Lifehack: Procrastination is a topic we have covered many times on Lifehack, it’s a bad habit and an unnecessary evil, but this answer found on Quora by Oliver Emberton has become one of the most popular and upvoted answers and we just had to share it with you…
13 comments:
I think procrastination, on different levels of course is a common problem amongst students everywhere. The people who can acknowledge and work against the desire to put off working tend to be the more successful in school though I know that is easier said than done. TO be honest, I usually try to put off doing work by doing other, almost as important homework. So for example If I do not feel like drafting I will get all of my comments done! That is what works for me, I guess that is all people have to do, just figure out how they work so they can optimize their performance.
I will totally read this article tomorrow.
Procrastination is often a problem in schools, and I think many of the dp's have shown this article to be true. Very few people leave their box project to the last minute because of the social pressure thing he mentioned, and, especially for me, once I've started the project, I want to get it off my desk, so I finish it as much as I can. I also think that the point the article made about leaving time for hygiene and personal care too was very accurate. The other night, I went to bed super early when I should have been working because I was so tired. And doing that didn't even set me back at all, so obviously "Rex" was right on that one.
This article takes an interesting topic and explains it very simply. Your decision to change your work habit has to be a conscious one. You can't just hope that tomorrow you'll wake up hoping you'll be in the mood to do your homework. If that were the case, then everyone would be a lot more on top of their work. Instead, like the article said, you have to make a change and create new habits to benefit your work instead of hoping your old ones will work out. Procrastination used to be a huge problem for me when I was in college. Eventually, though, I hit the point where I had to make a change in my life. I couldn't sleep, eat, work, and procrastinate. Something had to go, and I made the decision to change my lifestyle in order to become more productive. It seems to be something that most people have to learn the hard way. You crash and burn, and then you pick up the pieces. Some people just have to crash and burn more times than others.
And Dale, I really appreciate you. :P
This article was very enjoyable; love the images. But in all seriousness, it put a new twist on the never-ending topic of procrastination, and explained it instead of solely giving somewhat useful and very obvious solutions. I don't know how true this whole Albert-Rex theory is (I understand that the two characters are a metaphor), but it does make a lot of sense to me. This is the first set of procrastination solutions that I've seen that I feel like I could actually stick to, because they stem off of new ideas and the reasoning behind them is explained. No matter what, it's true that sleeping and eating well will allow you to be more productive; that's not a secret, but I like being reminded of it in such a logical way.
This is a great symplistic way to come at sollutions to procrastination. Like Simone said I also avoid some work by doing others and over the past year I have found some simple sollutions to procrastination by simply reminding myself of schedules. If i try to put off a task or piece of homework, consistantly reminding myself of what else needs to get done does well for making sure that work is getting done.
I wish following the advice in this article was as easy as it seems. The other problem I have with reading this article is that half the time I'm avoiding my homework it's because I'm sleeping or doing other homework. If there is a project that I really don't want to do, I'll do all my other home work, then I'll eat at by the point it will be late so I'll just go to sleep. Well thats not the typical procrastination, its still a problem. What I need to do is find a way to get pumped about my school work before I start so that I don't get distracted so easily.
Now that I'm done procrastinating writing this comment... This was definitely one of the more entertaining and interesting articles that I've read on the subject of procrastination. It really drove home the fact that you have to make a conscious choice to conquer procrastination, and that it really won't go away by itself. I try and get in a mood to work by starting with assignments that I'm excited about or dreading less, which then allows me to transition to the ones that I really want to put off for days at a time because they are unpleasant.
That's a cute analogy for a concept that I think they are oversimplifying a bit. But it's not a bad one. I think there is a little more to it then treating yourself like a child but all of the advice listed at the end seemed pretty solid. I used to have a lot of problems with procrastination, I used to not do my work until the very last minute. I still procrastinate but I reshaped it. Now I do my work way ahead of time but on the days I do it, I generally spend a couple hours dillydallying after I have sat down. All in all not that harmful though. I think I mostly realized that I could get real sleep if I stopped procrastinating things and that was all the motivation I needed.
Oh man here we go again, another article about how to stop procrastinating......this one however hold up a sort of esteem with me though, starting off with science. and after reading this i always say oh hyeah ill do that next time!! and i never do. procrastination is soemkthing im okay with its semi ingrained in me. and i dont see it changing anytime soonl
As many people have said above me, not procrastinating has to be a conscious choice, and it you're a huge procrastinator now, making that decision and sticking with it is going to be difficult. I appreciate the imagery of this article, but I really wish it hadn't been simplified quite so much, to the point where it was at the level of an early children's book. The article is pretty much talking about the Id and the Superego (yay Freud!). What it doesn't really mention is the Ego, which is what balances out the two and lets you choose between sitting on the sofa eating cheetos and writing that paper you know you need to write.
I sometimes think that I procrastinate because I know that there is such a thing as procrastination; because if you can finish something early then why not huh? I even procrastinated in doing these comments. The reality is that when something is important to you, you place more emphasis on it and may be more inclined to do it. When things are further down the line of importance procrastination is harder to alter. As the article says.. "The most important thing you can do is start"... So as I told myself just now.. JUST DO your comments!! The article was indeed a slap in the face and the graphics were a nice addition too.
I loved this article! I think the way that the author explained how the different parts of your brain work in your decision-making was really helpful in understanding why people procrastinate. The tips they gave for subverting that procrastination were similar to many others that you find in similar articles about beating procrastination, but they made much more sense in the context of the analogy presented. While I'm not sure about how effective it is to compare your basal ganglia to a small child, it does provide context as to why logically reasoning with yourself doesn't always work when you need to get something done. The article also stressed the importance of sleeping and eating which I definitely appreciate.
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