none of us are immune procrastination
sneaks up on us all some worse than
others in this video we'll go over the
science of procrastination and provide
you with actionable advice to overcome
it
[Music]
what's going on guys dr. Jamal
med-school insiders comm piers steel
describes an equation useful and
understanding procrastination he argues
that motivation is equal to expectancy
times value divided by impulsiveness
times delay whereby motivation is the
willingness to do work which is
essentially the opposite of
procrastination breaking down the
equation expectancy refers to how much
you expect to succeed at doing the task
and thereby getting the anticipated
reward the more you expect being
successful the less likely you're going
to procrastinate on it value refers to
how much you enjoy doing a task and how
much you're going to enjoy the reward
the more value you derive from a task or
the reward the more likely you're going
to get straight to work impulsiveness
refers to your tendency to get
distracted by other things high
impulsivity lures you to Instagram or
Facebook instead of doing the work at
hand delay refers to the time lapse
until receiving the anticipated reward
the longer the delay the more likely you
are to procrastinate as you figure it's
something you can just take care of
later now we want to maximize expectancy
and value as they are directly
proportional to motivation and we want
to minimize impulsiveness and delay as
they are inversely proportional let's go
over actionable steps on how to use the
equation to our advantage and overcome
procrastination first break down the
steps with any task you need to do
whether studying for an exam or
completing a project break it down to
smaller steps
doing so will increase expectancy in our
procrastination equation as smaller
tasks seem much easier to accomplish
than larger projects while everyone has
a different sweet spot I find that being
hyper specific with timelines is very
helpful for me for example if I need to
study for an exam next week and I have
several lectures and practice problems
to go through I will take a few minutes
to think which lectures I should
complete on each day as well as how many
practice problems I had put everything
in two things three which is my personal
to-do app of choice but you should
obviously use whatever tool you prefer
you can see an example of a highly
structured daily and weekly timeline I
created in Excel in my step 1 study
schedule video this high level of
structure works for me and for my
personality but it definitely does not
work for everyone
again figure out what works best for you
number 2 keep the tasks small the
hardest part in getting work done is
just starting one of my favorite study
hacks to address this is the Pomodoro
Technique
in short you work 25 minute blocks each
separated by a 5-minute break during
each block you focus on just one small
task in my Pomodoro Technique video I go
over in more detail what the technique
is and exactly how to use it this was
actually revolutionary for my study
habits I only started using it in med
school and you may be thinking how does
this actually help me get started on my
work going back to our equation this
increases expectancy if I sat down to
study and I told myself I need to study
for five hours I would definitely get
distracted very very easily but if I
instead tell myself I only need to study
for 25 minutes on this one little task
it becomes far less daunting and it
becomes much easier to not only get
started but also stay focused for the 25
minute Pomodoro number three set the bar
low this is yet another trick to
increase the expectancy in our equation
set the goal to something less than what
you are actually capable of I have used
this recently for my own meditation
practice when I set out to meditate 20
minutes every day I only got around to
doing it a couple times per week it just
felt like I never had time to actually
sit down and do 20 minutes of meditation
so I rarely did instead I lowered my
expectations by aiming to meditate just
two minutes every day by lowering the
bar I found myself meditating most days
and even though I set the goal as just
two minutes I almost always exceeded it
number 4 hack pleasure from the
experience of studying if you ever feel
like studying is boring what if you
don't actually support the immediate
outcomes of the task let's say you don't
know what you want or maybe you have
unclear priorities these examples all
pull
to low value in our equation increasing
value will help us overcome
procrastination so how do we increase
value one way is by giving yourself a
reward for completing a task for example
you can reward yourself with a healthy
and tasty meal or by hanging out with
your friends after and only after you
finish your chemistry homework if you
need help with self-discipline like this
check out our self discipline video
alternatively you can improve the
experience of the work itself as you
progress in your medical education the
work gets more and more focused on
material you actually enjoy however at
the beginning you may have to grind
through subjects that you don't find
stimulating to improve the experience of
studying consider mixing up your study
environments or listening to great study
music if you want a taste of my own
personal study music check out the
insider email newsletter where I share
some of my favorite study songs every
week you can sign up on the med school
insiders comm website number five use
Parkinson's law to your advantage the
idea that you can complete your task at
a later time can crush even the most
productive individuals enter Parkinson's
law Parkinson's law states that work
expands to fill the time allotted to it
meaning if you have only 30 minutes of
work to do but you a lot 2 hours of work
to do it then you'll end up spending the
entire two hours as I have stated in
other videos I use this technique
frequently by creating artificial
deadlines that force me to get work done
more efficiently
these artificial deadlines decrease
delay in our motivation equation thus
decreasing the likelihood of
procrastination the trick is to not be
too aggressive with your timeline as it
can lead to unnecessary stress with time
you will get more accurate at gauging
how long a task will take and how to use
Parkinson's law to your advantage
number six be deliberate with your study
environment we can all agree that one of
the biggest killers to our productivity
are distractions avoiding distractions
through sheer willpower is unlikely to
be fruitful long term rather approach it
prophylactically by crafting a work
environment that minimizes distractions
in doing so we're decreasing impulsivity
from our motivation
equation for me this translates to
placing my phone on airplane mode
putting my Mac on Do Not Disturb
and going fullscreen with the work at
hand if working at home distracts you
then up for a library or a coffee shop
instead above all make sure you minimize
your digital distractions I have found
that any other type of distraction pales
in comparison to the focus killing
nature of notifications from your phone
SmartWatch or computer and last number
seven understand your personality type
the issue with advice in general is that
one suggestion can work wonders for one
individual but not for another of the
previous six tips I am doubtful that any
of them will not work for you but I am
confident that some will work much
better than others now a big part of
optimizing your own life whether that's
productivity or study habits diet
exercise or anything else is
understanding oneself one of the tips
that didn't make this list for example
is accountability and that's because
it's highly effective for some
individuals with a certain personality
type but significantly less so for
others I go over how you can determine
your personality type as well as
specific strategies for each personality
type such as accountability that you can
use to your advantage in my four
tendencies video link in the description
below I'd love to hear from you what
other tools tricks or hacks you used to
overcome procrastination
have you found loss aversion useful for
you how about accountability groups
share with the rest of us what has
worked for you down below and let's help
each other out thank you all so much for
watching
shout out to my patreon supporters that
helped make videos like these possible
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you have not already and I will see you
guys in that next one