Why Wait? the Science Behind Procrastination

Kind of painful to read such an accurate account of my own psychological failings while currently carrying out such failings (procrastinating by reading this article)

For those who would rather try to use procrastination to their advantage than fight against it: http://www.structuredprocrastination.com/

Labels are dangerous, and labelling yourself as a procrastinator will just make you even less likely to do the work you need to do. I think I get a lot of work done (solo game dev on my own), but I also re-organise my task list about every week too, does that make me a procrastinator? If I get stuck on a hard problem, I'll often browse the internet mindlessly, then come back and solve it. Does that make me a procrastinator? If I take a week off, am I a procrastinator!?

Just because we made up a word for 'not doing work' doesn't make it real, or a problem. 'chronic procrastination'? Give me a break.

I think the real problem is people don't like doing things that are hard, which work generally is (nothing worth doing is easy after all!), and it's easy to just not do something and not have to suffer through the stress of it, anxiety of it and so on.

If you're still reading, my solution for all this is exercise, specifically Yoga. I have a mat laid out in my house, and when I'm stressed I just do poses, stretching and breathing, and all the 'bad feelings' go away. then I can work in a relaxed state and end up being very productive. A biologist would probably tell you that you release chemicals that combat the stress chemicals and so on, but I just know it works.

Do you think you can attribute the relaxation more to the breathing or stretching component?

I've been doing casual meditation (mostly just mindful breathing) and I wonder if I'd further benefit my mind from Yoga. I already do intense cardio and resistance exercises from other activities.

Phew, I feel like the author of this article has been snooping in my diary. (That is, if I didn't procrastinate writing entries in it.) Quotes that really stand out:

> “It really has nothing to do with time-management,” he says. “As I tell people, to tell the chronic procrastinator to just do it would be like saying to a clinically depressed person, cheer up.”

> “The chronic procrastinator, the person who does this as a lifestyle, would rather have other people think that they lack effort than lacking ability,” says Ferrari. “It’s a maladaptive lifestyle.”

> “The future self becomes the beast of burden for procrastination,” says Sirois. “We’re trying to regulate our current mood and thinking our future self will be in a better state. They’ll be better able to handle feelings of insecurity or frustration with the task. That somehow we’ll develop these miraculous coping skills to deal with these emotions that we just can’t deal with right now.”

> But while the tough love approach might work for couples, the best personal remedy for procrastination might actually be self-forgiveness.