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

Hello, friends! All of us have an aim in life. If you're a college student, you have assignments you need to complete. If your exams are approaching, you will promise yourself that you'll do your best to prepare for the exams, so that you can top the exam. If you are looking for a job, you want to prepare for the job. *Why don't you do it?* *We're waiting for you to do it.* It takes no time for us to decide what we want to achieve, but then we don't really do what we ought to. There's an inheren

t feeling that tells you that you can do it tomorrow. and that it's okay if you relax for a while on Instagram, scroll through the web, or watch comedy videos on YouTube. While we put off things for tomorrow, we end up wasting time today. And tomorrow never arrives. There's an English word for it. Why do humans procrastinate? In today's video, let's try to understand it from a scientific perspective the psychology behind procrastination and find the real solution to it. "Today, we'll talk about

laziness." "I've always been lazy, my parents are trying to change me, but they're also lazy." "Such people have to strong desire to rest." "Nothing will happen in the end." "You will fail in your comfort zone." "Tomorrow I'll be doing what I was supposed to do 2 days ago." "What goes on in the heads of procrastinators, why we are the way we are?" "Rich people don't sleep 8 hours a day." "They leave everything up to God, they simply eat and sleep." Friends, in this video, I won't be giving you a

motivational lecture, because I believe that motivation is a short-lived phenomenon. If you feel motivated after watching a video, and start working powered with that motivation you will work well for the next few hours, at most, you will be motivated for the next 2-3 days, but then the motivation would come crashing down, and you stop working. Here, we'd use science to go to the root cause of procrastination. Dr Piers Steel is one of the leading researchers in the world, on the science of moti

vation and procrastination. He has been studying this science for over 10 years. He believes that procrastination isn't a problem which is seen exclusively in this era. It has existed for ages. Thousands of years ago, in 1400 BC, Egyptian hieroglyphs have been found, that talk about it. A University of Toronto Egyptologist translated this "Friend, stop putting off work and allow us to go home in good time." About 600 years after this, in 800 BC, an ancient Greek poet had said something similar.

In India, centuries ago, Sant Kabir had famously said, you'd recall this. "Work today instead of putting it off for tomorrow, Work now, instead of putting it off for later, If a catastrophe strikes now, when will you prepare for it." He clearly tells you not to put off work for tomorrow, not even for later in the day, or else, if everything will end in a moment, you won't be able to finish what you had set out to do. This has been reiterated by many poets and motivational speakers in history. Bu

t we have gotten worse. According to Dr Steel, in the last 40 years, there has been a 300% to 400% growth in chronic procrastination. Today, half the population in the world, procrastinates. They procrastinate frequently. But why do we do so? We need to dig deeper. Think about the things you procrastinate doing. When you have to prepare for an exam or for a job interview, you procrastinate. But have you ever procrastinated while scrolling on Instagram? Or while watching a comedy video on YouTube

? Nope. We procrastinate if it is an office project. Or for exercising. Or if it is something emotional, we'll procrastinate. "When I need to say something important when I have to keep a promise, when I have to reach out to someone, when I have to reconnect with someone, I am always late." Basically, we procrastinate when it is something important. Something that requires a lot of effort. Physical, mental, or emotional effort. We replace that task with something that is easier and more interest

ing for us. Such as browsing on social media. Or watching a film. Here, deadlines play an important role. If there is a deadline for our task, wherein we need to finish it before the deadline, we procrastinate until we reach the deadline. Suppose we have to make a presentation and submit it tomorrow, even this morning, you'll feel like procrastinating and scrolling through Instagram. Only for 5 minutes before you begin the project. And we're very familiar with how the 5 minutes turn into 1 hour

without us finding out. I have talked about this in detail in the video on Social Media. These websites have been designed in a way that even if you spend a little time on them, it sucks you in, and this little time turns into a long time. But even if you start working 1 hour later, you'll be hungry and start raiding your fridge, so that you can get the energy to study. But after eating, you would want to set the mood to be productive. To do so, you will start watching comedy videos on YouTube.

Another hour wasted in it, and you start feeling tired, so you think that it's better to take a shower, get freshen up before starting work. Hours pass by and day turns into night, and then an alarm goes off in your mind, you are left with 12 hours only, you need to finish it somehow. When it is time to sleep, you start making the presentation, you stay awake the whole night and work on it till the last minute. Several studies have been conducted on college students Such as the study by Ellis an

d Knaus in 1977 or by O'Brien in 2002. According to these, approximately 80% to 90% of college students procrastinate. But in college at least, we're given a deadline so that somehow or the other we complete our work by the end moment, but what happens when there are no deadlines? Friends, in such cases, the procrastination may continue infinitely. There is no end to procrastination. Wasting time in college meant that you don't get good marks, or you may not get a good job, these aren't crucial.

But procrastinating later in life would mean that your life may be full of regrets. If you had a dream of trying your hand at filmmaking, to quit your job and become a filmmaker, but you never actually try to make it happen. You would have heard elders say something like they wanted to become great at something when they were younger, and that they couldn't do it because of circumstances. They say that they used to have big dreams. Often, they blame the circumstances. But they know that they di

dn't try. They are now stuck with a permanent 'What If' feeling. To procrastinate on fitness and exercising means you will eventually gain weight nothing major, if you start eating healthy and start exercising, within a few months or years, you can lose weight once again. But if you continue procrastinating for years, one day it will come as a shock that you have diabetes, or you'd be told that you need to put in a stunt in your heart. Some people don't even get this chance. They get sudden hear

t strokes and lose their lives. Apart from this, the consequences of procrastinating on emotional stuff are severe. You might dream of taking your grandparents on an aeroplane one day, but that day may not come. If you keep procrastinating about this, one day you will find out that they passed away. As a result, you'll be left with heavy regret. Disappointment over these. It is not only about lifetime regret, it brings in stress, anxiety, and depression as well. The thing you want to do, and the

thing you are doing, if there's a huge gap between the two, there will be a mental conflict within you, this can be termed Cognitive Dissonance. In a study conducted in a German university on more than 1,000 people, it was found that due to procrastination, there are high levels of stress, depression, anxiety, fatigue, it impacts everything. Another feeling that accompanies procrastination is guilt. If we aren't happy with procrastination, why do we do it? Scientists have come up with 4 theorie

s for it. The first is the Expectancy Theory. Given by Victor Harold Vroom in 1964, according to this theory, the motivation of a person to do a task depends upon the expectation of the person with the result. The chances of achieving the result of the task are low, the motivation to do the task will also be low. For example, suppose your school or college tells you that the person who'll get the first rank in the class will get a reward of ₹1 million, will you get motivated to study hard? Will

you work to get the 1st rank? If you are someone that scores high in your class, and you know that you are always in the top 10, you know that you have a high chance to win this prize money. If so, you will study as diligently as you can, and will start working immediately to get the 1st rank. But if you are someone, that lags behind in class, you don't get good marks, and rank in the bottom, and you know there are more diligent and intelligent students in class, then you know that you have a lo

w chance of winning the prize money. And so your motivation to study will be low as well. There is a direct relation of the level of your motivation to the expectancy of the result. Remember this. Now let's talk about the second theory. The second theory is the need theory. Coined in the 1960s, by famous psychologist David McClelland. He says that there are 3 types of needs of people. Affiliations mean the need for social relationships. Depending upon your personality your most vital need depend

s on you. If you are given a task that matches your psychological needs, you will be more motivated to do it. Let's take another example. What do you think our politicians need the most? Power. Every one of them wants to rule, this shows their strong desire for power. If they are given a task related to that need, they will rush to complete the task. Their motivation will be through the roof. But on the other hand, if they are tasked with working for the people, since they do not have a strong n

eed for that, they will procrastinate on that task. Similarly, you have to figure out your dominant need. Your psychological needs. If you have a strong need for power, you will want to succeed at your job, in such cases, if you are given a task to get a job promotion, you will have the highest level of motivation to do that task. Understand your needs and look at your tasks from that perspective. Another example is if you have a strong need for affiliation, it means that you respect building co

nnections with people, for maintaining relationships with people, their respect and their approval, are of higher priority, then you'll excel at the tasks related to team work. The third theory is the Cumulative Prospect Theory. This was coined in 1992 by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. This theory talks of mainly 2 things. First is loss aversion. It means that if at the same magnitude, you will face a profit or a loss, it would be significant for you, and you derive motivation from it. Loss o

f a particular magnitude, weighs more heavily than a gain of the same magnitude. The example of exercising that I cited a while back, If I tell you to exercise, so that you are fit and build muscles, the motivation you get from this will only be a little. But if I tell you to exercise, because your test results reveal that you will soon become diabetic, and if the doctor says that if you don't exercise, you might suffer a heart attack within the next year, and that by exercising you can prevent

this from happening, your motivation will be much higher than in the last example. Similarly, in another example, if I tell you to do something in order to secure a promotion, or if I tell you to do something or else you'll be fired from your job, in which case will you be motivated more? Most people think that it's okay whether they get something extra or not, they shouldn't suffer any losses. They don't want to lose what they have. The second thing that this theory talks about, is that when we

're talking about gains and losses, it is all relative. The reference point is different for different people. If a person living in a slum is working diligently to prepare for a job interview, if he gets the job it will improve his life, On the other hand, another person, who is the child of a landlord, living comfortably and not lacking money, is preparing for the same job interview, and if he gets the job, it wouldn't make much difference to his life, think about it, of these two, who will fe

el more motivated? Now let's see the fourth and the last theory. Hyperbolic Discounting Theory. It basically means that the reward that we can get immediately, we'll want to work for those rewards, as compared to the rewards that we can get after some time. There's a Hindi proverb about it too. ₹9 in cash is better than ₹13 as a contingency. Who can guarantee the future? You need to hold on to the things that you have now. In contrast to this, you will have heard statements like, 'Don't Be Short

sighted.' 'Look at the larger picture.' 'Have a vision.' 'Think of the future.' Thinking about the long term is good, but we are more motivated when we work on something that guarantees instant gratification. Friends, these four theories, have been combined in 2006 to form a meta-theory. By Dr Piers Steel and Dr Cornelius J. König. This combined theory was named the Temporal Motivation Theory. According to this combined theory, your motivation to do a task, will not come from watching a motivati

onal video, you will get the motivation to work, when your personal need, matches the work and the reward of the work. When you expect that you can actually do the task, and win the reward. When the reward you get after completing the task, is higher than your reference line. When the reward means something to you. And finally, you want the reward as soon as possible without much delay. If all these factors are combined, you will not procrastinate. This can also be represented as a mathematical

formula. If you go a level further from procrastination and motivation, and want to eliminate the habit of wasting time in your life, I have built a 2-hour long detailed practical course for it. In it, I have shared tips on time management, productivity, and overall happiness in life, which I apply in my life, which enables me to do so much. Putting up a Shorts video every day, Regular videos on the main channel, the vlog channel, and travelling. Last month when I told you about this course, abo

ut 1,500 people among you have joined it, and I got such amazing reviews. Many of you said that this course was life-changing for you. In this course, you will get day-to-day experiences, live sessions, a community chat group, trainers to explain things, and a Live Q&A Session with me. Where you can directly ask me questions. I'm happy to announce that the next class will begin on 13th August. So those of you who haven't joined the course yet, you can do it now, the link to it is the description

below. Not only will there be one-sided lectures but you will also be given regular homework, so that you can apply these techniques to your life. the first 1,000 people of you to join, will get a discount of ₹1,000 so don't procrastinate on it and let's get back to the topic. Some scientists have criticised this theory saying that this theory doesn't cover everything. Psychologists Tim Pychyl and J. R. Ferrari, have been against this theory. They claim that if everything related to motivation

is so rational, if we use this formula to calculate the motivation to watch a YouTube video, and the motivation to study, obviously, the motivation to watch YouTube videos would be higher. So why do people experience guilt over it? Why do people feel bad when they are doing something that they are more motivated to do? These two psychologists argued that in addition to these factors, there is another factor contributing to procrastination. The factor of Fear of Failure. We are scared of failing.

That's why we procrastinate. They claimed this in 2012. If we set aside the other factors, some people are still not motivated to work, because they are scared that they'd fail in the task, so they put aside the task and start doing something else. So what's the conclusion of all of this? What is the solution to procrastination? How do we stop procrastination? The solution to it can be found in these theories. The new theories that are seen as a counter are not against the previous theories. Th

e actual reason behind procrastination can be any of these. Sometimes it is low expectations, or the needs not matching, or even the fear of failure. Friends, the thing is that once you understand these causes, and you use it to identify the reason you procrastinate, the reason why you put off working on things you shouldn't. Then you can curate a solution for yourself. First of all, empty your thoughts, and take a pen and paper. And ask yourself. Why are you procrastinating? Only when you write

down the cause, you will be able to find the solution to it, identifying the problem, is half the solution. If you are procrastinating at work, thinking that your task is insignificant, and your lack of motivation, then recall loss aversion. Remind yourself that not doing the task may lead to you being fired. And then think about the consequences of being jobless. If you lack motivation because even after studying hard, you know that you cannot get to the top ranks, then go do something where y

ou are confident that you can perform well in that field of study or something that you like a lot and where you can get good results. If you are preparing for a major exam, and the reward seems very far-fetched. Or if you'll get the reward only after 2 years, then you need to divide the process into smaller steps. After each step, give yourself a small reward. So that you can get some instant gratification. If you are scared about taking an important decision, if you are afraid of failing, reme

mber that not trying is worse than failing. We are scared of failure, because we have so much ego. We are scared that if we fail, what would the others say? If I wanted to be a filmmaker, and went to Mumbai but couldn't become one, what would my friends say? "You went to Mumbai to be a filmmaker but you couldn't be one. I had warned you against leaving your job, but you didn't listen to me." Many people are scared of such statements. For this, we need to understand that our ego is the most usele

ss thing in life. If we are absorbed with what others say about us, if we keep building our life based on the expectations of other people, we will regret it later. I had talked about regrets earlier in this video, about the regrets, people have to deal with later in their lives. Remember, you too might have to face those. In 1995, Gilovich and Medvec, came up with the Temporal Theory of Regret. According to this theory, actions may produce greater regret in the short term, but inaction will gen

erate more regret in the long run. If you do something now, you may end up doing something that you will regret in the short term, but not doing something will give you more regret in the long term. If you quit your job and follow your dream, and then fail, you will regret it less than if you had never left your job, the last obstacle between procrastination and you, are the distractions. Social media, your phone, this is the last thing I am talking about, because if the other reasons and obstac

les to motivation I told you about is clear to you, you will hardly if ever, be distracted by the distractions. But if you are still distracted by things like social media, you should watch this video. In this, I have talked about how you can deal with social media addiction scientifically. Thank you very much!