【TED-Ed】为什么你在感觉不好的时候会拖延（中英字幕）
中英文稿
现在是下午 5 点，你刚刚意识到， 那篇你一直拖着没有完成的报告 明天必须提交。 现在该开始努力工作了。 于是你打开电脑…… 又刷了刷手机。 要不再补看几段你最钟爱的 YouTube 视频？ 说实话，你也许应该先准备晚餐。 你一向喜欢烹饪， 但是有这项工作压在心上， 你很难享受其中的乐趣。 哎，其实时候已经不早了！ 也许应该等到明天再说？ 这就是拖延症的自我循环，我保证， 咱们都有过这样的经历。 明知拖延症于己无益， 但是我们为何无法克服它呢？
需要明确一点， 推迟行动并不总是拖延症。 可靠有效的时间管理要求我们 判断出哪些事是当务之急， 哪些事可以稍后处理。 如果我们承诺完成某项任务， 也知道不完成任务会带来负面影响， 但还是无缘无故地避开这项任务， 此时的表现才是拖延症。 去做那些明知于己无益的事 显然是不合理的。 然而出乎意料的是，拖延症正是由 身体的自我保护机制造成的。 避开那些自认为具有威胁性的任务 是其特有的保护方式。
你意识到自己需要动手写那份报告， 而此时，你大脑的反应 就如同应对一个即将到来的威胁。 大脑中有一组称为杏仁体的神经原， 这组神经元与管理情绪， 识别威胁等功能相关联。 杏仁体会释放多种荷尔蒙，其中包括了 能够引发恐慌反应的肾上腺素。 由压力引发的恐慌感覆盖了 大脑前额皮层发出的脉冲， 而这些脉冲通常有助于长期性思维， 可以帮助人们控制调节情绪。 在战斗、逃离、僵住这三种 反应的胶着中， 你决定做些压力较小的事情， 以回避的方式来应对威胁。
这种应对方式看起来也许很极端， 你面对的毕竟只是一个截稿期限， 而非遭到熊的攻击。 然而，我们最有可能拖延的工作 正是那些引发负面情绪的工作， 比如恐惧、无能、缺乏安全感等。 研究显示，患有拖延症的大学生 更易推迟完成那些给他们带来压力， 或者具有挑战性的学习任务。 然而你越是拖延， 就越会觉得这些任务难以完成。 有一项实验，学生在一天中不断收到 提醒他们学习的提示信息。 学习过程中，大部分学生反映 情况并不是很糟糕。 但是他们一旦拖延起来， 就会坚持认为，学习这个念头 让他们感到很有压力， 因此，开始着手学习就变得非常困难。
因为拖延症是由负面情绪促成的， 所以有些人就更易受其影响。 对于那些在调节情绪方面有困难， 或者自我评价较低的人来说， 不论他们有多么强的时间管理能力， 都更易患上拖延症。 然而，认为患有拖延症的人都很懒惰， 则是一种常见的错误共识。 懒惰在身体和大脑中呈现的特点是 缺乏精力和总体懈怠。 当你感到懒惰的时候， 你可能会坐下来，什么也不做， 而不会分心去做一些无足轻重的事。 事实上，很多人做事拖拉， 是因为他们忧心过重。 拖延症患者常常表示， 自己对失败感到极度恐慌， 拖拉是因为害怕， 工作质量无法达到自己设定的高标准。
不论拖延症的成因是什么， 其结果往往都是一样的。 经常拖延的人很可能会 饱受焦虑抑郁之苦， 忍受持续不断的羞耻感， 还要承受比别人更大的压力， 以及各种因压力而引起的身体不适。 最糟糕的是，拖延症虽然 会给我们造成长期伤害， 但可以暂时减轻我们的压力， 这就更加强化了身体在应对 高压工作时的拖延反应。 那么，我们该怎样摆脱 拖延症的恶性循环呢？
传统观念认为，患有拖延症的人 需要培养自我控制能力， 执行严格的时间管理计划。 但如今，许多研究人员认为， 情况恰恰相反。 对自己要求太苛刻会增添 任务带来的不良情绪， 从而使任务的威胁性显得更加强烈。 为了能够绕过这种抗压反应， 我们需要应付并减少这些负面情绪。 这里有一些简单的策略， 比如将任务化整为零， 或者记录下焦虑的原因， 然后着手解决那些深层顾虑。 尽力消除身边容易 引起冲动性拖延的各种干扰。 更有助益的方法是培养自悯心态。 原谅自己，为下一次 取得进步作出规划。 那种将压力与拖延之间的 循环关系固化的文化观念， 会对所有人造成长远的伤害。
It’s 5 p.m. and you’ve just realized that report you’ve been putting off is due tomorrow. It’s time to buckle down, open your computer... and check your phone. Maybe catch up on your favorite YouTube channel? Actually, you should probably make dinner first. You usually like cooking, though it’s hard to enjoy with this work hanging over your head, and oh— it’s actually pretty late! Maybe you should just try again in the morning? This is the cycle of procrastination, and I promise you, we have all been there. But why do we keep procrastinating even when we know it’s bad for us?
To be clear, putting something off isn’t always procrastinating. Responsible time management requires deciding which tasks are important and which ones can wait. Procrastination is when we avoid a task we said we would do, for no good reason, despite expecting our behavior to bring negative consequences. Obviously, it’s irrational to do something you expect to harm you. But ironically, procrastination is the result of our bodies trying to protect us, specifically by avoiding a task we see as threatening.
When you realize you need to write that report, your brain responds like it would to any incoming threat. Your amygdala, a set of neurons involved in emotional processing and threat identification, releases hormones including adrenaline that kick off a fear response. This stress-induced panic can overpower the impulses from your prefrontal cortex, which typically help you think long term and regulate your emotions. And it’s in the midst of this fight, flight, or freeze response that you decide to handle the threat by avoiding it in favor of some less stressful task.
This response might seem extreme— after all, it’s just a deadline, not a bear attack. But we’re most likely to procrastinate tasks that evoke negative feelings, such as dread, incompetence, and insecurity. Studies of procrastinating university students have found participants were more likely to put off tasks they perceived as stressful or challenging. And the perception of how difficult the task is increases while you’re putting it off. In one experiment, students were given reminders to study throughout the day. While they were studying, most reported that it wasn’t so bad. But when they were procrastinating, they consistently rated the idea of studying as very stressful, making it difficult to get started.
Because procrastination is motivated by our negative feelings, some individuals are more susceptible to it than others. People who have difficulty regulating their emotions and those who struggle with low self-esteem are much more likely to procrastinate, regardless of how good they are at time management. However, it's a common misconception that all procrastinators are lazy. In the body and brain, laziness is marked by no energy and general apathy. When you’re feeling lazy, you’re more likely to sit around doing nothing than distract yourself with unimportant tasks. In fact, many people procrastinate because they care too much. Procrastinators often report a high fear of failure, putting things off because they’re afraid their work won’t live up to their high standards.
Whatever the reason for procrastination, the results are often the same. Frequent procrastinators are likely to suffer from anxiety and depression, ongoing feelings of shame, higher stress levels and physical ailments associated with high stress. Worst of all, while procrastination hurts us in the long run, it does temporarily reduce our stress level, reinforcing it as a bodily response for coping with stressful tasks. So, how can we break the cycle of procrastination?
Traditionally, people thought procrastinators needed to cultivate discipline and practice strict time management. But today, many researchers feel the exact opposite. Being too hard on yourself can layer additional bad emotions onto a task, making the threat even more intense. To short-circuit this stress response, we need to address and reduce these negative emotions. Some simple strategies include breaking a task into smaller elements or journaling about why it's stressing you out and addressing those underlying concerns. Try removing nearby distractions that make it easy to impulsively procrastinate. And more than anything, it helps to cultivate an attitude of self-compassion, forgiving yourself, and making a plan to do better next time. Because a culture that perpetuates this cycle of stress and procrastination hurts all of us in the long term.
