Shadowing Practice: Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad - Learn English Speaking with Video

procrastination.

Procrastination.

So you're procrastinating.

I've been violated by procrastination my entire life.

We don't necessarily choose to procrastinate, yet it happens.

So why do we unintentionally give ourselves this pain?

Once upon a time, our human ancestors focused solely on immediate survival needs.

In those times, quick action and immediate rewards were crucial for survival, whether hunting for food or escaping predators.

Consequently, our brains evolved to prioritize immediate rewards, a trait essential for survival in that environment.

The prefrontal cortex responsible for planning and impulse control often conflicts with the limbic system, which governs emotions and immediate reactions.

Hi, I'm John, I graduated college in one year, traveled the world, and this is my video series on peak performance and transformation.

So that means we are wired to procrastinate

because of this ongoing war with our limbic system

and our prefrontal cortex And it's just these two parts wrestling with one another.

So What what do we do?

So the rational decision maker will make the rational decision to do something productive

But the monkey doesn't like that plan so he actually takes the wheel and he says Actually,

let's read the entire Wikipedia page of the Nancy Kerrigan Tanya Harding scandal because I just remember that that happened

is the limbic system.

So this is a more primitive part of your brain

that wants to watch another episode of Gossip Girl before you start studying.

When I say friction, I mean limbic friction.

Your limbic system is always in this dialogue with your forebrain.

And limbic friction goes two ways.

Limbic friction can be you're tired and you don't want to do something, and so you have to motivate to do it, energize yourself to do it,

and you have to calm yourself in order to lean forward into action in order to do that thing.

The hot system is the limbic system in the brain, and it is reflexive, immediate, emotional.

So in order to slow that hot system, you have to activate the cool system, the prefrontal cortex.

So you might be thinking, that's great, John, but how do we overcome this?

Bridging the monkey, brain, and the modern world?

Well, there are a few ways that we can do this.

Well, first we have to understand the human behavior loop, which as humans, we behave in a very automated way.

It's why auto-suggestion and cues and triggers can be so prevalent in shaping our behavior and actions.

When there is a trigger, we get cued into a thought.

And with that thought comes an emotion.

And this emotion is either negative or positive.

And so you might be fascinated by this, but there are deep-seated psychological reasons in why we procrastinate and a way for us to avoid some of those negative emotions.

And unintentionally, by avoiding those temporary negative emotions, we actually create more problems in the long run.

Now this brings us to an interesting thought that we procrastinate because we are attempting to regulate our mood, our emotions.

The psychologists started playing with what Skinner put together and realized

that well it wasn't just the cue and the reward that shaped people's behavior.

Also our thoughts and moods and emotions, our beliefs, kind of our internal states, shape behavior too.

Believe it or not procrastination has nothing to do with your work.

Procrastination is a form of stress relief.

There's a trigger, and in the case of procrastination, the trigger's always stress.

Then there's a pattern you repeat, and in the case of procrastination, it is to avoid doing something.

And then there's a reward.

You get a little stress relief.

In 1970, researchers conducted the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment on Delayed Gratification, led by psychologist Walter Mischel.

What they found was fascinating and frightening.

A child was offered a choice between one small but immediate reward or two small rewards, if they waited a period of time.

If they did not eat the marshmallow within 15 minutes, they received another one or a pretzel stick.

Follow-up research found that the more temperate types had higher SAT scores as teens.

And later, an ongoing study of 1,000 random New Zealanders from birth to their 30s yielded even stronger findings.

self-control or lack of it almost perfectly predicted their future prosperity one way to

exemplify this is this lovely graph where you can see

that short-term gain leads to long-term pain that's a problem for future homer man i don't envy that guy

and short-term pain leads to long-term gain which is delayed gratification

but there is a way where we can trick our brain into getting short-term gains

and also long-term gains

which touches on getting the dopamine for pursuing long-term goals once

you start to link the cue to the reward they realized they could shape pretty much any kind of action.

This idea of a cue, routine, and a reward.

Our primal parts, the limbic system, wants to have those instant gratification dopamine hits, which dopamine is released when we anticipate or receive a reward,

creating feelings of pleasure and satisfaction.

This reward system evolved to reinforce behaviors that were beneficial to survival,

such as finding food and extracurricular activities and making more of ourselves.

Oh, help me.

I'll explain to you afterwards.

Tasks that offer instant gratification, like checking social media, can be more appealing than those with delayed rewards,

like completing a work project.

So how can we overcome procrastination?

You want to put yourself in a state that's worse than

or harder than the state that you're in or do something quote-unquote more painful.

You need to put your body and mind into a state of discomfort quickly.

I mean literally thinking about what would be worse than being in this state.

Again without causing yourself tissue or psychological damage.

What would be worse?

Cold water would be worse for many people.

Very cold water.

So the key is to figure out something that, for lack of a better way to put it, really sucks.

Really sucks and yet is safe.

And by doing that you steepen the trough, you steepen the slope of the trough, which we know brings you back to your baseline level of dopamine more quickly.

I'm such an idiot.

This is the dumbest thing I've ever done.

Alright, okay, here we go.

What the fuck?

Bitch.

Alright, it's cool.

No, it's cool.

Everything's fine.

This is normal.

I hate my life.

What we just demonstrated here is that you put your body in an adverse state, which then tells your brain, oh crap, we experienced a good amount of pain,

which then now the baseline of doing a task or a project

or the thing that you're avoiding and procrastinating on is way easier than what it was before.

So every task requires activation energy no matter what it is.

100

If you were doom scrolling on social media, all of a sudden you do a cold shower, you've now reduced the activation energy needed in order to do the first task.

101

As an example, if you do 100 pushups versus doing one pushup, you would need a lot of activation energy to do 100 pushups or very little to just do one pushup.

102

As humans, we love the path of least resistance, which means that we need to reduce the activation energy that's needed.

103

Make tasks easier to start because when we start it builds momentum

104

and when we build momentum it then leads to inspiration

105

and motivation and then there's a cycle which is interdependent on one another.

106

So most people think

107

that in order to take action on something we need to be motivated to do it

108

and motivation comes from some sort of emotional inspiration.

109

First we're inspired to take action, we have this strong reason to do it and that generates the motivation we need to take action on the thing.

110

But action isn't It's not just the effect of motivation, it's also the cause of it.

111

Inspiration, motivation, action is not a linear sequence.

112

It's an endless loop and you can start wherever you want to start.

113

We know based on research that if we can get you to start, 80% of you are going to keep going.

114

Give yourself less time to complete a task and you'll likely finish it faster.

115

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.

116

And so when you artificially give yourself these constraints, these time constraints, your supply and demand on your time,

117

you will then do the task in a more expedited way than, oh, I'm going to give myself eight hours to do this.

118

Well, you will then use all eight hours versus, oh, two hours.

119

Maybe you don't get it done, but at least you completed 80% within those two hours, and then you just finalize the remaining details.

120

And so whatever time we allot to ourselves is what we will fill it up with.

121

When a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this.

122

And I would want to do that, but then actually the paper would come along and then I would kind of do this.

123

With Parkinson's law, deadlines in schools work.

124

When a professor gives you a deadline that says do it tonight, you can do it tonight.

125

How do you artificially create this with yourself?

126

So accountability mechanisms and rewards can significantly reduce procrastination.

127

Let's say you have a big project you have to complete, but you know that in a way you don't want to do it.

128

Well, you could also get accountability from another friend.

129

This actually works better if it's somebody that you don't like.

130

So if you tell them, them, hey, I'll give you $100 by this time if I don't do the thing.

131

Your likelihood of doing that action is going to skyrocket.

132

You will actually work harder to not give them the money.

133

To explain the human behavior loop, each time we have a trigger or a cue, we then have a thought.

134

And this thought then goes to an emotion, which then activates biological mechanisms in our body that's like, oh, do we do this?

135

It's most of the time, if we procrastinate, we freeze.

136

We don't want to do think?

137

Why do we freeze and why do we fight or flight?

138

You're not a procrastinator.

139

You have a habit of procrastinating.

140

Big difference.

141

And so if you're inspired by a trigger or a cue, you will then get positive thoughts and emotions,

142

which then those positive thoughts and emotions will lead you to take action, which is your response.

143

And then this action will then lead to inspiration, which will lead to motivation, and then will lead to more action, inspiration, motivation, action, inspiration, motivation, action.

144

And so what we want to do is we want to end up in this loop, not the loop of freeze, fight or flight, where we are paralyzed by action.

145

And then when we do this, we also want to reward our limbic brain, our monkey side of ourselves that lives in this modern world.

146

I eat chocolate after I complete my tasks, or whenever I accomplish something.

147

It's like, oh, I reward my brain and saying, oh, hey, you did this, here's your reward.

148

And now we understand how it works, you can then assess to yourself, where am I on this lovely map of behavior,

149

oops, of resisting to do the action?

150

Am I paralyzed because I am in freeze mode, fight or flight mode?

151

And how can I get myself out of my freeze mode and fight or flight mode?

152

And then how do I also get out of my comfort zone so that I'm in the growth zone?

153

Please share this video to tell the algorithm to push my face in front of more people so it helps them out, helps me out, and it helps you out.

154

All right, now go negotiate with your monkey to be more productive.

✨ Recommend Video

249 sentences

Let's talk About How to Stop Procrastinating and Take Action Today - Speak Power Daily Podcast

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

347 sentences

Why You Keep Falling Off Your Goals (5 Neuroscience Backed Reasons)

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

331 sentences

Why Does Resting Feel So Hard? | Slow English Conversation (B2) | The Cozy English

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

54 sentences

The FASTEST Way to Study Anything

Business EnglishDaily ConversationHigh School Students

What You'll Learn

This video helps you build two key speaking skills: first, understanding conversational flow in extended explanations, as the speaker connects ideas about brain science and behavior. Second, practicing natural pausing—notice how the speaker pauses before introducing solutions, which you can mirror to sound more confident. These skills are perfect for IELTS speaking practice, where clear, structured communication matters.

Listen For These Sounds

Pay attention to connected speech patterns like "wanna" (from "want to") and "gonna" (from "going to")—common reductions in casual English. The phrase "limbic friction" uses linking: the "c" in "limbic" connects smoothly to "friction," making it sound like "limbikfriction." These sounds are easy to miss, but mastering them improves your English pronunciation and helps you keep up with fast speech. Use the shadowing technique to repeat these links immediately after the speaker—this trains your mouth to form them naturally.

Say It Like a Native

The speaker uses a calm, analytical rhythm with stress on key terms like "prefrontal cortex" and "emotion regulation." To mirror this, stress content words (nouns, verbs) and reduce function words (articles, prepositions). Try shadow speech: play a short clip, pause, and repeat it, matching the speed and stress. This not only improves your pronunciation but also builds muscle memory for natural intonation. For extra practice, use a shadowing site to record yourself and compare it to the original—you’ll notice how small adjustments in rhythm make a big difference. Whether you’re preparing for IELTS or just want to speak more fluently, shadowing helps you bridge the gap between learning and real-world communication.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	I've been violated · are wired · might be fascinated
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	gain which is · resistance, which means · cycle which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've been violated · I've ever done · you've now reduced

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad - Learn English Speaking with Video

How to Stop Wasting Your Life (No More Distractions)

Si tu veux devenir discipliné, écoute ça

Stop procrastinating and start learning!

how to reset when you have no motivation (from a type a/b person)

Joe Rogan Motivation- Difficulty’s and laziness

this strange habit SKYROCKETS your charisma.

The 16 Minutes That Will Rewire Your Brain Forever | Joe Dispenza Motivation

How to Stop Scrolling, Overcome Procrastination & Build Self-Discipline

Let's talk About How to Stop Procrastinating and Take Action Today - Speak Power Daily Podcast

Why You Keep Falling Off Your Goals (5 Neuroscience Backed Reasons)

Why Does Resting Feel So Hard? | Slow English Conversation (B2) | The Cozy English

The FASTEST Way to Study Anything

What You'll Learn

Listen For These Sounds

Say It Like a Native

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?