Laziness | Dhyey Sojitra | TEDxFountainhead School
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXYBMBvkBg8 Video ID: GXYBMBvkBg8 ============================================================ [Music] Hi. So, I'm here to talk about something very near and dear to my heart, and it's laziness. I know what you're thinking. Really, a talk about laziness? But I know you have probably had days where you look at your to-do list and you have a million things to do. But then you think, nah, I'll just do it later. But that later but that later never comes. You know I had about two months to complete this talk and actually deliver it. So here's what I expected. I had about 40 days and I I just had to climb those stairs and complete the task. At least that's what I expected. This is what I followed. I had about 40 days and from five days I took for brainstorming and on the last four days I had completed the talk for the mock trials. So have you ever thought how our brains are actually structured. So this is the brain of a normal person. There is a frontal lobe and the temporal lobe. It's pretty complex but I am pretty simple. My brain is divided into two parts. The lazy driver and the responsible driver. Let's zoom in in the lazy driver or the the responsible driver. You know, it says, "All right, let's make a plan. We have to be productive." It's like your in drill surgeent that tells you to wake up at 6:00 a.m., start a business, study, go to the gym, write a book, and win a Nobel Prize. You know, this guy, this driver knows that deadlines are serious and wants to do everything and anything that's productive. But then enter the lazy brain. It does anything but work and wants to do anything that's fun. You know, he says you have worked hard today. Maybe you deserve a small break. It convinces you to the couch, some snacks, and just one more Netflix episode. You know, it has its own mantra. Why do today what you can definitely do tomorrow? Pretty simple, right? Do what's fun. But here's the kicker. The magic of lazy brain is procrastination. It's not just avoiding work. It's a coping mechanism. Our brains associate certain tasks with stress, anxiety, fear of failure, and fear of not doing things that are perfect. So, we avoid doing this stuff because we don't want those negative feelings. Who wants anxiety, stress, and fear of failure? That's why we just scroll to Instagram cuz we get that shot of dopamine. So why does this all happen? This big part comes down to dopamine. As I told you, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in getting you shots of happiness. So when you're scrolling through reals, you get little shots of happiness. And that shots of happiness is dopamine. Dr. Pierce Steel's research shows that uh procrastination is linked with uh high impulsivity and low self-regulation. When you procrastinate, you reward yourself with the shots of happiness for not working. This creates a habit cuz we want to do whatever is fun. When we do whatever is fun, we get the shots of dopamine and we repeat that cycle. But the thing is the deadline monster appears. This deadline monster grows as the deadlines pile up. As the deadlines come near and near, this deadline monster awakens. And the crazy thing is the lazy driver is scared of this deadline monster. This deadline monster does not care if you're ready. It comes in, breaks open the door and says, "Time's up. Let's go." And then the lazy driver runs away and the responsible driver gets in the hands and he's driving the brain, making us do work. But that does not last long. Here's the thing. Laziness is a cycle. You procrastinate, delay, and we are just about to start again. You delay again. This cycle continues, goes on and goes on. And when you think you're doing work, you're just surviving. So laziness isn't just cognitive, it's emotional, too. It feels good to take it feels good to take a break going to Instagram res, watching funny YouTube videos. So procrastination is is not something that we do occasionally. So how do we get through this? We need to break through the cycle and that's the only way to uh stop procrastination. So how do we do that? We have to reframe the task into smaller parts because long-term tasks feel boring for the lazy brain. So we when we break these task we get short task that feel that makes the lazy brain happy because short things are fun for the lazy brain. Also use the 2minut rule. Do something that's that's in 2 minutes. Do something that you can finish up quickly first and then do something that's going to take a lot of time. And most importantly to make the lazy driver happy, you got to reward yourself. Once you finish that one task, reward yourself with something that will make the lazy brain happy. And this will create a happiness bond within within the lazy brain and the responsible brain. So what's the moral of the story? Laziness is real, but to survive it, you got to understand how it works. You got to understand the lazy brain and the responsible driver. You got to embrace the chaos. You're not alone. We all are uh in the same struggle. Remember, you just have to make these two come together and work together. And don't let that lazy brain take over cause is going to be chaos. So everything I have been talking about the lazy brain and the responsible driver. There are actual parts of the brain. The responsible driver is the prefrontal cortex whereas the lazy brain is the limbic system and the deadline monster is hypothalamus. And these things are actual parts of our brain. So stop procrastinating. It's no good. Thank you. [Music]