How to defeat procrastination and get motivated. (Except it’s scientifically-proven by a psychology student)
p.s: No-bs involved, by a psychology student
Tired of watching videos and reading articles where 49.95% of them tell you to wake up at 3am, take cold showers, meditate, stretch, read The Atomic Habits, ice your face, do a cartwheel at the break of dawn, etc? and the other 49.95% ask you if you’re tired of watching videos and reading articles that tell you to wake up at 3am, take cold showers, meditate, stretch, read Atomic Habits, ice your face, do a cartwheel at the break of dawn only to tell you to “Just do it” thinking it’d start a revolution?
As an individual who scientifically studies impetuses and lethargy, I’ve somehow managed to distill a few methods through the process of research, as well as trial and error to beat procrastination.
But this article, written by a certified psychology student, is going to squeeze its way into the 0.1% of content that is going to give you scientifically backed information to demolish procrastination and crush your tasks with a 98% guarantee (2% depends on you reading through this article completely and implementing it).
To summarize at the beginning of the article, all you need to do is:
trick your mind into thinking that your task or objective is a primal means of survival.
To begin with, I’ll let you understand what motivation, in its essence really is:
The motivation cycle is a continuous process through which the basis of human actions functions. Motivation starts with a need.
Need: A deficiency or imbalance in the body or the mind. Eg: hunger or thirst (Imbalance in the body) or it could be curiosity (Imbalance in the mind)
Drive: the arousal that motivates behavior to fulfill the need. When there is imbalance, it creates the psychological arousal to fulfill the need.
Eg: When there’s a deficiency of low blood sugar (indicating lack of food) your body sends signals to your brain that affect your physical state (stomach contractions, the feeling of hunger), creating that psychological state of arousal.
Goal-directed behaviour: The actions taken to reduce the drive.
For e.g.: Cooking or eating food to satisfy your hunger
Need fulfillment: When the need is satisfied, the drive/arousal is reduced and it creates a sense of satisfaction or pleasure.
Homeostasis: The body returns to homeostasis, i.e The body’s natural tendency to maintain a stable internal environment.
Now, this cycle is only efficiently fulfilled when it comes to biological or primary drives (Hunger, thirst and sex) as learnt through evolutionary behaviour.
Your body and brain react physiologically only when your survival is under threat, urging you to fulfill your drives.
Goals and tasks however, that are not necessary for short-term survival aren’t as urgent, and therefore you have the privilege to delay it. In scientific terms,
Psychological or Secondary drives, like the need for power and achievement aren’t given equal importance. Therefore, if you are procrastinating something, it is likely something that doesn’t threaten your survival. As seen in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:
Maslow’s hierarchy suggests that one cannot achieve growth needs, without achieving the deficiency needs.
However, it is proven that humans can strive to achieve growth needs without fulfillment of the deficiency needs, although it reduces efficiency.
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Nonetheless, for your body to physically react so as to accomplish your tasks, here are the list of things you’ll need to do
1. Condition your brain into thinking your goal as though accomplishing it is necessary for survival.
Usually, accomplishing a goal would yield a reward that isn’t necessary for survival, the presence of which will please you and the absence of which wouldn’t devastate you. That is where you turn the screws. One way to do this is by delaying or altering your daily routine (Your brain hates changes in routine) until your goal is accomplished.
Say an individual needs to finish an assignment, they deprive themselves of water, food, sleep and movement (they do not get out of their chair or move from the position that they’re in). Within a few minutes, their brain should trick them into creating a false sense of urgency, completing the basis or the outline of the assignment completing 90% of your work.
However effective this may be, it is highly unethical and, therefore, to apply this in real life, doing the above steps for intervals of 10–15 minutes would be a less strenuous task which would be just as equally efficient by creating a controlled sense of urgency.
2. Intrinsic motivation — Tricking your brain into enjoying your hobby
In contrast to punishing yourself for not accomplishing a certain task as displayed in the first method, this is a means of creating genuine interest.
Intrinsic motivation essentially means performing activities purely for its own sake due to an individual’s personal enjoyment.
“Procrastinating doesn’t mean doing absolutely nothing in place of the desired activity, it means doing something with higher personal regard over the desired activity, unless doing nothing is the highest regard.”—quoted by me :P
Finding aspects in your task that are more personally enjoyable, intriguing or alluring and completing those aspects first in any way or form would create a “start-up” for your motivation after which your brain should naturally follow along in continuing the task. thereby, accomplishing it.
Expectancy-theory: Creation of drives
We tend to accomplish secondary drives that aren’t intrinsically motivated in the expectation of an award. However, long-term gratification is harder in practice. Therefore, rewarding yourselves on a miniature basis for every small accomplishment within the task will biologically drive you to continue forth in the task.
4. (Bonus)Enhancing efficiency: Optimum level of arousal
This graph (Yerkes-Dodson law) suggests that arousal, both in excess and lack, decline efficiency or performance level. To achieve a moderate or optimum level of arousal, one must perform activities in accordance with, or completely against their level of arousal.
Say, you need to knit a scarf and you have an excessive amount of energy and arousal, either taking a run to vent out the arousal or taking a shower or meditating (Cliche) to regulate it, can help achieve your desired level of arousal to maximize efficiency
Bonus advice: using this theory, If you ever have a song stuck in your head (high arousal) sing the whole song or listen to it to vent it out
And with that, beloved readers whom i hold in high regard. I’ll conclude by saying:
“Good luck acing your life ❤”
