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by nicholas osagie1 view·Updated Mar 22, 2021
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  1. do you tend to wait until the very last minute
  2. to get things done?
  3. Or are you someone who always gets things done right
  4. away? If you happen to do things last minute, have
  5. you ever wondered why it's so hard to be productive?
  6. Earlier on?
  7. The purpose of this presentation is to briefly explored a
  8. possible genetic basis of productivity's worst enemy procrastination.
  9. In the world of time management, there are two kinds
  10. of people.
  11. Let's call the first type the master procrastinator and the
  12. second type the master organizer.
  13. When given an important task, the procrastinator constantly puts off
  14. working on the task until the deadline for the task
  15. completion is near.
  16. The result.
  17. A series of sleepless nights full of panic as a
  18. procrastinator tries to complete the entire task in a short
  19. amount of time.
  20. Most people have been procrastinator at some point in their
  21. life. On the other hand, there are some people who
  22. are quite adept at fighting off the temptation of procrastination
  23. better than others.
  24. These people may rig a large task down into smaller
  25. parts and work a little on each day rather than
  26. panicking. As the deadline gets closer, they are able to
  27. remain calm.
  28. So what separates these two people?
  29. Is the Christian nation simply a personal choice?
  30. Or are people who procrastinate genetically different from people who
  31. don't? If we can understand what separates people who tend
  32. to procrastinate from people who don't?
  33. Perhaps we can learn better ways of structuring school and
  34. work environments to better suit both types of people.
  35. This can result in better productivity for all mhm.
  36. While it is often assumed that procrastination is purely a
  37. personal choice and as a reflection of laziness, research has
  38. shown that both biological and psychological factors play a role
  39. in the human ability to delay instant gratification.
  40. Researchers concluded that 46% of the tendency to procrastinate may
  41. actually be decided by genes.
  42. Additionally, researchers have have shown that people who procrastinate have
  43. a bigger um Magdala, which is the area of the
  44. brain that processes emotion.
  45. So how does this all work?
  46. The th gene makes an enzyme called tyrosine hydrogen, please.
  47. This enzyme regulates dopamine production, which is a neurotransmitter that
  48. plays a key role in attention, memory and motivation.
  49. Expression of the th gene varies among individuals and people
  50. with higher levels of dopamine tend to behave more impulsively.
  51. Impulsive behavior leads to procrastination.
  52. In reality, it's not that simple.
  53. Researchers have found a sex dependent effect of the th
  54. genotype and procrastination.
  55. Basically, this means that women may be genetically more prone
  56. to procrastination than men.
  57. In a 2019 research study, 278 healthy adults, mostly college
  58. students Regina type using PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques.
  59. The participants also completed a questionnaire about their procrastination tendencies.
  60. The results suggested that women who carried a specific variant
  61. of the th gene reported having less control over their
  62. actions and were more likely to be procrastinators.
  63. They were also genetically more likely to have higher dopamine
  64. levels. No such correlation was found in men.
  65. Mhm. So, in conclusion, procrastination appears to be at least
  66. partially influenced by genetics, the genetic effects of procrastination maybe
  67. more prominent in women than in men.
  68. So the next time you find yourself procrastinating, go easy
  69. on yourself.
  70. It may actually just be in your DNA