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The Science of Procrastination


Are you an award-winning procrastinator like me?

By definition, procrastination is ‘the avoidance of work or necessary tasks by focusing on more satisfying activities that are due to a chemical in the brain.’

I know you procrastinate. You sometimes put your job for tomorrow and focus on something that rewards you with satisfying dopamine secretion. We all do that, even Elon Mask does that! The difference between my and Elon Mask’s definition of procrastination is – successful people call it prioritizing!

Why am I sleepy all day? Since it is 2020 probably…

Last night I came across a wonderful article where the author scientifically described the science of procrastination. I would avoid medical jargon and tell you what actually makes us procrastinate.

To be precise, there are two lobes in our brain – namely the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for planning and decision-making. Whereas, the limbic system controls the execution of those plans. Every day we have to depend on synchronous coordination between those two brain parts, but sometimes, they trick us by secreting a happy hormone named dopamine.

Our brain is usually dragging us down from doing any task

Time for an example. Today I was lying on my bed thinking that I shall write a business proposal letter today for a corporate deal. Certainly, my prefrontal cortex stimulated that thought and ignited a plan initiation in my mind. But you know what, within 30 minutes I fall asleep. All these happened at 10.00 am (I wake up at 7 am)

Why does this happen?

Basically, our brain is designed to procrastinate. When I was a child, my limbic system grew much stronger than my prefrontal cortex. I only focused on job execution rather than making a quantified plan. Eventually, when I went to school, I started thinking and planning, and my prefrontal cortex developed accordingly.

Now you can guess, for most of us, we fail to outperform our limbic system while commanding it to execute a plan. It deceives by convincing us, ‘look, here is a more rewarding task to do. Let’s sleep or play a video game. You will feel happier by doing so.’

And we fall into the trap!

It is a lifelong cycle for us. You hardly can get rid of it.

Sometimes you need to procrastinate to find yourself

How to stop procrastination?

One easy rule for stopping procrastination is to specify your plan and goal. When I thought about writing my business proposal letter, I was not quantifying my tasks by adding specific terms and conditions. Rather, I thought about a vague proposition and my mind immediately wandered around without focusing on it.

A better approach towards goal specification would have been –

What to write: A proposal letter to X agency describing our company’s business prospects and partnership opportunities.

When to write: Today at 10 am

How to write: First, study about the company, find the personal leads in that company who can help you, and then try to connect with them via LinkedIn. After that, write an effective letter complying with all business communication rules and norms

Agent of Procrastination:

Usually, we all plan multiple tasks to do at the same time. Our brain is not designed to be a juggler. As a result, we fail to focus on a single thing thinking, ‘Well, I have other important tasks to do. I shall finish this job later.’

This sense of putting things down for doing something more important eventually leads us towards chain procrastination. We end up doing nothing for the lack of specific plans and a definite course of action.

I wanted to finish today’s write-up with a famous procrastination joke. Hmm, Okay, let me tell you the story another day!

Here are some procrastination memes for you folks, enjoy while you are procrastinating (I know you are)

This is definitely me!


Typical Weekends



Panda is my spirit animal, well, sometimes



A rare picture of mine

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Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh

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