Sunday, August 31, 2014

7. The Procrastination Doom Loop—and How to Break It

         Procrastination has been studied by scientists in the last few years. Scientists have figured out that procrastination has more to do with emotion than time. Typically they focused on how people were stressed and overweighed at costs and the benefits across time. However, procrastination, by definition, is self-defeating; it is upfront and obvious. People constantly choose small and short rewards, over larger and longer payouts. Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University said, " Procrastination really has nothing to do with time-management,” and “To tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up.” There are two reasons for procrastination: 1. People delay their actions because they feel like they’re in the wrong mood to complete a task; 2. they assume that their mood will change in the near future. Procrastination isn’t just self-defeat; putting away an important task makes people feel guilty, anxious and ashamed. These feelings are likely to create more pressure and then people lose control of their cognitive and emotional energy to be productive. That makes them less likely to even start their task; which creates guilt and makes them less productive. That is the cycle of procrastination.

        The author, Derek Thompson, wrote a very realistic and well written article.  A unique thing about Thompson’s article is that he stated his own personal struggle with procrastination as an example to the reader. He gave that example so the reader could relate to him and feel better reading the article; so the reader would not feel like he was the only person who ever procrastinated. Thompson shows that there is nothing wrong with a person if he or she procrastinates; he creates a very calm and save environment for the article instead of jus accusing people. His evidence is accurate and reliable; most of it came from Thompson himself speaking to different scientists and a professor. He uses informal language, which is acceptable because he was trying to create a relatable text. He also uses graphs and pictures for better understanding of the cycle for procrastinating.


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