Why do we do this, and is there any benefit?

According to Sharon Greene, LCSW, who specializes in treating anxiety and depression for children, adolescents, and adults at Providence Saint John’s Child & Family Development Center in Santa Monica, CA, procrastination results in in the struggle between a person. limbic system and prefrontal cortex in the brain.

“Your limbic system is an older part of the brain that automatically and seeks pleasure and/or avoids things that cause distress,” he explains in Medical News Today. “Your prefrontal cortex is a new part of the brain that helps with planning, decision making, and long-term goals. We all suffer from procrastination at times because of these battle structures in our brain.

Dr. Bill Hudenko, a licensed psychologist, researcher, and professor who holds a joint appointment as a faculty member in Dartmouth’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, and global head of mental health in the digital care platform , K Health , cites a study showing that people who procrastinate often have greater amygdala — the part of the brain responsible for emotions, especially negative ones.

“The authors also found that procrastinators had less functional connections to dorsal anterior cingulate cortex – a part of the brain that assimilates information and is involved in decision-making,” he continued. “While interesting, this study highlights that procrastination is not so cut-and-dry and does not occur in just one region of the brain.”

A study of researchers from the Paris Brain Institute published in September 2022 found evidence suggesting the anterior cingulate cortex where the decision to delay is made. They also developed an algorithm to predict a person’s propensity to procrastinate or not.

And Dr. Alex Wills, a board-certified psychiatrist and author of Give a F*ck, Reallysaid that other issues a person may be dealing with can affect how procrastination affects the brain.

“In the case of anxiety disorders, a person can be paralyzed by a lot of activity in the amygdala – fear, despair, perfectionism, or ‘paralysis by analysis’,” he elaborated. “With depression, information processing can be very slow when patients feel helpless or unable to make decisions.”

“[And] in the case of ADHD, there may be a neurological lack of cognitive focus due to a lack of dopamine sent to the prefrontal cortex where the person may innocently be unaware of a looming deadline – until it’s too late,” Dr. Wills added.

Dr. Hudenko said procrastination itself is not a mental health condition. However, it can become a behavioral problem if it becomes habitual and causes distress.

“If someone procrastinates because of one anxiety disorder, that anxiety can lead to other negative results,” he explained. “Treating the underlying anxiety that affects procrastination can help someone avoid necessary tasks and can also improve other aspects of their life.”

And Dr. Wills says that procrastination is often thought of as a common symptom of a variety of illnesses:

“Under the anxiety spectrum, it often appears in OCPD [obsessive-compulsive personality disorder]OCD, hoarding, or PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] due to fears related to past trauma. In ADHD, which I consider more of a neurological or ‘wiring’ condition, procrastination can be the result of an inability to prioritize, stay on task, or stay focused.

“Procrastination can also be a sign of addictive tendencies – the long ‘save the day’ from disaster by finishing an important task before the deadline,” continued Dr. Wills. “Whether someone does it all the time or not can be a sign of one of these underlying mental health conditions.”

In general, most people consider procrastination to be a negative habit. But, are there any positives to this?

Dr. Hudenko said there are many cases where procrastination can be beneficial, even if the person doesn’t intend it to be.

“Everyone can relate to procrastinating on a task because it’s low impact or low value, which shows good judgment about time management and task prioritization,” he explains.

“Procrastination also helps people prioritize engaging in the aspects of their lives that bring them joy. It may ultimately be better for your mental health if you play a game of tennis instead of doing that project on your list. Plus, you can come back to that project with more energy and new insights because you left to do something else!

– Dr. Bill Hudenko

“Finally, some people work better under pressure and do their best when they have a strict deadline, even if they don’t want to wait until the last minute,” added Dr. Hudenko.

And Dr. Wills said that viewing procrastination as a “negative” or a “symptom” of other mental health diagnoses would be short-sighted.

“In my book, Give a F*ck, Really, I celebrate the so-called ‘negative’ emotions and ask how these emotions try to help,” he said. “We can ask, ‘What does procrastination teach me about my emotional truth?’”

For those who want to stop procrastinating, Greene suggests “rolling the tape” when they notice themselves starting.

“Basically visualize in your mind what it will feel like to do the task at the last minute including stress, fatigue, and the possibility of not completing it on time or delivering a subpar product,” he explains. “For some people, this negative view may be enough to help them start the task.”

Also, Green said giving yourself a reward after completing each step helps.

“Some people also benefit from enlisting others to hold them accountable to complete each small step,” he added.

Setting deadlines can be a helpful tool against procrastination if set correctly. A study from November 2021 made by Dr. Stephen Knowles, professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Otago in New Zealand and his team found that people are more likely to complete a task with a 1-week deadline or no deadline compared to giving 1 months. deadline.

“Previous research has shown that for tasks that benefit you – for example redeeming a voucher for a restaurant – that the longer the deadline, the lower the response rate – meaning that no deadline leads to lowest answer,” said Dr. Knowles MNT.

“Our research focused on a task that benefits others – for example completing a survey or making a charity donation. We suspect that in our context giving people a deadline of a month gives them permission to take their time, while not having a deadline makes it more urgent,” he added.

Based on his findings, Dr. Knowles people who tend to procrastinate should set shorter deadlines rather than longer ones.

“When you set a deadline for someone, you have to keep it short or never mention a deadline at all,” he said.

And Dr. Hudenko said that if the root cause of procrastination is because an activity may take too much time, try the “cut” method:

“Try to break things down into manageable chunks and do them over time. For example, instead of cleaning your entire house, which can be overwhelming, just commit to cleaning the sink today and the floor tomorrow . Usually when you start a subtask, it also makes it easier to complete the whole thing because you prove to yourself that the task you stopped is not as bad as you made it out to be. your head