Structured Procrastination: A Stitch In Time

The dictionary definition of Procrastination is the act of “carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, or doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones, and thus putting off impending tasks to a later time, sometimes to the "last minute" before the deadline.” In other words, doing what you want to do, instead of what you should be doing. At times, it could also be something we don’t mind doing; that science homework, packing our lunch for tomorrow to just taking a shower, these are many things people just don’t feel like doing,

     To procrastinate is to put off doing something out of casual carelessness or common laziness. It often needlessly postpones or delays events or objectives in your life which can effect others. Procrastination is almost like a drug in your life, because once you start doing it a little bit, it slowly adds up to a dependency that you will find to be common habit. Although this is what we all perceive procrastination to be bad, there are some benefits to it. It can have beneficial impact on how you take pressure, or how well you can act when time is limited.

Besides this omission by Kalat, he still provided an accurate and detailed account of the research article written by Ariely and Wertenbroch. This article is essential in understanding procrastination and answered throughly the three questions it posed. 1.) Are people willing to impose deadlines, with substantial consequences if they are not met, on themselves: yes. 2.) Are these self-imposed deadlines actually helpful in improving overall performance:

Procrastination is ignoring your responsibilities and avoiding them for no good reason. Experiencing procrastination can have a positive or negative reaction according to the amount of the behavior. The person that is procrastinating must first realize that they have a problem in order to find ways to overcome procrastination because they are putting their health, family and job at risk. Twenty percent of people realize they are procrastinators which in the end becomes a lifestyle. There are various reasons why people procrastinate.

“There is a bad side to procrastination, though, the bacteria kind, the one that if you don't clean up quickly, it will spread and fast. It gets to a point where you start seeing it in your dreams, piles upon piles of paper gliding across the room. You start to feel a shiver down your back, while you hear your teacher's voice in the background. Next thing you know, you have twenty-four piles touching the ceiling. It also may be contagious for whoever you may be around for an extended period of

Response “What does procrastination tell us about ourselves?” In the article “What does procrastination tell us about ourselves?” by James Surowiecki, the main idea is that procrastination is something that happens to the best of people. Procrastination is something that everyone suffers from, whether it’s putting off that important e-mail or dropping something in the mail.

Attention Getter: A famous author by the name of Wayne Dyer once said, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is incredibly heavy.”(1) In todays society it seems as if procrastination has become a normal and acceptable thing to do. It is often joked about amongst schoolmates and co-workers around the world. Nothing seems to get done until it absolutely needs to get done, then everyone runs around getting things done quickly and often times inaccurately. The trouble with this mentality however is that some things will never get done because something will come up tomorrow or the next day and what you are putting off now gets pushed even further back. Today I will persuade you to stop this habit from continuing. I will be explaining the problems we face when dealing with procrastination as well as how to deal with it and actions you can take to prevent it in the future.

The main two types of personalities the Tim Urban talk about in “Inside the mind of a procrastinator” is number one the procrastinator and number two the non-procrastinator. “We need to think about what we're really procrastinating on because everyone is procrastinating on something in life.” This means we are all procrastinator in something from either being a procrastinator in homework/work or being a procrastinator in exercising. When he says that there are two types of procrastinator personalities is technically wrong and there in only one and that personality is the procrastinator. “Brains have a Rational Decision-Maker in them .

Procrastination is a tendency to postpone, put off, delay, reschedule, take a rain check on, put on ice, hold off, or to defer what is necessary to reach a particular goal.(Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Philip Lief Group 2009.) While attending College some students find it hard to juggle work, family, and friends. Leading most students down a dangerous path to procrastination; that negative impact affect students from their physical health, mental health, and social health.

When I first dove into this article understanding what it was about, I began to feel the sense of disappointment because I procrastinate all the time. I am sure many others have had the same feeling overcome them as well while reading this article. The revolutionary concept behind this article was how the author of it implied the article to the readers, asking us questions such as “If we know that certain events are going to happen, why do we fail to take preventive actions?” These questions become crucial and are added on to as the article continues. It gives the reader something to dwell on while continuing their active reading and it may as well open up an opportunity for some of us who read the article to apply it to our daily lives to

“A Dictionary of the English Language” written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, defined procrastination as “delay.” This common issue mostly around everyone. Many people struggle with deadlines every day. It is one of the largest problems seen in college counseling centers. (Grohol, Psy.D.)

I am a lazy person no matter what the topic at hand is. When I go to school, I think of how I’m going to be able to do the bare minimum for each of my classes. Many students hear the word procrastination but I can say truthfully that I’m the living proof of the word. Do not get me wrong, as I take many difficult classes. The problem was how I accomplished each task. I would always leave them for day before it was due. This holds true even for this class. I am not going to lie, but I wrote this paper the day before it was due. Now to talk about writing for me was never a leisure activity. I hated to write essays because I was never good at it. I feel like that is quite selfish of me to not complete a task based on difficulty. Almost like not

It is three in the morning, and a haggard man puts the finishing touches on a presentation that he has had a month to complete. A bright young boy scurries around the backyard collecting bugs for his big science project due the next morning. A grown woman packs at two in the morning for her six-thirty business trip. A man disappoints his wife with a gift of socks for Christmas, which was all he could find on Christmas Eve. What is wrong with these people? Why do normal, intelligent people fritter their time away; and wait till the last possible moment to do the necessary? In a word, procrastination.

She says: “Being lazy is when you are unwilling to do something while procrastinating is when you intend to do something but you’re just postponing the work.” By distinguishing these two words, Jill makes it very clear to the readers that procrastination and laziness do not represent the same thing. Procrastination is not as bad as being lazy. This comparison shows Jill acknowledges that there is a misunderstanding of procrastination. Therefore, knowing the difference between procrastinating and being lazy is very crucial in redefining the word “procrastination”. Here, clarifying any confusion by using comparison helps develop the idea of what does it mean to procrastinate, which contributes to the main points of this essay. To explain why procrastination is not unacceptable, Jill not only uses comparison but also effectively uses questions to further illustrate why procrastination is not

“I’ll stop procrastinating…Tomorrow.” This is a mindset that is possessed by a majority of students today. Although putting off writing that English paper until the night before it is due may not seem like a big deal, it has many harmful effects. In fact, what better topic is there for that English paper? Very few are spared from the epidemic known as procrastination. Even less overcome this issue. In order to successfully defeat procrastination, we must first understand it.