Практика Shadowing: Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad - Изучайте разговорный английский по видео

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

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

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and motivation comes from some sort of emotional inspiration.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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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.

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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.

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Well, you could also get accountability from another friend.

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

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

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Your likelihood of doing that action is going to skyrocket.

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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.

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

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

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We don't want to do think?

137

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

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You're not a procrastinator.

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You have a habit of procrastinating.

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Big difference.

141

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

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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

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oops, of resisting to do the action?

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

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

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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.

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

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О данном уроке

В этом уроке вы узнаете, почему люди откладывают дела, и научитесь анализировать сложные идеи на английском. Прослушав видео, вы практикуете восприятие речи средней скорости, а также улучшите навык выражения абстрактных мыслей. Это отличная возможность для тех, кто хочет учить английский по видео и разобраться с психологическими терминами на иностранном языке.

Ключевой вокабуляр и фразы

Procrastination — откладывание дел
Limbic system — лимбическая система
Prefrontal cortex — префронтальная кора
Impulse control — контроль импульсов
Stress relief — облегчение стресса

Советы по практике

Для эффективного shadowing английский (или shadowspeak) в этом видео обратите внимание на спокойный и аналитический тон спикера. Реплики идут плавно, с паузами между мыслями — используйте это, чтобы повторять фразы сразу после произнесения. Начните с медленной скорости, постепенно приближаясь к оригиналу. Это поможет улучшить произношение английского и научиться правильно расставлять ударения в сложных словах, например, procrastination или prefrontal cortex.

Фокус на эмоциональной окраске речи: спикер объясняет сложные концепции, поэтому его интонация нейтральна, но подчёркивает важные моменты. Повторяйте не только слова, но и интонацию — это поможет вам лучше понять, как передавать смысл в английской речи. Используйте метод shadow speak: после каждого абзаца видео остановите запись и повторите его, стараясь совпадать по темпу и энергии. Это тренирует мозг быстро обрабатывать информацию и реплицировать её, что критически важно для свободного общения.

Не забывайте, что учить английский по видео — это не только повторение, но и понимание. После shadowing разоберитесь в смысле фраз, чтобы ваше произношение сочеталось с осознанием. Так вы сформируете не только правильную речь, но и уверенность в использовании английского языка в повседневных ситуациях.

Грамматика в этом видео

Конструкции, которые говорящий использует чаще всего, с точными словами из видео:

Конструкция	В видео
Пассивный залог be + причастие прошедшего времени — важно, что происходит, а не кто это делает	I've been violated · are wired · might be fascinated
Придаточные определительные who / which + предложение — уточнение о человеке или предмете	gain which is · resistance, which means · cycle which is
Present Perfect have/has + причастие прошедшего времени — прошлое действие, важное сейчас	I've been violated · I've ever done · you've now reduced

Что такое техника Shadowing?

Shadowing — это научно обоснованная техника изучения языка, изначально разработанная для подготовки профессиональных переводчиков и популяризированная полиглотом доктором Александром Аргуэльесом. Метод прост, но эффективен: вы слушаете аудио на английском от носителей языка и немедленно повторяете вслух — как тень, следующая за говорящим с задержкой в 1–2 секунды. В отличие от пассивного прослушивания или грамматических упражнений, Shadowing заставляет мозг и мышцы рта одновременно обрабатывать и воспроизводить реальные речевые паттерны. Исследования показывают, что это значительно улучшает точность произношения, интонацию, ритм, связную речь, понимание на слух и беглость речи — что делает его одним из самых эффективных методов для подготовки к IELTS Speaking и реального общения на английском.

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О данном уроке

Ключевой вокабуляр и фразы

Советы по практике

Грамматика в этом видео

Что такое техника Shadowing?