How to Stop Procrastination & Increase Motivation | Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | [silence]
00:00:02.540 | So how can we overcome procrastination?
00:00:04.820 | Well, it turns out that there are findings
00:00:06.080 | from within the addiction literature
00:00:08.140 | that turn out to be very powerful
00:00:09.820 | towards leveraging our way out of procrastination.
00:00:12.900 | And it has to do with this.
00:00:14.580 | You already know,
00:00:16.620 | because I've told you probably a dozen times now,
00:00:18.860 | that the depth of the trough after a dopamine peak
00:00:22.940 | is proportional to how high that peak was
00:00:24.900 | and how steep it was, how quickly that peak occurred.
00:00:28.140 | It turns out that not only is the depth of the trough
00:00:30.620 | proportional to that,
00:00:31.980 | but the rate at which you get out of that trough
00:00:35.780 | is proportional to how steep that trough is.
00:00:39.200 | Let me explain this for you
00:00:41.460 | in as clear terms as I possibly can.
00:00:44.360 | Imagine you're in an amotivated state.
00:00:46.760 | You're just not feeling motivated, you're procrastinating.
00:00:50.100 | You may think, okay, the thing to do here is something.
00:00:54.060 | I'll clean the house, I'll take care of some bills,
00:00:56.040 | I'll do something, or I'll just wait.
00:00:58.780 | Those approaches, as we talked about before,
00:01:01.460 | generally don't work, or at least don't work quickly,
00:01:04.140 | or they lead you right up to the deadline,
00:01:05.660 | and that's the deadline that forces you to get something done
00:01:07.780 | or you just don't get it done
00:01:09.060 | and you don't succeed in your goal.
00:01:10.540 | That happens a lot as well.
00:01:12.200 | However, if you were to take that state
00:01:15.740 | of being unmotivated, of procrastinating,
00:01:18.940 | and actually do something that's harder
00:01:22.380 | than being in that amotivated state,
00:01:25.480 | in other words, doing something that's more effortful,
00:01:28.640 | even painful, you can rebound yourself
00:01:32.160 | out of that dopamine trough much more quickly.
00:01:35.400 | So what do I mean you want to put yourself in a state
00:01:37.400 | that's worse than or harder than the state that you're in,
00:01:40.160 | or do something, quote unquote, more painful?
00:01:42.120 | And here I want to be very clear.
00:01:43.280 | I'll say this three times,
00:01:44.280 | but I'm going to say it for the first time now.
00:01:45.920 | When I say more painful,
00:01:47.840 | I do not mean doing any kind of tissue damaging
00:01:50.720 | or psychologically damaging behavior
00:01:53.880 | or anything of that sort that's going to render you injured
00:01:57.120 | or not well, even in the short term.
00:01:59.160 | That's not what I'm referring to, okay?
00:02:00.720 | Let's just get that one out of the way.
00:02:02.240 | What I'm referring to is the fact that, for instance,
00:02:05.240 | if you're feeling amotivated,
00:02:07.080 | but you find yourself cleaning the house
00:02:09.120 | as a way to procrastinate,
00:02:10.680 | you can say, well, cleaning the house is harder
00:02:12.920 | than sitting down and doing nothing,
00:02:15.360 | but actually in that moment or in those moments,
00:02:18.440 | that's not the case, or else you wouldn't be doing it.
00:02:22.160 | The reality is that the dopamine system works
00:02:26.320 | according to what feels hard or easy in the moment.
00:02:30.020 | In other words, if you're feeling amotivated,
00:02:32.400 | you need to do something and put yourself into a state
00:02:35.840 | that's harder than the state you're in.
00:02:38.960 | So for instance, if you're sitting around
00:02:41.200 | feeling amotivated or you find yourself
00:02:43.200 | tending to tasks that are irrelevant to the goal
00:02:46.140 | that you really should be focused on,
00:02:48.560 | you need to put your body and mind
00:02:50.700 | into a state of discomfort quickly.
00:02:53.980 | And the way to do that
00:02:55.320 | is to either engage in some tangential activity,
00:02:59.680 | meaning an activity not related to your goal,
00:03:01.620 | that puts your body into a very different state.
00:03:04.040 | So here again, I'll default to the obvious one,
00:03:06.080 | which is something like cold shower or cold immersion,
00:03:10.340 | which not only increases dopamine long-term
00:03:13.040 | or over several hours rather,
00:03:14.720 | but for most people is experienced as pain.
00:03:17.900 | That pain causes a rebound out of that dopamine trough
00:03:21.200 | faster than it would occur
00:03:23.160 | if you had just stayed in that amotivated state
00:03:25.200 | and waited for it to go away
00:03:26.280 | or done something like cleaning up
00:03:28.560 | that for whatever reason
00:03:29.720 | felt like it required less friction.
00:03:32.220 | When I say friction, I mean, limbic friction.
00:03:34.120 | Your limbic system is always in this dialogue
00:03:36.120 | with your forebrain and limbic friction goes two ways.
00:03:39.660 | Limbic friction can be you're tired
00:03:41.320 | and you don't want to do something.
00:03:43.300 | And so you have to quote unquote, motivate to do it,
00:03:46.160 | energize yourself to do it,
00:03:47.780 | or limbic friction can be that you're nervous and scared
00:03:51.240 | and anxious to do something
00:03:52.280 | and you have to calm yourself
00:03:53.320 | in order to lean forward into action
00:03:55.080 | in order to do that thing despite the anxiety.
00:03:57.800 | I realize this can be a little bit confusing as a concept,
00:03:59.920 | so I want to go into a bit more detail.
00:04:01.440 | Let's imagine that you or somebody else
00:04:04.740 | does not like to exercise.
00:04:06.140 | You don't want to exercise
00:04:07.080 | and you're trying to get your minimum
00:04:08.380 | of five days per week exercise
00:04:10.640 | and you're just not motivated to do it.
00:04:13.200 | There are a couple of different techniques to doing this.
00:04:15.680 | Assuming you've taken care of all the baseline stuff,
00:04:18.300 | all the foundational stuff we talked about earlier,
00:04:20.460 | and you're just not getting in gear
00:04:21.820 | and you find yourself checking your phone
00:04:24.140 | or maybe you're tending to some tasks,
00:04:26.260 | obviously those things are quote unquote easier for you,
00:04:29.180 | meaning they cause less limbic friction
00:04:32.500 | than engaging in exercise.
00:04:34.620 | The typical advice would be just exercise for one minute.
00:04:40.280 | Okay, just get one minute of exercise or five minutes
00:04:42.700 | and then use the successful completion
00:04:45.760 | of that one or five minutes as a milestone
00:04:47.700 | that allows you to then move to the next milestone.
00:04:50.000 | And indeed, that approach can work.
00:04:51.980 | And it's exactly what I'm describing here
00:04:53.920 | when I say that you're in a state of lack of motivation
00:04:57.840 | or procrastination or both,
00:04:59.880 | and you need to put yourself into a more painful,
00:05:03.960 | not less painful state.
00:05:05.000 | So what do you do?
00:05:05.840 | You push up against that friction
00:05:08.680 | and you exercise for a short while,
00:05:11.200 | and then that pops you out of that trough.
00:05:13.940 | That's possible, but for a lot of people,
00:05:16.300 | even that won't be possible
00:05:17.680 | because they just can't get motivated
00:05:19.020 | or they do that one minute or five minutes
00:05:20.420 | and then they're just like, okay, I'm still in the trough.
00:05:22.540 | I'm not actually feeling that great.
00:05:24.340 | In those circumstances,
00:05:26.660 | it makes sense to do something that's tangential
00:05:29.020 | to the whole path that you're trying to pursue,
00:05:31.160 | this goal that you're trying to pursue.
00:05:33.560 | That is, believe it or not,
00:05:35.000 | much worse than just being amotivated.
00:05:37.640 | And when I say worse,
00:05:38.840 | I don't mean picking some task
00:05:40.940 | that normally you don't like to do,
00:05:42.440 | but now you're willing to do.
00:05:43.780 | I mean, literally thinking about
00:05:46.100 | what would be worse than being in this state?
00:05:48.860 | Again, without causing yourself tissue
00:05:50.460 | or psychological damage, what would be worse?
00:05:52.960 | Well, cold water would be worse for many people,
00:05:55.940 | very cold water.
00:05:57.200 | So the key is to figure out something
00:05:59.180 | that for lack of a better way to put it,
00:06:01.300 | really sucks, really sucks, and yet is safe.
00:06:05.180 | And by doing that, you steepen the trough,
00:06:09.080 | you steepen the slope of the trough,
00:06:11.960 | which we know brings you back
00:06:14.160 | to your baseline level of dopamine more quickly.
00:06:16.880 | Now, for some people,
00:06:17.720 | that will be deliberate cold exposure
00:06:19.280 | through cold shower, ice bath.
00:06:20.540 | And I have to tell you that if you're cringing
00:06:22.000 | as I say this, well then, there you go.
00:06:24.400 | You now have a tool that you know,
00:06:26.280 | you cringe even when you just think about,
00:06:29.480 | and therefore represents a great tool for you.
00:06:31.960 | So if I'm procrastinating
00:06:33.160 | to do something I really need to do,
00:06:34.880 | should I just simply wait
00:06:36.300 | for that procrastination to evaporate?
00:06:38.300 | No.
00:06:39.140 | Will it eventually evaporate?
00:06:40.420 | Maybe.
00:06:41.300 | Will a deadline eventually surface
00:06:42.940 | that will trigger me into an anxious or activated state
00:06:47.260 | that will allow me to complete what needs to be done?
00:06:49.740 | Maybe.
00:06:50.980 | Hopefully.
00:06:52.380 | But better would be to get out of that amotivated state,
00:06:55.740 | that state of procrastination, quickly.
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