Procrastination

Hi!

I decide to change something in my routine and I can tell you: Lucija in the morning and Lucija in the evening are not the same person. I couldn’t be the only one. I know work by Mel Robbins so I looked up why am I procrastinate.  Apparently, it is a habit (so we can change it) and it helps us to be more resistant in a stress situation.

  What we are avoiding isn’t the task but rather the stress that we are associating with the task. – Mel Robbins

Mel Robins has advice to count 5-4-3-2-1. Do it! It is simple and stupid, but effective. It activates our prefrontal cortex and you have 5 seconds to change your usual habit.

Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist doing research on how we make decisions, claims that our emotional decision making is just as important as our more rational and analytical decision making. In fact, if that part of your brain dedicated to gut reaction along with the emotions of punishment and reward (the prefrontal cortex and its orbitofrontal cortex) is damaged, you will get stuck making even the simplest decisions.

No-brainer decisions, like jumping in to help the flailing child, are actually driven by that very fast-thinking part of the brain. We most often call it going with our gut but it’s also a way evolution has wired us to speed up what might otherwise be a very slow and ineffective decision making process.

The link to procrastination is that you need to activate that part of your prefrontal cortex to get out of the cycle. And guess what happens to your prefrontal cortex when you’re stressed? That’s right, it pretty much shuts down!

Source

Personal trainer Zuzka Light had a video where she explained that sometimes she needs her blinders on to do her tasks.

Do you use the 5 seconds rule? Has it helped you?

Photo credit
L.