Friday, September 19, 2008
Back to Basics: Procrastination - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Stepcase Lifehack: "There is a positive side to procrastination, but it’s important not to confuse procrastination at its best with everyday garden-variety procrastination. Sometimes — sometimes! — procrastination gives us the time we need to sort through a thorny issue or to generate ideas. In those rare instances, we should embrace procrastination — even as we push it away the rest of the time."
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12 comments:
I couldn't agree more with "The Ugly" part of this article. Often I will find myself incredibly productive because I'm avoiding work...I use that opportunity to get the dishes done, do laundry, work on other projects that are do later or do things like blog comments that don't take up too much of my time. Ultimately, I can get a lot done, but it doesn't really matter if it's the work that's due tomorrow that I put off for hours while I was too busy doing other, easier work.
The best way for me to combat this is to allow myself a certain amount of time for the more menial tasks, using them as breaks from thing I don't want to be doing. Then I tend to get more important things done, and still wash the dishes.
i think the kind of procrastination i tend to get caught in is a mix between the ugly and the good. especially here where i do need to think creatively for a lot of the work assigned i find myself coming up with a design concept while doing the dishes or vacuuming the living room.
the other thing is that last year we were informed that the way womens brains study or do other work is made better by concentrating on numerous tasks at once and switching between them. i'll often start on a homework, get a glass of water, notice the dirty dishes, wash the dishes, and then when i get back to the work at hand i feel better about continuing with it because i dont feel like it has just eaten my entire day. look i crossed TWO things off the list, not just one!
I agree with planning as a way to avoid procrastination. I procrastinate when I don't know how to tackle a project or am just so overwhelmed by it. I feel that planning helps me get over both of these barriers. I split a big project into smaller tasks so it doesn't overwhelm me and I feel accomplice every time I finish one task. With smaller tasks it also gives you some time to think about how you might want to go about it in a smaller scale.
I feel that procrastination just causes stress in the end. You push something off cause you don't want to do it or there is something more important. But when it comes time that it is due it causes a great deal of stress that you have to get it done and in such a short amount of time. Under the stress I fell the work can not be as good because there is so much emphasis on it.
I wish I could compare Joe's lecture to this but sadly we have not had that one yet!
I liked the part where the author called procrastination to a technical problem. As I tend to procrastinate a lot. It was refreshing to hear that the problem was the way that we approach tasks and not actually a deep moral issue. for some reason it seemed that the way they proposed breaking up tasks was somehow different from the the many other times it has been suggested to take the same action when approaching large cumbersome tasks. This article was somehow more helpful than others on the subject of procrastination.
Procrastination seems like candy to me. Too much of it is really bad for you, but you need to "treat" yourself every so often. I have definitely been inspired by something when I am procrastinating that incorporates itself into my project. Also, its a nice way to relax, you just need to be careful about staying on track and schedule. Otherwise, you'll never get any work done.
I agree with this article. It really spells out how we all perceive procrastination and its good and bad points of it. We all procrastinate in some fashion and it is better for some, and better for some activities rather than others. I find that some big projects need to be started earlier rather than smaller ones. I find it is much easier to wait until the last minute to do some projects because I am able to work much quicker and efficiently. It is weird how that works for me, but I am sure that I can do better work if I work over a longer period of time.
Interestingly enough, I disagree that the "concepting" part of the process is actually procrastination. I find that this time is vital to the productivity that comes later but I never considered that time to be putting off the task at hand. Perhaps it's worth noting that procrastination can have different definitions and connotations that are not necessarily bad ones.
This ties in really nicely with the time-management lecture we had in PTM class.
I am a chronic procrastinator, but only when I don't know if I'll be able to complete the project to my satisfaction. This, of course, is counter productive. In CS, I generally became so afraid of my programming assignments I couldn't even begin them until the night before.
The conceptualizing part of procrastination I find is a major part of my creative method. It lets ideas stew and I often solve problems overnight in my sleep.
Procrastination is a problem that I feel comfortable saying effects every person in the world. Now, procrastination can be a very bad thing and can cause important work to be put off while the easy “fun” work gets done. However, I also believe that it is an important part of any major project or work. Allowing time to think before acting is very important and thus adequate time must be taken in the “pre-work” phase (however this can also be used as an excuse!!!).
This is defiately one of the most aplicable and pressing issues that I personally have faced so far this year. I believe in a balnce between the good, bad, and ugly. I have found that some of my best designs have come on one of those night when the pressure is on and their I nothing else for one to do but work work work untilk its done at 3 in the morning. Basically I work best underpressure. However their is a fine line when all that procrastination becomes too much and just is ridiculous! That is when the whole balance principle comes into play allowing one to have enough pressure to get your best design possible but not too much at which you internally combust.
Last night I sat down at my computer to write a paper for foundations. I sat there doing nothing for 4 hours before I even opened up Word. I wish I could find a little more of the good procrastination. And the internet is the worst. I used to take my internet cable away and put it in another room so I couldn't get distracted on Digg or Facebook. Now that I'm at CMU though, everything is wireless and I can't do that.
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