Procrastination Is More About Managing Emotions Than Time, Says Study (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: [A new study] identified two areas of the brain that determine whether we are more likely to get on with a task or continually put it off. Researchers used a survey and scans of 264 people's brains to measure how proactive they were. Experts say the study, in Psychological Science, underlines procrastination is more about managing emotions than time. It found that the amygdala -- an almond-shaped structure in the temporal (side) lobe which processes our emotions and controls our motivation -- was larger in procrastinators. In these individuals, there were also poorer connections between the amygdala and a part of the brain called the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (DACC). The DACC uses information from the amygdala and decides what action the body will take. It helps keep the person on track by blocking out competing emotions and distractions. The researchers suggest that procrastinators are less able to filter out interfering emotions and distractions because the connections between the amygdala and the DACC in their brains are not as good as in proactive individuals.

Comments

Meh - Known 2,000 Years Ago

[moehoward]

Been there, done that. The Stoics exactly figured this out 2,000 years ago. Go read Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus or Seneca on procrastination. It is all about emotion. This is not news... to me.

Re:Meh - Known 2,000 Years Ago

[gweihir]

While science rediscovering things is somewhat embarrassing for the researchers involved, it is better than when these known things stay hidden from most people. In this case, they delivered additional evidence for a known thing, and that is proper, valuable scientific progress.

Procrastination isn't bad, failing to complete is

[j-beda]

This was an interesting article on how most discussions of procrastination stigmatize the action of putting tasks off, even in cases where doing so causes no harm. Studies seem to indicate that a large fraction of the population "procrastinates" while still successfully completing tasks. These people may have no problems with their lives beyond the stress of people who want them to do things sooner because those people can't stand to see people work at the last minute. Treating all procrastinators as if they "have a problem" probably causes more harm than it prevents.

https://www.psychologytoday.co...

Re:Procrastination isn't bad, failing to complete

[gweihir]

Actually, it is my preferred approach to anything difficult that needs insight. The thing that happens is that some limited initial look at the problem subconscious keeps working on the problem and throws me ideas at a low rate. At some time I have everything needed for a good solution and can get to work very efficiently. I can start working on such things immediately, but it takes more work and the results are worse. Would not surprise me one bit if there were quite a few other people out there that use this approach as well.

Interesting

[ruddk]

I’ll have to take a look at that article later