The Science Behind Why We Procrastinate—and How to Stop the Cycle

You know you have to do that speed workout to hit your goals, or turn in that work project before Friday, or make that dentist appointment they keep reminding you about. And yet, you don’t.

Procrastination is something all humans do—there’s a reason post offices are open until midnight on tax filing day—but why do we drag our feet even on seemingly easy tasks? A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology suggests it all has to do with how we blend anticipation, excitement, and dread.

In an experiment, researchers asked 171 participants to eat jelly beans that ranged in flavor from delicious to disgusting—some tasted like orange sherbet and watermelon, but others like dirt or rotten eggs. People tended to feel impatient and excited about eating the good-tasting ones, and not only dreaded the awful ones, but also disliked the feeling of having to wait to eat them.

Not surprisingly, this shows that people want to have good things now and delay bad things, and it’s the anticipation of both positive and negative tasks that drive our behavior, according to study coauthor, assistant professor in the marketing and behavioral science division of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.

For example, he told Runner’s World, if you ask people when they want to receive $50 now or in a month, everyone will choose now. But if you ask when they would rather pay $50 for a bill, half of people would rather pay later.

“This happens partly because the anticipation of positive versus negative events is asymmetric,” he said. “When we imagine future positive things, we both enjoy imagining it and feel impatient. But when we imagine future negative things, we just hate thinking about them.”

How do you break this cycle, especially for those running and cross-training goals you want to crush? It’s all about reframing how you think about it, according to Hardisty.

“If you are thinking about a run or workout as a positive thing, you’ll want to do it now, because you’ll feel impatient—in a good way—and you’ll savor it,” he said. “If you think of it as a negative thing, you may put it off until later, or do it now to ‘get it over with.’”

In other words, seeing your task as negative means you’re only 50/50 about doing it, but reframing it as a positive pops you up to almost 100 percent likelihood of getting it started and completed.

Changing the language of how you think about negative tasks can help. Instead of “having to” do speed work, for example, remind yourself that you “get to” do it. The brain responds to this type of subtle messaging tweak.

Cultivating this sense of anticipation can create a feeling of excitement that will also make you savor what you’re doing, he added. Let’s face it, this technique may not help with tax prep, but it could be a boost when you’re trying to hit one of your running goals.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

 

The Science Behind Why We Procrastinate—and How to Stop the Cycle

You know you have to do that speed workout to hit your goals, or turn in that work project before Friday, or make that dentist appointment they keep reminding you about. And yet, you don’t.

Procrastination is something all humans do—there’s a reason post offices are open until midnight on tax filing day—but why do we drag our feet even on seemingly easy tasks? A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology suggests it all has to do with how we blend anticipation, excitement, and dread.

In an experiment, researchers asked 171 participants to eat jelly beans that ranged in flavor from delicious to disgusting—some tasted like orange sherbet and watermelon, but others like dirt or rotten eggs. People tended to feel impatient and excited about eating the good-tasting ones, and not only dreaded the awful ones, but also disliked the feeling of having to wait to eat them.

Not surprisingly, this shows that people want to have good things now and delay bad things, and it’s the anticipation of both positive and negative tasks that drive our behavior, according to study coauthor David Hardisty, Ph.D., assistant professor in the marketing and behavioral science division of the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business.

For example, he told Runner’s World, if you ask people when they want to receive $50 now or in a month, everyone will choose now. But if you ask when they would rather pay $50 for a bill, half of people would rather pay later.

“This happens partly because the anticipation of positive versus negative events is asymmetric,” he said. “When we imagine future positive things, we both enjoy imagining it and feel impatient. But when we imagine future negative things, we just hate thinking about them.”

How do you break this cycle, especially for those running and cross-training goals you want to crush? It’s all about reframing how you think about it, according to Hardisty.

“If you are thinking about a run or workout as a positive thing, you’ll want to do it now, because you’ll feel impatient—in a good way—and you’ll savor it,” he said. “If you think of it as a negative thing, you may put it off until later, or do it now to ‘get it over with.’”

In other words, seeing your task as negative means you’re only 50/50 about doing it, but reframing it as a positive pops you up to almost 100 percent likelihood of getting it started and completed.

Changing the language of how you think about negative tasks can help. Instead of “having to” do speed work, for example, remind yourself that you “get to” do it. The brain responds to this type of subtle messaging tweak.

Cultivating this sense of anticipation can create a feeling of excitement that will also make you savor what you’re doing, he added. Let’s face it, this technique may not help with tax prep, but it could be a boost when you’re trying to hit one of your running goals.

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Exercise equips brain to fight stress

Exercising helps reorganize the brain so that its response to stress is reduced and there is no interference with its normal functioning, a research team has claimed.

The researcher team reported that when mice allowed to exercise regularly experienced a stress or — exposure to cold water — their brains exhibited a spike in the activity of neurons that shut off excitement in the ventral hippo-campus, a brain region shown to regulate anxiety.

These findings potentially resolve a discrepancy in research related to the effect of exercise on the brain — namely that exercise reduces anxiety while also promoting the growth of new neurons in the ventral hippo-campus.

Because these young neurons are typically more excitable than their more mature counterparts, exercise should result in more anxiety, not less. The researchers found that exercise also strengthens the mechanisms that prevent these brain cells from firing.

The impact of physical activity on the ventral hippo-campus specifically has not been deeply explored, said senior author. By doing so, members  pinpointed brain cells and regions important to anxiety regulation that may help scientists better understand and treat human anxiety disorders.

From an evolutionary standpoint, the research also shows that the brain can be extremely adaptive and tailor its own processes to an organism's lifestyle or surroundings.

A higher likelihood of anxious behaviour may have an adaptive advantage for less physically fit creatures. Anxiety often manifests itself in avoidance behaviour and avoiding potentially dangerous situations would increase the likelihood of survival, particularly for those less capable of responding with a "fight or flight" reaction.

Researcher said that understanding how the brain regulates anxious behaviour gives potential clues about helping people with anxiety disorders and also says something about how the brain modifies itself to respond optimally to its own environment.

For the experiments, one group of mice was given unlimited access to a running wheel and a second group had no running wheel. Natural runners, mice will dash up to 4 kilometres a night when given access to a running wheel. After six weeks, the mice were exposed to cold water for a brief period of time.

The brains of active and sedentary mice behaved differently almost as soon as the stress occurred, an analysis showed. In the neurons of sedentary mice only, the cold water spurred an increase in "immediate early genes," or short-lived genes that are rapidly turned on when a neuron fires. The lack of these genes in the neurons of active mice suggested that their brain cells did not immediately leap into an excited state in response to the stress.

Instead, the brain in a runner mouse showed every sign of controlling its reaction to an extent not observed in the brain of a sedentary mouse. There was a boost of activity in inhibitory neurons that are known to keep excitable neurons in check. At the same time, neurons in these mice released more of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, which tamps down neural excitement. The protein that packages GABA into little travel pods known as vesicles for release into the synapse also was present in higher amounts in runners.




ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.

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http://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/

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http://Knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com/

for crochet designs

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I've not given details about designs, but those interested are free to mail me for the same.

BRAIN FROZEN?

 While trying to find out what is behind a migraine headache, researchers examined ultrasound scans of people drinking ice-cold water & experiencing "ice-cream brain"or brain freeze & were frozen in their tracks.

When a spoonful of ice-cream hits the roof of your mouth, resulting in a piercing headache, do you think the veins in your head contract & pain results from restricted blood flow? What happens is just the contrary. Located close to the roof of your mouth & running up into the middle of your brain is the anterior cerebral artery. When suddenly chilled, it dilates  so the brain will continue to get enough blood. This increases in blood flow causes what we call ice-cream brain.So, what does it tell upi about avoiding or triggering migraine? Some doctors believe migraines are not triggered by vascular contractions or dilations. They say migraines are caused by excitement of a nerve near the anterior cerebral artery, not the artery itself. But the change in artery size may also stimulate nerve activity. Whatever be the case, the new findings confirmed one thing- ice-cream, or better; healthy non-fat no-sugar-added frozen yoghurt- should be enjoyed slowly, one lick at  a time, if you want to avoid frozen brain !