In Praise of Procrastination

Ponca City writes "Every year, millions of Americans pay needless penalties because they don't file their taxes on time, forgo huge amounts of money in matching 401(k) contributions because they never get around to signing up for a retirement plan, and risk blindness from glaucoma because they don't use their eyedrops regularly. James Surowiecki writes that procrastination is a basic human impulse, a peculiar irrationality stemming from our relationship to time — in particular, from a tendency that economists call 'hyperbolic discounting,' the ability to make rational choices when they're thinking about the future, but, as a future event gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm their long-term goals. Game theorist Thomas Schelling proposes that we think of ourselves a collection of competing selves, jostling, contending, and bargaining for control, where one represents your short-term interests (having fun, putting off work, and so on), while another represents your long-term goals. Philosopher Mark Kingwell puts it in existential terms: 'Procrastination most often arises from a sense that there is too much to do, and hence no single aspect of the to-do worth doing. Underneath this rather antic form of action-as-inaction is the much more unsettling question whether anything is worth doing at all.'"

From personal experience

[lanceran]

I've been fighting procrastination for several years, and I am sure many have and still are. The one(and seemingly only) solution that I have found is to change your entire attitude towards your life. Procrastination arises from your mental extrapolation of how long a certain task will do and how many other small sub-tasks it will include. This line of thinking is most likely to overwhelm you and stop you right in you tracks("well, just look how much there's still to do, i'd rather do it later, when i am not as busy"). This is, at least for me, is the source of laziness. The right way to approach things is not to think about the future AT ALL, it is hard, but possible. Living in the moment and doing what excites you at one particular moment in time still somehow accomplishes the task at hand, and you don't spend your time thinking about it as a bunch of small sub-tasks. Think of it as writing a 50 page essay. You don't just sit down and start thinking "oh I have to write a 50 page essay, look at how much planning i have to do before it", when to actually do it, all you have to do is just separate it in sections based on topics that it covers, sit down and start writing in said section sentence by sentence. Different approach, same result. This advice, my fellow geeks, also applies to interaction with opposite sex. "Oh no, i might say something, and then she might say something and i'll ruin everything so i shouldn't say anything at all." - Bad. "I feel like saying something to her right now, I should say it." - Good.

Re:From personal experience

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been fighting procrastination for several years

I used to hate procrastination but then ran across the concept that, for a programmer, procrastination is a virtue (perhaps Scott Meyers in MEFC++).

The thinking is roughly along the lines of "don't build what you don't need"... sometimes you end up never needing it.

Now I embrace procrastination as a technique to manage priorities.

In Search of Stress

[anorlunda]

I used to deliberately procrastinate on all coding jobs. That is because I found that I performed best under the stress of an approaching deadline. It forces you to totally focus on the job. In those circumstances, I was most creative, and productive, and made the fewest errors.

I believe that's why programmers have always loved all nighters. Programs conceived, designed, implemented, and tested in a single unbroken session are far more cohesive than any others.

I say all this in the past tense. Eventually I burned out when the stress overwhelmed me. Now I'm retired to a cruising sailboat and the closest thing to a deadline I see is the approaching change of season.

Difference between healthy and unhealthy...

[Anonymous Coward]

When talking about procrastination, we must either talk about the healthy or unhealthy procrastination. Every single person procrastinates to some degree and for most it is indees exactly as you say (negative effects tend to be short lived or minor and there are many positive side effects). Procrastination can also be rather ugly psychological problem, in which case that doesn't quite hold true.

Anecdote 1

When I was at my first job (18 years old, straight out of high school and landed in a great job. I was rather competent at what I did but I also had a lot of luck...), I suddenly got a huge load of responsibility. The company would sell projects (I won't go into detail about what it was. But the things to know were: They cost thousands of dollars a piece, last for a year or so and most customers weren't that interested to pay attention the whole time... So very poorly ran project might go a year unnoticed by a customer but at that point, shit would hit the fan) and I was assigned quite a lot of those. For most of the time, I handled those really well but then there were a few more problematic ones: We couldn't proceed before I would get some data from the customers. "I'll give them a call some day." Fine. A few weeks went... And at that point the procrastination started to kick in: "Shit. This is still on hold? It's a bit embarrassing to call them now and admit that we've done nothing during the first six weeks. Not the end of the world but unpleasant. I'll do it soon". Guess whether I did or not? Another month rolled by. "Shit. This is pretty bad. Not catastrophic but bad none the less. But the later I do this, the worse it gets... I'll better call them soon.". A few more weeks. At that point my superior began making some inquiries but I managed to dodge them. A few more weeks... At this point it was pretty "catastrophic" (Well, there was a large chance that the company would have to return some money and apologize... I might or might not have been fired for that) but I knew that every day made it worse.

I kept promising myself "I'll make the call after lunch." or "I'll make the call tomorrow." or "I'll make the call when it is exactly 2:30 pm."... But I could never do it when the moment came. I wasn't lazy or incompetent: I would do every new project and most old project very well. It just were those few skeletons in the closet that I just couldn't force myself to deal with. My superior began finding out and put some pressure on me to continue with the project... But I couldn't make the call. I liked what I did but every single time I heard a phone ring I thought "Maybe this time one of those customers calls...". The stress became so bad that I had to take a few shots before going to work, just so I could make myself do that... How did I eventually solve the problem? I quit. The awesome job had just gotten too stressful because of those few cases and after months of suffering I had proved myself that I just couldn't deal with them. So... That was it.

Anecdote 2

I'm not sure if this is technically an anecdote or not, because it is my general process... I guess it is an anecdote about a single procrastinating person.

I, like many people, do things the last night before deadline. And very late at night at that. But it isn't laziness: I don't choose immediate gratification over long term goal... As I don't enjoy myself while I delay things. Sure, up untill the deadline is close, I'll just think "Meh, I can do it later. It isn't a biggie." (As is common for procrastinators). Then, when deadline is close I think that healthy procrastinators say "Shit. I'll have to do it now." or "Meh. Too late. I just won't do it in time". But I? I can't start it but I won't accept not doing it on time... So I can't do anything fun as I know "I should be doing [the thing]" and will just feel anxious and bad about that. But I also can't start the thing... Untill it is really, really as late as it can be. That 2 hour thing that should be due 8am next morning? I'll start feel bad about it

Re:From personal experience

[juxtaposter]

One cost of living in the moment is it creates a tyranny of the moment. “I must do this now.” As the person who multi tasks work, home and care, I need to prioritize and sometimes avoid side tracks of what excites. That said, I am still happier with less procrastination. Three tricks that work for me: 1. When stalled with details, keep moving anyway. “Do something easy.” 2. When wanting quit, nibble. “Do one more thing” 3. When thinking of a trivial task for a third time, just do it. “Three strikes, you’re out.”

Re:From personal experience

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, but I still get that red bar :)

Ever heard of that test where you are supposed to read some color names on screen? Unfortunately green is colored in red, red is colored blue etc.? Maybe that's why.

For the record, I do test driven development (kind of, I write test and code at the same time/close to each other, not necessarily test first and then code.). The bad thing is not writing the tests and the red bars while writing. It's only later, when you do an architectural change that unfortunately has the effect of making you rewrite a lot of test because they are failing with lots of red bars :) I know it's better than having the whole thing fall apart at a later stage and not having tests at all, but it still sucks, because I now have one of those huge piles of work in front of me. And no, test architecture can not always save you from this, unfortunately.