Stop Wasting your Time! | The Scientific Way | Dhruv Rathee

0:00Hello, friends!

0:00All of us have an aim in life.

0:03If you're a college student,

0:06you have assignments you need to complete.

0:08If your exams are approaching,

0:10you will promise yourself that you'll do your best to prepare for the exams,

0:13so that you can top the exam.

0:15If you are looking for a job,

0:17you want to prepare for the job.

0:20*Why don't you do it?*

0:25*We're waiting for you to do it.*

0:28It takes no time for us to decide

0:30what we want to achieve,

0:31but then we don't really do what we ought to.

0:33There's an inherent feeling that tells you

0:36that you can do it tomorrow.

0:38and that it's okay if you relax for a while on Instagram,

0:42scroll through the web, or watch comedy videos on YouTube.

0:45While we put off things for tomorrow, we end up wasting time today.

0:48And tomorrow never arrives.

0:49There's an English word for it.

0:52Why do humans procrastinate?

0:56In today's video, let's try to understand it from a scientific perspective

0:59the psychology behind procrastination

1:03and find the real solution to it.

1:05"Today, we'll talk about laziness."

1:08"I've always been lazy, my parents are trying to change me, but they're also lazy."

1:12"Such people have to strong desire to rest."

1:16"Nothing will happen in the end."

1:17"You will fail in your comfort zone."

1:19"Tomorrow I'll be doing what I was supposed to do 2 days ago."

1:21"What goes on in the heads of procrastinators, why we are the way we are?"

1:24"Rich people don't sleep 8 hours a day."

1:26"They leave everything up to God, they simply eat and sleep."

1:33Friends, in this video, I won't be giving you a motivational lecture,

1:36because I believe that motivation is a short-lived phenomenon.

1:39If you feel motivated after watching a video,

1:42and start working powered with that motivation

1:44you will work well for the next few hours,

1:46at most, you will be motivated for the next 2-3 days,

1:49but then the motivation would come crashing down,

1:52and you stop working.

1:54Here, we'd use science to go to the root cause of procrastination.

1:58Dr Piers Steel is one of the leading researchers in the world,

2:01on the science of motivation and procrastination.

2:03He has been studying this science for over 10 years.

2:07He believes that procrastination isn't a problem which

2:10is seen exclusively in this era.

2:12It has existed for ages.

2:13Thousands of years ago, in 1400 BC,

2:17Egyptian hieroglyphs have been found,

2:19that talk about it.

2:21A University of Toronto Egyptologist translated this

2:25"Friend, stop putting off work

2:27and allow us to go home in good time."

2:29About 600 years after this, in 800 BC,

2:33an ancient Greek poet had said something similar.

2:43In India, centuries ago, Sant Kabir had famously said,

2:48you'd recall this.

2:49"Work today instead of putting it off for tomorrow,

2:50Work now, instead of putting it off for later,

2:51If a catastrophe strikes now,

2:53when will you prepare for it."

2:54He clearly tells you not to put off work for tomorrow,

2:57not even for later in the day,

2:59or else, if everything will end in a moment,

3:01you won't be able to finish what you had set out to do.

3:02This has been reiterated by many poets and motivational speakers in history.

3:06But we have gotten worse.

3:09According to Dr Steel,

3:10in the last 40 years,

3:12there has been a 300% to 400% growth in chronic procrastination.

3:16Today, half the population in the world,

3:18procrastinates.

3:19They procrastinate frequently.

3:22But why do we do so?

3:23We need to dig deeper.

3:25Think about the things you procrastinate doing.

3:28When you have to prepare for an exam

3:31or for a job interview,

3:33you procrastinate.

3:34But have you ever procrastinated while scrolling on Instagram?

3:38Or while watching a comedy video on YouTube?

3:40Nope.

3:41We procrastinate if it is an office project.

3:44Or for exercising.

3:45Or if it is something emotional, we'll procrastinate.

3:49"When I need to say something important

3:51when I have to keep a promise,

3:53when I have to reach out to someone,

3:55when I have to reconnect with someone,

3:57I am always late."

4:00Basically, we procrastinate when it is something important.

4:04Something that requires a lot of effort.

4:07Physical, mental, or emotional effort.

4:09We replace that task with something

4:13that is easier and more interesting for us.

4:16Such as browsing on social media.

4:18Or watching a film.

4:19Here, deadlines play an important role.

4:22If there is a deadline for our task,

4:24wherein we need to finish it before the deadline,

4:27we procrastinate until we reach the deadline.

4:30Suppose we have to make a presentation and submit it tomorrow,

4:33even this morning, you'll feel like procrastinating and scrolling through Instagram.

4:39Only for 5 minutes before you begin the project.

4:41And we're very familiar with how

4:43the 5 minutes turn into 1 hour without us finding out.

4:46I have talked about this in detail in the video on Social Media.

4:49These websites have been designed in a way that

4:51even if you spend a little time on them,

4:54it sucks you in,

4:55and this little time turns into a long time.

4:57But even if you start working 1 hour later,

5:01you'll be hungry and start raiding your fridge,

5:04so that you can get the energy to study.

5:06But after eating, you would want to set the mood to be productive.

5:10To do so, you will start watching comedy videos on YouTube.

5:14Another hour wasted in it,

5:16and you start feeling tired,

5:18so you think that it's better to take a shower, get freshen up before starting work.

5:23Hours pass by and day turns into night,

5:26and then an alarm goes off in your mind,

5:28you are left with 12 hours only, you need to finish it somehow.

5:31When it is time to sleep,

5:33you start making the presentation,

5:35you stay awake the whole night and work on it till the last minute.

5:39Several studies have been conducted on college students

5:41Such as the study by Ellis and Knaus in 1977

5:45or by O'Brien in 2002.

5:47According to these, approximately 80% to 90% of college students

5:51procrastinate.

5:53But in college at least, we're given a deadline

5:56so that somehow or the other we complete our work by the end moment,

5:59but what happens when there are no deadlines?

6:02Friends, in such cases, the procrastination may continue infinitely.

6:06There is no end to procrastination.

6:08Wasting time in college meant that

6:10you don't get good marks,

6:12or you may not get a good job,

6:14these aren't crucial.

6:15But procrastinating later in life would mean

6:18that your life may be full of regrets.

6:21If you had a dream of trying your hand at filmmaking,

6:25to quit your job and become a filmmaker,

6:27but you never actually try to make it happen.

6:30You would have heard elders say something like

6:33they wanted to become great at something when they were younger,

6:37and that they couldn't do it because of circumstances.

6:40They say that they used to have big dreams.

6:42Often, they blame the circumstances.

6:45But they know that they didn't try.

6:49They are now stuck with a permanent 'What If' feeling.

6:52To procrastinate on fitness and exercising means

6:54you will eventually gain weight

6:57nothing major,

6:58if you start eating healthy and start exercising,

7:02within a few months or years, you can lose weight once again.

7:05But if you continue procrastinating for years,

7:08one day it will come as a shock

7:10that you have diabetes,

7:11or you'd be told that you need to put in a stunt in your heart.

7:16Some people don't even get this chance.

7:18They get sudden heart strokes and lose their lives.

7:22Apart from this, the consequences of procrastinating on emotional stuff are severe.

7:26You might dream of taking your grandparents

7:30on an aeroplane one day,

7:34but that day may not come.

7:36If you keep procrastinating about this,

7:39one day you will find out that they passed away.

7:41As a result, you'll be left with heavy regret.

7:44Disappointment over these.

7:46It is not only about lifetime regret,

7:48it brings in stress, anxiety, and depression as well.

7:51The thing you want to do, and the thing you are doing,

7:54if there's a huge gap between the two,

7:55there will be a mental conflict within you,

7:57this can be termed Cognitive Dissonance.

8:00In a study conducted in a German university on more than 1,000 people,

8:04it was found that due to procrastination,

8:06there are high levels of stress, depression, anxiety, fatigue,

8:10it impacts everything.

8:12Another feeling that accompanies procrastination is guilt.

8:18If we aren't happy with procrastination,

8:22why do we do it?

8:23Scientists have come up with 4 theories for it.

8:26The first is the Expectancy Theory.

8:28Given by Victor Harold Vroom in 1964,

8:31according to this theory, the motivation of a person to do a task

8:36depends upon the expectation of the person with the result.

8:41The chances of achieving the result of the task are low,

8:45the motivation to do the task will also be low.

8:48For example,

8:49suppose your school or college tells you

8:52that the person who'll get the first rank in the class

8:55will get a reward of ₹1 million,

8:57will you get motivated to study hard?

9:00Will you work to get the 1st rank?

9:04If you are someone that scores high in your class,

9:08and you know that you are always in the top 10,

9:11you know that you have a high chance to win this prize money.

9:15If so, you will study as diligently as you can,

9:18and will start working immediately to get the 1st rank.

9:20But if you are someone,

9:22that lags behind in class,

9:23you don't get good marks,

9:26and rank in the bottom,

9:27and you know there are more diligent and intelligent students in class,

9:31then you know that you have a low chance of winning the prize money.

9:34And so your motivation to study will be low as well.

9:37There is a direct relation

9:40of the level of your motivation to the expectancy of the result.

9:43Remember this.

9:44Now let's talk about the second theory.

9:46The second theory is the need theory.

9:48Coined in the 1960s, by famous psychologist David McClelland.

9:53He says that there are 3 types of needs of people.

10:01Affiliations mean the need for social relationships.

10:07Depending upon your personality

10:09your most vital need depends on you.

10:14If you are given a task that matches your psychological needs,

10:18you will be more motivated to do it.

10:21Let's take another example.

10:23What do you think our politicians need the most?

10:30Power.

10:31Every one of them wants to rule,

10:33this shows their strong desire for power.

10:35If they are given a task related to that need,

10:39they will rush to complete the task.

10:41Their motivation will be through the roof.

10:43But on the other hand, if they are tasked

10:45with working for the people,

10:47since they do not have a strong need for that,

10:49they will procrastinate on that task.

10:52Similarly, you have to figure out your dominant need.

10:55Your psychological needs.

10:57If you have a strong need for power,

10:59you will want to succeed at your job,

11:02in such cases, if you are given a task to get a job promotion,

11:06you will have the highest level of motivation to do that task.

11:08Understand your needs and look at your tasks from that perspective.

11:13Another example is if you have a strong need for affiliation,

11:16it means that you respect building connections with people,

11:20for maintaining relationships with people,

11:23their respect and their approval, are of higher priority,

11:26then you'll excel at the tasks related to team work.

11:31The third theory is the Cumulative Prospect Theory.

11:35This was coined in 1992 by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.

11:40This theory talks of mainly 2 things.

11:42First is loss aversion.

11:44It means that if at the same magnitude, you will face a profit or a loss,

11:48it would be significant for you,

11:50and you derive motivation from it.

11:53Loss of a particular magnitude,

11:55weighs more heavily than

11:56a gain of the same magnitude.

11:57The example of exercising that I cited a while back,

12:00If I tell you to exercise,

12:02so that you are fit and build muscles,

12:04the motivation you get from this will only be a little.

12:08But if I tell you to exercise,

12:11because your test results reveal that you will soon become diabetic,

12:15and if the doctor says that if you don't exercise,

12:18you might suffer a heart attack within the next year,

12:20and that by exercising you can prevent this from happening,

12:22your motivation will be much higher than in the last example.

12:27Similarly, in another example,

12:29if I tell you to do something in order to secure a promotion,

12:33or if I tell you to do something or else you'll be fired from your job,

12:38in which case will you be motivated more?

12:40Most people think that

12:42it's okay whether they get something extra or not,

12:45they shouldn't suffer any losses.

12:47They don't want to lose what they have.

12:49The second thing that this theory talks about,

12:51is that when we're talking about gains and losses,

12:54it is all relative.

12:55The reference point is different for different people.

12:58If a person living in a slum

13:00is working diligently to prepare for a job interview,

13:03if he gets the job it will improve his life,

13:06On the other hand, another person, who is the child of a landlord,

13:09living comfortably and not lacking money,

13:12is preparing for the same job interview,

13:15and if he gets the job, it wouldn't make much difference to his life,

13:18think about it, of these two, who will feel more motivated?

13:23Now let's see the fourth and the last theory.

13:26Hyperbolic Discounting Theory.

13:28It basically means that the reward that we can get immediately,

13:32we'll want to work for those rewards,

13:34as compared to the rewards that we can get after some time.

13:38There's a Hindi proverb about it too.

13:41₹9 in cash is better than ₹13 as a contingency.

13:43Who can guarantee the future?

13:44You need to hold on to the things that you have now.

13:48In contrast to this, you will have heard statements like,

13:51'Don't Be Shortsighted.'

13:52'Look at the larger picture.'

13:54'Have a vision.'

13:55'Think of the future.'

13:56Thinking about the long term is good,

13:58but we are more motivated

14:02when we work on something that guarantees instant gratification.

14:05Friends, these four theories,

14:07have been combined in 2006

14:11to form a meta-theory.

14:13By Dr Piers Steel and Dr Cornelius J. König.

14:16This combined theory was named the Temporal Motivation Theory.

14:20According to this combined theory,

14:22your motivation to do a task,

14:25will not come from watching a motivational video,

14:27you will get the motivation to work,

14:29when your personal need,

14:32matches the work and the reward of the work.

14:35When you expect that you can actually do the task,

14:38and win the reward.

14:40When the reward you get after completing the task,

14:42is higher than your reference line.

14:45When the reward means something to you.

14:47And finally, you want the reward as soon as possible without much delay.

14:50If all these factors are combined,

14:53you will not procrastinate.

14:55This can also be represented as a mathematical formula.

15:06If you go a level further from procrastination and motivation,

15:10and want to eliminate the habit of wasting time in your life,

15:14I have built a 2-hour long detailed practical course for it.

15:19In it, I have shared tips on time management, productivity,

15:21and overall happiness in life,

15:24which I apply in my life,

15:27which enables me to do so much.

15:28Putting up a Shorts video every day,

15:30Regular videos on the main channel,

15:35you can do it now,

15:38and let's get back to the topic.

15:40Some scientists have criticised this theory

15:43saying that this theory doesn't cover everything.

15:46Psychologists Tim Pychyl and J. R. Ferrari,

15:49have been against this theory.

15:51They claim that if everything related to motivation is so rational,

15:55if we use this formula to calculate the motivation to watch a YouTube video,

15:59and the motivation to study,

16:02obviously, the motivation to watch YouTube videos would be higher.

16:04So why do people experience guilt over it?

16:07Why do people feel bad when they are doing something

16:10that they are more motivated to do?

16:12These two psychologists argued that

16:14in addition to these factors,

16:16there is another factor contributing to procrastination.

16:19The factor of Fear of Failure.

16:21We are scared of failing.

16:23That's why we procrastinate.

16:25They claimed this in 2012.

16:27If we set aside the other factors,

16:30some people are still not motivated to work,

16:33because they are scared that they'd fail in the task,

16:37so they put aside the task and start doing something else.

16:40So what's the conclusion of all of this?

16:42What is the solution to procrastination?

16:45How do we stop procrastination?

16:47The solution to it can be found in these theories.

16:49The new theories that are seen as a counter

16:53are not against the previous theories.

16:55The actual reason behind procrastination can be any of these.

16:58Sometimes it is low expectations,

17:00or the needs not matching,

17:02or even the fear of failure.

17:05Friends, the thing is that once you understand these causes,

17:08and you use it to identify the reason you procrastinate,

17:13the reason why you put off working on things you shouldn't.

17:16Then you can curate a solution for yourself.

17:19First of all, empty your thoughts, and take a pen and paper.

17:23And ask yourself.

17:25Why are you procrastinating?

17:29Only when you write down the cause,

17:31you will be able to find the solution to it,

17:33identifying the problem,

17:35is half the solution.

17:37If you are procrastinating at work,

17:39thinking that your task is insignificant,

17:44and your lack of motivation,

17:45then recall loss aversion.

17:47Remind yourself that not doing the task may lead to you being fired.

17:51And then think about the consequences of being jobless.

17:55If you lack motivation because

17:58even after studying hard, you know that you cannot get to the top ranks,

18:02then go do something where you are confident

18:05that you can perform well in that field of study

18:08or something that you like a lot

18:10and where you can get good results.

18:13If you are preparing for a major exam,

18:15and the reward seems very far-fetched.

18:17Or if you'll get the reward only after 2 years,

18:20then you need to divide the process into smaller steps.

18:24After each step, give yourself a small reward.

18:27So that you can get some instant gratification.

18:30If you are scared about taking an important decision,

18:33if you are afraid of failing,

18:36remember that not trying is worse than failing.

18:41We are scared of failure,

18:43because we have so much ego.

18:44We are scared that if we fail, what would the others say?

18:47If I wanted to be a filmmaker,

18:50and went to Mumbai but couldn't become one,

18:53what would my friends say?

18:54"You went to Mumbai to be a filmmaker

18:57but you couldn't be one.

18:58I had warned you against leaving your job,

19:01but you didn't listen to me."

19:02Many people are scared of such statements.

19:05For this, we need to understand that

19:07our ego is the most useless thing in life.

19:09If we are absorbed with what others say about us,

19:13if we keep building our life based on the expectations of other people,

19:16we will regret it later.

19:18I had talked about regrets earlier in this video,

19:20about the regrets, people have to deal with later in their lives.

19:24Remember, you too might have to face those.

19:27In 1995, Gilovich and Medvec,

19:30came up with the Temporal Theory of Regret.

19:32According to this theory,

19:33actions may produce greater regret in the short term,

19:36but inaction will generate more regret in the long run.

19:39If you do something now,

19:41you may end up doing something that you will regret in the short term,

19:46but not doing something will give you more regret in the long term.

19:50If you quit your job and follow your dream,

19:53and then fail,

19:54you will regret it less than

19:56if you had never left your job,

20:01the last obstacle between procrastination and you,

20:04are the distractions.

20:06Social media, your phone,

20:08this is the last thing I am talking about,

20:10because if the other reasons and obstacles to motivation I told you about

20:14is clear to you,

20:16you will hardly if ever, be distracted by the distractions.

20:19But if you are still distracted by things like social media,

20:23you should watch this video.

20:24In this, I have talked about how you can deal with social media addiction scientifically.

20:29Thank you very much!