The science of why you can't do the things you want to do (you're not lazy)

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]We've all been there. You have [music] a deadline, a pot of coffee, a clean desk, and you want to work. But instead, you've just found yourself 3 hours deep into [music] a Wikipedia hole about the history of salt. For centuries, we've called procrastination [music] a lack of willpower. But is that truly the case?

[00:00:21]Is procrastination actually a lack of willpower? [music] And if not, is there a way to get our motivation back into gear?

[00:00:30]Hello friends, and welcome to today's video. Together, we're going to discover that biology tells quite a different story about procrastination. Instead, it tells a story of a civil war that's going on inside your brain. You interested? Good. You should be.

[00:00:49]However, first you'll notice that I have my creative hat on. And of course, this means that we're going to do something creative. I have a cup.

[00:01:00]>> [laughter] >> And I've drawn a little mountain range with some flowers in front of it. What we're going to do together is paint it.

[00:01:07]And so, without further ado, grab your matcha, and let's get into the brain tea.

[00:01:14]So, for painting, I've already put everything that I'm going to need on my palette. It's mostly [music] some blues, some greens, and some browns. And of course, titanium white.

[00:01:27]As always, I don't use any fancy [music] paints. I just buy the ones that I can find closest to me. So, what I'm going to do first is start with the sky in the background, and tell you [music] a little bit about your brain and procrastination. And so, let's begin.

[00:01:43]You remember that civil war that I was telling you about earlier? So, what did I actually mean by that? Well, to understand [music] what's going on inside of our brains when we procrastinate, you need to meet two main players. The first, your limbic system, also known as [music] the lizard. Your limbic system is interesting cuz it's ancient and it's fast and all it cares about is now.

[00:02:10]>> [music] >> How are you feeling in the moment? It doesn't care about the future. [music] Who does?

[00:02:16]Right?

[00:02:17]Wrong. Our second player does. Who is that you ask? The prefrontal cortex.

[00:02:22]This [music] is like the king of your brain, the CEO, the responsible adult.

[00:02:29]Your prefrontal cortex wants [music] to get things done. It cares about the future, unlike your limbic system.

[00:02:37]This is a very logical part of your brain that understands the future. And so, >> [music] >> why is this important and what happens when we procrastinate? Well, your brain becomes a battlefield. Your prefrontal cortex, the logical adult, it has a plan and it wants to do the thing that you need to get done. But [music] your ancient lizard brain, the limbic system, is screaming. It's not having a good time. Instead of taking [music] a calm, peaceful approach towards your looming deadline, it feels stressed. It's viewing your deadline like [music] a predator, like a saber-tooth tiger.

[00:03:19]In response, it starts screaming [music] and it triggers an amygdala hijack, flooding your system with stress [music] hormones that physically paralyze your ability to even start. You get stuck [music] in a frozen state and the more you tell yourself to just get over it and do the thing, the more your lizard brain begins [music] to panic. And so, you may be wondering, why is this?

[00:03:45]Well, about be free. So now what I have is my sky and what I'm going to do next is start filling in the mountains. And so, why is it that your lizard brain actually panics when it sees that you have a deadline coming? Well, for decades, scientists believed >> [music] >> that we did things because, well, doing things made us feel good. But in 1954, two scientists called James Olds and Peter Milner changed everything. Olds and Milner carried out an experiment where they implanted electrodes into the brains of [music] rats. And what their goal was was to find a learning center inside of their brains. But, uh, they kind of missed, and they accidentally placed those electrodes in a completely different place. A place called the medial forebrain bundle, [music] which is at the front of your brain.

[00:04:43]And so, what did they do next? Well, they gave these rats a lever to press.

[00:04:48][music] And if the rat pressed it, the rat got a little jolt of electricity >> [music] >> into that spot of the brain. And, uh, what happened next was kind of terrifying. The rats became obsessed with pressing the lever. [music] They didn't eat, they didn't sleep, they would even cross hot grids on the floor, burn their little feet, just in order to press the lever.

[00:05:19]In fact, they pressed the lever so often that they did it up to about 2,000 times in a day. So, Olds and Milner hadn't really found the learning center or the pleasure center, but instead, [music] they'd actually found the wanting center. Also known to scientists as the mesolimbic dopamine pathway. [music] The scientists proved that dopamine isn't the reward you get [music] at the finish line, but instead it's the craving that makes you want to run the race in the first place. I'm having some slight doubts about my painting abilities. Why do I keep putting myself in these situations? [music] I'm not actually good at painting. This looks less like a mountain and more like a croissant.

[00:06:13]Wonderful. The sun is already setting.

[00:06:16]It's rude. It's not so bad, you know.

[00:06:19]It's not so good, either. So, now I have my mountains. What I'm going to do next is use a slightly lighter green and fill in the grass while I tell you about the next part.

[00:06:32]So, if Olds and Milner discovered this sort of wanting machine inside of [music] our brains, why is it that it then stalls when we need to do something like working? Enter the anterior [music] mid cingulate cortex, known to her friends as the AMCC. Some [clears throat] Oxford researchers even call [music] her your internal accountant and it sits right at the intersection [music] of logic, emotion, and movement.

[00:07:03]And in a 2026 study [music] in Current Biology by Jungmin Oh et al.

[00:07:09]revealed exactly how this internal [music] accountant shuts you down.

[00:07:15]Jungmin trained primates to perform a task >> [music] >> where they received a reward, but also at a cost. And that cost was a localized puff of air straight into their face. Bit rude, isn't it?

[00:07:31]By monitoring their brains in real time, >> [music] >> the researchers found that when the cost became too high relative to the reward, the AMCC >> [music] >> fired and shut down the entire thing. A little bit like the police at a house party that uh shouldn't necessarily be happening. So, this whole circuit thing the one that goes and shuts down the entire operation acts as a motivation break, which basically means [music] that when the cost is too high and it completely outweighs the reward, it physically shuts down >> [music] >> your body. And so, you weren't lazy.

[00:08:12]Your internal accountant has just decided that dopamine ROI is just a little too low and literally cut the power [music] to your muscles to conserve energy. I think I'm actually getting a better at this painting [music] business thing. Oop.

[00:08:30]Oh, I spoke too soon.

[00:08:33]Why do you look this way?

[00:08:35]How to blend.

[00:08:37]So, now that I have the cop where I kind of want it. I've got the grass, the mountains. I've added a couple of trees.

[00:08:45]What I'm going to do now is add a foreground. I'm going to add some plants right at the front just to make it look a little magical. And so, you may be wondering, how do we flip the switch? How do we get our bodies that are physically, literally stuck in a frozen state [music] to just get up and do the thing that we want to do? Well, the answer lies in a cafe in 1920s Berlin.

[00:09:15]Meet psychologist Bluma [music] Zeigarnik. Bluma noticed something really interesting. She noticed [music] that waiters were able to remember unpaid orders perfectly >> [music] >> but then forget them the moment that the bill was settled. This revealed a really [music] cool effect called the Zeigarnik effect. Your brain hates an open loop. [music] So much so that it creates a state of cognitive tension right up until the loop is closed. [music] Until the task is finished. Is there a little dust particle just floating around?

[00:09:55]Not in space. The Zeigarnik effect became the foundation of what is now known today as >> [music] >> the 2-minute rule. What's the 2-minute rule you may ask?

[00:10:07]Well, >> [music] >> the 2-minute rule states, if you're putting something off, commit to just doing [music] the first 2 minutes of it.

[00:10:16]That's all. Only 2 minutes.

[00:10:19]Nothing more, nothing less. But how on earth does that work? [music] 2-minute rule works for a number of reasons.

[00:10:27]Number one, it lowers the cost. By committing to only about 2 minutes of a task at hand, that amounts to about 120 seconds, your AMCC, >> [music] >> remember the accountant that, you know, that tries to decide whether the cost of doing something is [music] worth it or not. Yeah, well, that one recalculates the effort cost. From a mountain to just a molehill.

[00:10:54]Hey! This releases the motivation [music] break because the energy investment feels safe and doable.

[00:11:04]Number two, it opens [music] the loop.

[00:11:07]The moment you start doing something, even if it's just writing one sentence of an essay, [music] it opens the loop. It starts the engine.

[00:11:16]Your brain then shifts from avoiding a task to [music] managing an active one. The Zeigarnik effect then creates a mental itch that you'd probably want to scratch, and it can only [music] be scratched by continuing the task at hand. Number three, [music] the dopamine spike.

[00:11:39]Reaching the 2-minute mark registers a little win to your brain, >> [music] >> and this triggers a little burst of dopamine.

[00:11:50]Yum yum.

[00:11:52]So, [music] this is how our cup is looking right now.

[00:11:58]And what I'm going to do is add in some cherry blossoms. And so, I've got a combination of these two pinks [music] and a very thin brush, and all I'm going to do is dot them around the foreground.

[00:12:12]And so, we've kind of cracked the secret.

[00:12:16]The 2-minute rule.

[00:12:17]The 2-minute rule isn't necessarily about finishing the work, because, I mean, let's be honest, [music] we're not going to get anything done in about 2 minutes.

[00:12:27]But, according to your brain, it's enough to make just a little bit of dopamine.

[00:12:34]And the amount of dopamine that you need [music] in order to just keep going.

[00:12:40]Once the loop is [music] open, your brain will want to close it.

[00:12:45]>> [music] >> And that might be enough to fuel the next 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes >> [music] >> of work. It's kind of like getting the ignition going so that your fuel can get you home.

[00:13:01]So, now what I'm doing is I'm just outlining some of the plants in the foreground just to give a little bit more structure to what I'm doing.

[00:13:14]Oh, I love this part. It really makes it feel like it's more than just random paint blobs [music] on a cup, you know?

[00:13:23]I probably can't really use this cup to drink in, But, uh I can use it to stare at [music] for ages.

[00:13:31]So, that's always a plus.

[00:13:33]Ooh, I just got deja vu. You know what that means?

[00:13:37]I'm due my nap. And so, I finished the cup.

[00:13:45]It's not so bad.

[00:13:47]Kind of like that, actually.

[00:13:48]>> [music] >> Pretty good, isn't it?

[00:13:53]And so, we've together, and I have one last thing to tell you.

[00:13:59]And that is a few tips on how to turn your brain from a procrastination machine into a motivation engine.

[00:14:08]This video is so weird, man.

[00:14:10]Number one, forgive the hijack. When you feel that freeze, recognize it as your amygdala [music] taking over because it thinks it's uh being chased by a saber-tooth tiger. And so, of course it'll be a little bit overprotective. [music] And uh if you can, try not to fight it with guilt. That can increase the stress and make it freeze even more. Two, hack the accountant.

[00:14:37]When you have a massive project happening, don't [music] look at the thing as a whole. That can kind of put you off. Your internal accountant, >> [music] >> remember the AMCC?

[00:14:47]It'll get overwhelmed and probably over-calculate how much the cost will be to get something done. And that cost needs lowering.

[00:14:55]A good little entry [music] point, if you will. Just 2 minutes. That's it.

[00:15:02]And actually, [music] it's been shown that your internal accountant, the AMCC, starts growing when you kind of do things that you don't want to do. So, >> [music] >> every time you push past those first 2 minutes, you're physically well, kind of thickening your brain's >> [music] >> willpower center.

[00:15:25]Again, kind of. And finally, number three, ride the wave. Once your dopamine starts [music] kicking in, go with it.

[00:15:33]It'll start kicking in once you've had your first little win. And so I hope you've learned today that [music] you don't really need more willpower in your brain. You just need to stop fighting your biology [music] and get on the same side as it. Chances are it's just as scared as you are. So, that's all I have for today. I hope you've enjoyed yourselves. I definitely have. I loved painting this pot.

[00:15:56]Cup. Sorry. [music] Even if it did stress me out.

[00:16:02]And if you've been doubting whether you should also paint a cup, here's your sign to go and do that.

[00:16:10]Open a loop if you will.

[00:16:12]And so that's it from me, but if you're new here, welcome aboard. I'm Mary. I'm a What am I?

[00:16:19]I'm a neurobiologist and artist, even if it doesn't look that way. This is my fourth ever science explainer video. And I make these videos to help you get to know your brain a little better and maybe even take something away from it to help you.

[00:16:37]If you have any questions or comments, please do leave them in the comment [music] section below. I love reading them from you because you guys always have something really interesting to say. And if you have any ideas of what you would like me to cover next, >> [music] >> please also do leave them in the comment section. And so, as always, thanks for watching. Take good care and I'll see you again very soon.

[00:17:01]Bye-bye.