Procrastination refers to the act of replacing or postponing priority and important activities with pleasurable activities or less relevant or urgent tasks. In those people who postpone things, on an emotional level one may notice anxiety or inability to think or make decisions adequately in the future.

When the habit of postponing is consolidated, it usually ends up influencing larger and larger areas of life. Therefore, we are constantly postponing the beginning, the continuation or the completion of numerous activities.

This attitude can lead to problems at work or in social life, which influence the confidence we place in our own abilities. So the delay of important tasks and activities interferes with personal productivity, prevention to face the challenges, and thus achieve their goals and realize their aspirations and desires.

This condition has been studied in several areas to find the cause ... from pathological or personality traits to deep brain studies.

From a scientific point of view, a brain that procrastinates seems to be significantly different from someone who does not postpone things.

This is the conclusion reached by scientific studies in which they analyzed the reason why some people tend to suspend their tasks instead of facing them directly.

In short, the art of postponing was thought to be observed simply in those who, because of insecurity, lack of will, fear of making mistakes, postponed for tomorrow what they could do today. However, experts have identified two areas of the brain whose volume and functional connectivity are linked to a person's ability to control their actions, demonstrating that those with little ability to exert control over actions had a larger amygdala. In addition, the functional connection between the amygdala and the "anterior dorsal cortex" was less pronounced.

The main function of the amygdala (structure of the brain that controls motivation and emotions) is to evaluate different situations regarding its results on the possible negative consequences of certain actions. The dorsal cortex uses this information to select the actions that must be put into practice, but, by suppressing actions and emotions in the competition, ensures that the selected action can be completed successfully. So, according to the researchers, individuals with a larger volume of the amygdala may be more concerned about the negative consequences of an action and tend to hesitate and postpone things.

However, there are practices that can help reduce the degree of procrastination in our daily lives to prevent the postponement from taking over our life completely ... In another next installment, I will be mentioning them.