Procrastination
 

Can somebody post about procrastination?


I would write a big article, but I can't seem to get around to it.

Yeah sure, you can wait till tomorrow for it right?

the deadline is a week on Sunday, so you could start it the day just before?

Is this going to carry on being a joke or is somone going to post somthing useful, this is a massive problem of mine

Okay I will write something about it!

In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.[1] Schraw, Pinard, Wadkins, and Olafson have proposed three criteria for a behavior to be classified as procrastination: it must be counterproductive, needless, and delaying.[2]

Okay, I copied from wikipedia!

Now this has got me thinking, if we sub-conciously make the decision in our head to delay a task, assuming it is to "avoid the anxiety" or whatever, why would we even make the decision to do the task in the first place (knowing it will bring associated anxiety?

Perhaps if we take a college course I am doing. I have assignments to do with given deadlines. Perhaps before starting the course, I sub-conciously weigh up the benefits of completing the course, with the negatives of the effort required to complete it, and if it seems worth it, then we start the course. But then, when it comes to crunch time, I always make an excuse not to do the assignment work // UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE.

Conclusion: Humans are odd

You get some people who get work to do and start it straight away while its all freash in their minds
then you get me and i`ll put it off until the last minute--end up rushing it and not having any sleep to get it done!
whats the difference between me and the other person?

Perhaps you value doing other things in the meantime more instead of the thing left to the last minute?

I am also of the type of person who leave it until the last minute. BUT. I always get it done. And some of it has been quite good work. But I am also quite the opposite.

When I start a task, I work through it very fast, I hate having half finished projects and stuff. I want the solution, results, the end of the task, FAST FAST.

I have noticed myself procrastinating before, but not stopped it!

I think there is a link between Lazyness, procastrination and being in a depressive state.
depressed people cannot face doing things so put them off as long as possible-- even simple things like clearing some mess up, putting clothes away.
I noticed when i was heavily depressed and couldnt face doing anything-- when i started on Meds my attitude changed i didnt procastrinate anything i actually WANTED to do things and did them! i found myself walking round B&Q buying plants for my garden and i took a step back and thought wtf this is mad! im in the garden section of B&Q

Where do you get said pills I think I might need them I'm forever feeling depressed but I never know what to do about it. I think going out and doing something like playing pool or football is good for depression I always thought anti-depressants would sedate you.

One aspect of my day job is to coach people on how to prioritise tasks on a project. The optimal strategy typically is whats called "weighted shortest job first" . The weighting factor being cost of delay.

It actually explains why people leave things to the last minute: at that point the cost of delay, and thus the return on invested effort, is highest.

Its an example of where an instinctive approach seems initially at odds with the simple "logic" of the situation, yet actually turns out to be spot on when you dig a bit deeper.