involving a chance of failure. So, when encountering a bout of procrastination, I like to engage in any of these activities:
- Taking a cold shower
- Vigorous physical exercise
- Beginning another more difficult brain task
Anything you perceive as more difficult than what’s in front of you will change your perception, thus raising your baseline of dopamine, and helping you overcome procrastination.
Shoot for the moon and you’ll likely reach the stars…
Final thoughts: make effort the reward.
I remember the good old days when I could quote Andrew Huberman without sounding like a formulaic self-help guru.
But, since Andrew has become one of the foremost voices on anything human optimization or productivity related, I’ve lost my hipster appeal.
That said, his podcast, The Huberman Lab, offers a wealth of great health-related and actionable information. One of the biggest epiphanies I’ve had since listening to it, is my relationship with effort.
If you can perceive effort as a positive force in life, everything becomes easier in comparison.
And, since 92% of the information you’ve just read came from Andrew’s podcast/website, it’s only fitting I leave you with one last Andrew Huberman quote.
It’s one of my personal favourites and I feel it perfectly summarizes the contents of this article:
“Don’t spike dopamine prior to engaging in effort. Don’t spike dopamine after engaging in effort. Learn to spike dopamine from effort itself.”
Hi, I’m Hudson. I write about living healthier, happier, and more mindfully. To have stories sent directly to you, subscribe to my newsletter.👇
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