Productive Procrastination

The past few weeks, it feels like procrastination is everywhere. It might just be the frequency illusion — but it’s on my mind, so I need to write about it.

Not too long ago, I finished a video on my channel, a couple of days after filming. Even though my regular schedule would require me to upload videos from an older trip, I disguised the video as a special to work on it close to the trip and just upload it. And I loved it.

It was productive. A new video got published. It felt good.

It just wasn’t the one thing I absolutely have to do: finish my older videos.

It would be great to have those videos finished. I enjoy working on them. It’s a thing I love. Yet I avoid it.

If I can understand the answer to these questions:

• Why is it more fun to work on a new project than one that’s been around?
• Why do we avoid the work we actually have to do?

I might be able to figure out a way to solve my procrastination issue.

The productivity matrix

Casey Neistat, one of my favourite YouTubers, recently made a video about this. We all know we should be doing X but we do Y, to feel productive. He mentions a productivity matrix representing four different categories.

The categories are really Casey-style, descriptive and casual, but he makes a valid point here. We should all have our items falling into each of these categories. It happens to me too — video games, TV shows or administration, to avoid the thing I should be doing. But that doesn’t really happen a lot, and isn’t necessarily my problem here.

I’m still being productive, and I want to do the things I do while being productive. So according to this matrix, that would fall in the top right category. Which is good. The issue is that I’m productive and having fun, but still, I’m aware it’s not the thing I should be focusing on.

There’s no category for that in this matrix.

Let’s call it productive procrastination.

Your brain is protecting you

Let’s figure out what’s happening here. When doing research, the general consensus is that procrastination comes from a collision between two systems in our brains.

The first system being the limbic system, or more specifically the amygdala, an area of our brains which plays a central role in the processing and memory of emotions. It processes threats, rewards and emotions.

The second system is the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is more deliberate: planning, impulse control and long-term reasoning.

So, when we’re not procrastinating, the prefrontal cortex is doing its task properly: we’re controlling our impulses, acting as planned and thinking long-term. The problem is when a task triggers a significant negative emotion — anxiety, boredom, fear of failure — the amygdala takes over and we try to avoid this negative emotion.

So, in general, that’s what’s happening. Our brains are protecting us from the negative emotions related to that task. A logical conclusion would be to address the negative emotions associated with the main task.

Rewarding novelty

But that can’t be all. Brains are complicated, there’s different systems in play here. In my case, I am still being productive, just not on the tasks that I should be focusing on.

I believe this has to do with the novelty of the tasks. For my video editing hobby I make motorcycle travel videos. The closer to the actual date, the more motivated I am to finish a video. The more time there is between the first recording of a video and the time I spend working on the video, the less efficient I work.

I’ve gathered the data for my 20 published videos. The data shows that my output drops as the amount of days from the initial recording increases. Also note that the "specials" have a slightly higher output. So, I’ve been less interested in working on the older projects than working on the newer projects.

What does science say?

Reward system

Our brain’s reward system is mainly focused around dopamine. Dopamine is released in response to reward-predictive cues. Immediately available stimuli generate stronger signals than abstract future stimuli.

More specifically, our brain responds specifically to stimulus novelty. Novel stimuli trigger a hippocampal to ventral tegmental area loop enhancing learning and memory. In contrast, familiar stimuli trigger repetition suppression, dampening our brain’s response to stimuli we’ve already encountered.

Moral licensing

Past ‘good’ behaviour generates the psychological permission to start ‘bad’ behaviour (Monin and Miller, 2001). Completing several productive tasks (but not the main task), can trick us into believing we’ve already accomplished a lot. Working on these other tasks that are actually productive, my brain gets deceived into thinking that I’ve been productive — so there’s no need to work on the main task.

Zeigarnik Effect

The Zeigarnik Effect states that unfinished tasks persist in working memory, creating cognitive tension. Our brains are remembering the unfinished tasks better than the finished ones. It bothers us, unfinished tasks.