You're not Lazy: How to End Procrastination For Life
Summary
TLDRIn this insightful video, Dr. Justin, a learning coach, demystifies procrastination as a complex set of behaviors rather than a single trait. He introduces a three-part strategy to overcome procrastination: identifying specific behaviors, altering environmental triggers, and retraining the brain through mindfulness meditation. This approach aims to make productive behaviors effortless while making procrastination difficult, ultimately helping viewers to break free from the habit and improve focus and mental health.
Takeaways
- 📚 Procrastination is not a single behavior but a category of behaviors leading to an undesirable outcome, requiring different strategies for each type.
- 🔍 To overcome procrastination, it's crucial to identify and specify the exact behavior that needs to be changed, rather than treating it as a monolithic issue.
- 🎯 The environment and triggers play a significant role in shaping behavior, and by altering these factors, one can influence the likelihood of engaging in procrastinatory actions.
- 🛠️ Specific interventions, such as app blockers or rearranging one's environment, can make the desired behavior easier and the procrastinatory behavior more difficult.
- 🧘♂️ Mindfulness meditation is suggested as a method to slow down the brain and reduce the need for constant, short-term dopamine hits from distractions like social media.
- 🚀 Dr. Justin, a learning coach and researcher, emphasizes the importance of learning efficiently and offers a three-part process to combat procrastination.
- 🔑 The first part of the process involves identifying the specific procrastination behavior and understanding the environmental and emotional triggers that facilitate it.
- 🛑 The second part focuses on changing the environment and structures to make the desired behavior effortless and the procrastinatory behavior inconvenient.
- 💡 The third part addresses the possibility of procrastination becoming a habit, suggesting the use of mindfulness meditation to retrain the brain for better focus and attention.
- 🔄 It's acknowledged that overcoming procrastination is a process that may require trial and error with different environmental changes to discover what works best for an individual.
- 🌟 The script encourages viewers to think creatively about how to manipulate their environment to promote the desired behavior and resist the pull of distractions.
Q & A
What is the main issue the video aims to address?
-The video aims to address the issue of procrastination and why traditional strategies to overcome it often fail.
Who is Dr. Justin and what is his role in the video?
-Dr. Justin is a learning coach and researcher, head of learning at I Can Study, who has been teaching people how to learn more efficiently and stop procrastinating for over a decade.
Why is it important to specify the behavior when dealing with procrastination?
-Specifying the behavior is important because procrastination is not one behavior but a category of behaviors, each requiring a different approach to be effectively addressed.
What is the significance of understanding the environment and triggers in relation to procrastination?
-Understanding the environment and triggers is significant because it helps identify the conditions that lead to procrastination, allowing for targeted interventions to change those conditions and reduce the likelihood of procrastination.
How does the video suggest changing the environment to combat procrastination?
-The video suggests making the desired behavior easy to do and the procrastination behavior difficult, such as logging out of distracting apps, changing physical surroundings, or altering routines.
What is the purpose of focusing on the drivers of behavior rather than the behavior itself?
-Focusing on the drivers of behavior helps in identifying the underlying causes and motivations that lead to procrastination, enabling more effective and sustainable changes to be made.
What is the three-part process introduced in the video to end procrastination?
-The three-part process includes: 1) Identifying and specifying the procrastination behavior, 2) Changing the environment and structures to make the desired behavior easy and the procrastination behavior hard, and 3) Slowing down the brain through mindfulness meditation if the procrastination has become a habit.
Why might someone still struggle with procrastination even after applying the first two parts of the process?
-Someone might still struggle if procrastination has become a deeply ingrained habit, requiring the third part of the process, which involves retraining the brain to reduce the need for constant dopamine hits.
What role does mindfulness meditation play in the third part of the process?
-Mindfulness meditation helps in slowing down the brain by training it to focus on the present moment, reducing the urge for immediate gratification and improving the ability to concentrate and resist distractions.
How does the video suggest dealing with the boredom associated with studying or the desired behavior?
-The video suggests optimizing learning methods to make them more engaging, potentially through more efficient encoding of information or by changing the environment to make the task less tedious.
What is the final recommendation for viewers who find the video helpful?
-The final recommendation is to subscribe to the channel to not miss future uploads and to explore other videos on learning efficiency and important principles for effective studying.
Outlines
📚 Understanding Procrastination
This paragraph introduces the video's focus on overcoming procrastination. The speaker, Dr. Justin, a learning coach and researcher, challenges the common misconception that procrastinators are simply lazy. Instead, he proposes that procrastination is a category of behaviors with different triggers and solutions. He emphasizes the importance of identifying specific behaviors that lead to procrastination, rather than treating it as a monolithic issue. The goal is to understand the environmental factors and triggers that cause these behaviors and to develop targeted interventions.
🔍 Analyzing Procrastination Behaviors
In this paragraph, the speaker delves into the specifics of identifying procrastination behaviors. He suggests using the 'intentions events' format to map out the sequence of events, feelings, and triggers that lead to procrastination. By examining the environment and the conditions that make procrastination more likely, viewers can pinpoint the exact behaviors they need to change. The speaker provides an example involving a student who intended to study but ended up binge-watching a TV series, illustrating how to apply this analysis to real-life scenarios.
🛠️ Modifying Environment and Habits
The speaker discusses the second part of the process to combat procrastination, which involves modifying the environment and habits. He suggests practical steps such as logging out of distracting apps, rearranging the study space, and planning study sessions when the individual is less likely to be tired. The idea is to make the desired behavior (e.g., studying) as easy as possible and the procrastination behavior more difficult. The speaker also introduces the concept of becoming an 'evil human behavior architect' to manipulate one's environment in a way that encourages productive behavior.
🧘 Slowing Down the Brain
The final paragraph addresses the third part of the process, which is about slowing down the brain to reduce the need for constant dopamine hits from short-term, low-effort activities like social media scrolling. The speaker recommends installing app lockers or uninstalling distracting apps and practicing mindfulness meditation to train the brain to focus on the present moment. This practice helps to increase attention span and reduce the urge for immediate gratification. The speaker acknowledges that this part of the process is challenging and time-consuming but emphasizes its importance for long-term success in overcoming procrastination.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Procrastination
💡Behavior
💡Environment
💡Triggers
💡Intervention
💡Mindfulness Meditation
💡Dopamine Hits
💡App Blockers
💡Learning Coach
💡Efficient Learning
💡Habit Formation
Highlights
Procrastination is not a single behavior but a category of behaviors leading to an undesirable outcome.
Different behaviors require different interventions to overcome procrastination.
Being specific about the behavior helps in applying precise interventions.
Environmental factors and triggers play a significant role in the formation of procrastination habits.
Changing the environment can make desired behaviors easier and undesirable behaviors harder.
The I-E-A format (Intentions, Events, and Affect) can be used to analyze procrastination behaviors.
Identifying triggers can help in understanding and changing habitual procrastination behaviors.
Strategies such as app blockers and mindful meditation can be employed to combat procrastination.
Mindfulness meditation trains the brain to focus on the present moment and reduce distractions.
Procrastination can become a habit, and addressing it requires a systematic approach.
Dr. Justin suggests a three-part process to end procrastination: specificity, environmental changes, and brain training.
The process involves identifying the specific behavior, understanding the triggers, and making targeted changes.
Even if one is 'lazy,' the right strategies can be used to leverage this to one's advantage.
The importance of not giving up and continuing to try different strategies to overcome procrastination.
The video offers practical steps and examples to help viewers implement the suggested strategies.
The necessity of a long-term commitment to changing procrastination habits through consistent practice.
Dr. Justin's experience in teaching thousands of people to learn efficiently and stop procrastinating.
The video provides a comprehensive guide to understanding and overcoming procrastination effectively.
Transcripts
so you've been battling procrastination
for years you've tried everything but
despite all the motivation you've tried
to summon you just can't win or maybe
you win sometimes but on those days
where you're tired you don't have your
guard up procrastination is always
waiting for you and if after all of that
you still can't beat procrastination and
just do your damn work you must be
lazy or are you in this video I'm going
to unpack what procrastination really is
and why all of those strategies you try
before didn't work I'll then teach you a
threep part process that you can use to
end procrastination forever and even if
you are lazy how you can use that to
your advantage and it isn't some magic
solution that works instantly it will
take time but it does work and that's
what matters if you're new to this
channel welcome I'm Dr Justin I'm a
learning coach and researcher head of
learning at I can study and for the last
decade I've taught thousands of people
how to learn more efficiently and stop
procrastinating so the first part is
that we have to specify the behavior we
need to stop calling it procrastination
procrastination is not one Behavior it
is a whole category of behaviors that
lead to this particular undesirable
outcome and because it is not just one
Behavior the way that we deal with each
behavior is actually different for
example let's say that the way you
procrastinate is by Doom scrolling on
Instagram on your phone instead of
studying this is not the same behavior
behavior and therefore the way that we'd
fix it is not the same way as wanting to
do a workout but then ending up
reorganizing and cleaning your room yes
there are similarities and at the end of
the day there's something you wanted to
do and you weren't able to get it done
but in terms of the environment and the
triggers and the structures it's not the
same thing and this is important because
if we try to fix procrastination just by
trying our best to fix procrastination
well we've only got so much time and
motivation that we're willing to give if
we keep trying with a way that doesn't
work eventually we're just going to get
demotivated and give up but start
believing we're just too lazy but by
being specific about the behavior we can
be specific about the intervention we
can attack it with Precision like a
majestic Hunter hunting some mythical
Beast so when we think of a behavior we
always want to think about the
environment and the triggers as well
think of the behavior as a symptom a
side effect of something else for
example if you grow up around smokers
your friends smoke your parents smoke
your grandparents smoke your chimney
smokes everything around you smokes then
you too are likely to start picking up
smoking likewise if you're in a really
distracting environment you're much more
likely to get distracted or if you're in
an environment that makes it hard to do
focused work and instead it's much
easier to watch a 4-Hour video of
someone digging a swimming pool in the
forest using their bare hands
then you're much more likely to watch
that video the trick to changing uh
Behavior including procrastination is to
make it so that that behavior becomes
ridiculously easy to do and the
undesirable Behavior takes a ridiculous
amount of effort to do so once we've
done part one which is to identify and
specify the behavior of procrastination
that we're trying to change then part
two is that we can focus on the drivers
of Behavior rather than the behavior
itself for example ever since I moved to
using a Macbook instead of my old
Windows PC I basically stopped gaming on
my computer altogether I just couldn't
be bothered unplugging my MacBook and
then plugging my computer in and like
connecting up to the Monitor and
everything and then turning it on just
to play some games so I stopped I
effectively became too lazy to
procrastinate think about that so here's
what we can do to make some meaningful
changes to the environment write down
your procrastination Behavior using this
format
intentions events and we can split
events into before during the transition
and result feelings in terms of what
made it harder or what made
procrastinating easier and then
triggers for example let's say that
someone's trying to study but then they
ended up watching an entire season of
Castlevania because it was recommended
on their Netflix my intention was I mean
someone's intention was to study the
events that occurred might have been
before I was eating dinner and I had
planned to study once I finished eating
during the
transition this is about what you try to
do when you're attempting to do your
desired behavior in this example it
might be something like I thought about
going downstairs and opening up my books
to start studying but I decided to spend
20 minutes digesting after my dinner by
sitting on the couch and then the result
was I ended up turning the TV on and
watching a whole new season of
Castlevania that was suggested to me I
then hated myself and questioned all of
my Life Choices etc etc once we've got
the chronology of the events then we can
move on to the feelings and the trigger
so the feeling section might look
something like this I was initially
feeling motivated and focused I was a
little tired from the day then when I
started thinking about what to study and
where to start and everything I needed
to cover I got
overwhelmed this made it harder my couch
was right next to me and I'm logged into
Netflix all the time so that made it
easier to start watching my triggers
might have been seeing the couch my
sweet comfortable couch then seeing the
Netflix logo and then seeing the
recommended new series and so these are
all things that would have triggered
certain behavioral habits so I have a
habit of watching Netflix whenever I sit
on that couch triggers are the things
that activate habits for example there
could be an app icon when I used to play
a lot of games the game logo icon that
appeared on my desktop that used to be a
trigger to make me want to play games so
once we've mapped it out like this you
can see it for what it is not just this
big label that's abstract that we call
procrastination then
we can start doing something about it
there are some possible changes that we
might want to make when we look at this
like we could log out of Netflix we
could move the couch just don't plan on
studying after dinner in the first place
since you can see I was tired to begin
with get my books out in advance have a
clear study plan so I don't have to
think about everything and then get
overwhelmed these Solutions will all
help but you can see how specific they
are it's not just try not to get
distracted if we find that a big barrier
was that we were too sleepy and tired we
can try to change our sleep schedule and
get some more sleep or maybe change the
time of the day that we're studying if
it's social media that's distracting us
we can try to use app blockers or if
it's simply our burning urge to like
this video then you can just go ahead
and like it whatever the problem is the
first step is to identify the behavior
figure out why it happens and then play
around with a combination of changes
that we can make to our environment and
our structures so that that behavior
becomes really hard to do and the
desired Behavior becomes really easy to
do and when we do this we want to think
like we're some kind of evil human
behavior architect that's trapped this
group of people and we're trying to
manipulate and force them into doing
this very specific type of behavior we
want to think how do we nudge these
people indirectly to do exactly what we
want them to do because that's basically
what these social media companies are
doing and if you want to beat them you
have to know how they thinking beat them
at their own game and it might take
weeks of trial and error with different
combinations of changing your
environment to figure out the full map
of a particular behavior and learn how
to change it and then for another type
of behavior it might take you a little
bit more time to figure out how to
change that one and another one another
one like I said procrastination isn't
just one single Behavior but when you
figure it out which you will if you do
this it works you will start
procrastinating and doesn't take that
much willpower or motivation in fact
it's surprisingly easy but sometimes
this isn't enough and that's why we need
the third part if you go ahead with part
one and part two most of you will feel
like you're pretty much done with
procrastination you're on top of it but
some of you will still struggle and this
is because procrastination might have
become a habit you've become a chronic
procrastinator you've become a procras
holic you've become a procr addict
here's how you know if it's become a new
habit do part one and part two and just
completely Max it out go 100% remove
every distraction every possibility of
you to procrastinate some of my students
have put themselves and locked
themselves in a garage with nothing but
a disc and a textbook and some notes to
write on if you put yourself in that
environment where procrastination is
just not an option and you still find
that your brain is looking for something
to distract itself on and you feel feel
like it's wret it's looking for
something to procrastinate with then you
might be addicted to procrastinating if
that is the case you need this last part
part three is to slow our brain down
what's probably happened is that your
brain has become train to need these
really shortterm low effort dopamine
hits so things like reels and shorts and
you know Tik Tok these things train your
brain to receive this 30second to a
minute dopamine hit from doing nothing
there's no effort involved it's totally
passive but then you get rewarded for
that I think of it like my brain is
getting too jittery so in part three to
slow your brain down what I recommend is
number one install some app lockers get
rid of Instagram Tik Tok whatever
uninstall the app just try to remove it
from your life as much as possible it
doesn't have to be forever but for at
least this training part then what I'd
recommend that you do is practice
something like mindfulness meditation
you can use an app like calm for this
they've got these 30-day trials and
these beginner courses for you to start
getting into it if you've never tried it
before alternatively there are lots of
YouTube videos talking about this also
to search for mindfulness meditation
what you're doing with mindfulness
meditation is you're trying to get your
brain to focus on the present moment and
not hold on to and Chase every
distracting intrusive thought that comes
into your head a lot of people get put
off because every 2 or 3 seconds they're
getting some kind of distracting thought
coming in and they're not able to be
present in the moment but actually
that's the whole point we're
deliberately putting our brain in a
situation where it's going to be
restless so that we can train it every
time you get that thought coming in and
then you try to bring yourself back to
the present moment and you let go of
that thought that's training if you do
this for around 15 minutes a day for
around 2 to 3 weeks you'll start
noticing that your brain is slowing down
it's easier to focus your attention span
is a little bit longer and you're not
feeling that urge to have that 30C to a
minute dopamine hit over time as you
practice the skill of bringing your
brain back and settling it down it
starts operating on a slower more stable
wavelength which sounds incredibly
hippie you don't have to go and snort
some Himalayan salt crystals after this
or rub your eyeballs with essential oils
just meditation is fine now part three
is the hardest because it takes time
just like learning to encode efficiently
it involves retraining your brain but on
the other hand having a brain that
requires is a low effort 30 secondly
dopamine hit is just not compatible with
Life or good mental health or focusing
or really anything so you do have to
work on it it's an investment of time
that's well worth it now one note that I
will make though is that if you do have
some past trauma in your life sometimes
meditation can actually resurface some
memories so if you are aware that you've
got some trauma in your life I would
recommend doing this with the guidance
of a therapist or a psych ologist so
those are the three parts be specific
with your behavior figure out what the
behavior is that you're trying to change
identify why it happens and start
changing the environment and then if
that's still not enough start slowing
down your brain by training it with
something like mindfulness meditation
there are more things that you can do
and other people talk about lots of
other strategies personally I think that
without doing these three things those
other strategies probably aren't going
to work longterm and sustainably anyway
if you do do these three things then you
probably don't need those other
strategies in the first place you can
use other apps to help you with this
process I've mentioned app blockers
leave a comment Down Below in terms of
some of the ideas and the apps that you
use to help you with this and leave some
of the ideas that you have on how you've
changed your environment to help you do
or remove some kind of behavior I'm
always really impressed with how
creative people get when they start
changing their environments if you feel
like a big issue is that every time time
you sit down to start studying that it's
so damn boring that you can't bring
yourself to do it ever again then
there's probably some things that we can
optimize with your learning methods to
make them more engaging I'd recommend
checking out this video here where I
talk about how you can learn to encode
information more efficiently or check
out our playlist if you want a start to
end series of videos where I just talk
about the most important principles that
you should know if you like this video
make sure to subscribe so you don't miss
my future uploads thanks for watching
and I'll see you next
[Music]
time
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