Neurologist: “Procrastination is a tug-of-war between parts of your brain”
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Text 51551 Brendan O'Connor on RTÉ Radio 1. Well, is there something that you've been putting off doing right now that you really, really need to do? Have you ever asked yourself why you procrastinate or indeed why any of us procrastinate? Well, we're going to do a little bit of a deep dive now on procrastination with neuroscientist Dr Sabina Brennan. Sabina, good morning to you. Good morning to you. Do you ever procrastinate?
Of course I do. I'm human. And it's interesting you just said there about why we procrastinate. Because I'm always curious why a behavior evolved. You know, what purpose does it serve? And procrastination is particularly interesting in that regard, in that sense.
What causes procrastination according to neuroscientist Dr. Sabina Brennan?
It doesn't seem to have evolved as an adaptive behaviour, that more it's a side effect of mechanisms that were useful when our ancestors were on the planet and when our brain was evolving, where they were interested in the present moment, conserving energy, avoiding threats, engaging in those kind of activities whereas modern life is full of tasks that are abstract and they're delayed and they're not necessarily the most natural thing so it's kind of like it's a mismatch between an ancient brain living in a world of deadlines and screens and long range planning so There's that push pull of immediate gratification and long term goals. And it takes a lot of effort for us to make ourselves work towards those long term goals.
Yeah, I have a habit of sending myself articles on procrastination with the thought of trying to get around them. And then you never read them. I've got a whole section on procrastination. But what type of procrastination, are there different types of procrastination?
Yeah, there are. I mean, I'm very much an active procrastinator, so I'm not very good at doing nothing. So say if I'm writing a book, rather than writing the book, I might go out and cut the lawns and I might weed the garden or I might clean the kitchen. Paint something. Yeah, yeah. So at least I feel I'm not wasting time. I don't tend to be like a scroller, you know. So very much I kind of work, but that's me. That's in my nature. I love to be achieving things and I like results.
That's a productive procrastinator. And you kind of mentioned that other tendency that we all have in this digital age of maybe scrolling and spending a lot of time, you know, doing that. And is that?
Yeah. So there's a few different types, as you just alluded to. So there's what we call could call the pleasure-seeking procrastinators so they're the ones who will go for the immediate gratification like watching a movie or surfing the net scrolling that sort of thing or shopping online I have to say I'd be a little bit guilty about the shopping online one myself and so and then I suppose I'm the productive procrastinator you know but there's And I'm active, but the productive procrastinator sort of will do like low priority tasks. There might be things that are on their to do list, but they're not really important. So they might kind of decide to reorganize the apps on their phone or sort their emails or rearrange furniture or the desktop, you know, that kind of thing where it's not really important.
really important isn't there that phrase where you know eat your frog so do the the task you're most yes don't want to do first i'm very good at ticking off a to-do list for things that are in that lower productive yeah in that lower category so that's that kind of thing but i kind of keep that as well for days if i've if i have brain fog you know where the where it's not procrastination but where a task actually feels too difficult I always have some of those easy tasks so I can do those so at least I can feel productive.
How does evolutionary psychology explain procrastination?
And then there's the diversion kind of, you know, people who allow themselves to be pulled away by diversion. So they sit down to work and then they go, oh, I really need a snack. Oh, I should get a drink, you know, or, oh God, you know what? I never called so-and-so. I better ring them now and get that done.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:43
2
What causes procrastination according to neuroscientist Dr. Sabina Brennan?
0:43–3:38
3
How does evolutionary psychology explain procrastination?
3:38–8:57
4
What are the different types of procrastination?
8:57–10:58
5
What is productive procrastination and how does it work?
10:58–11:29