Procrastination

[pikamom]

Hey Diana--good to see your post and I like reading the article. It is a shame to get side tracked especially when we know exactly what to do about staying on track. I am thinking about you today and hoping it is a good OP day for you. Love, Cinde graemlins/wave.gif

[kap]

http://angelwinks.net/images/animatedpod/animatedpod1058.gif
Diana...we are all guilty of procrastation..It just depends how we want to deal with it...and by posting with us you show that a little goes a long way..So just one question for you ..WHAT HAPPENED TO REGROUP!!!!!!...
We still need to do that..Regroup..amoung your buddies here Diana...this is where you belong..I sent the above hug just for you my friend..enjoy it and coninue to regroup with us...Hugs Hugs Hugs...Kathy

[Shican]

Diana; Welcome home. Missed seeing your posts. Glad to hear you are back in the saddle again even though you say your not sure if you have heard your click yet. I remember an WW leader once saying, just "fake it till you make it". If it works well heh....why not?

I am so terrified of slipping because it also takes me sooo loong to get back on track. I had a slight slip on Sunday evening but I am pleased to say I also am back! (Plus I learned a lesson from where I went wrong)

[redhotmama]

Hi gang!
I haven't been around much lately due to problems getting myself back on track. I admit I am a terrible procrastinator and "tomorrow" always seems to be a better time to get my rear in gear. Well, to make a long story short, my pants are fitting tighter and I am in grave danger of losing the ground that I worked so hard to gain and I cannot allow that to happen. So I am back OP and "regrouping" (where have I heard that before?) The insanity of putting off til tomorrow what should be done today has to stop!
Spending the day with my very fit daughter made me ashamed of my lack of committment so, although I am not sure my "click" is back, I am back in the game fighting. It is a very scary thing to lose focus to the extent that I stopped exercising as well as I really thought I was into the habit of walking every day. I am down but not out, just came back from a long walk and I am going to try mightily to get back into the swing of things here on the boards. I have missed you guys! Anyway, I have copied an interesting article on procrastination here so if you are interested, please read it, if not, no problem. I remember hearing a little quote on the subject and it sticks in my mind.

"Procrastination is my sin,
It brings me endless sorrow,
I really must stop doing it,
In fact, I'll start tomorrow"

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GUILT-FREE GOOFING OFF

Scholars agree: we were born to put off to tomorrow what we could do today

BRIAN BERGMAN

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
-- Mark Twain

HE'S RIGHT, of course. But it's not always as easy as all that. Think about it: how often have you put off some unpleasant or unrewarding task until it is nearly too late, or worse? The deadline looms, the pressure mounts, and, finally, you swing into action. In the end, more often than not, the deed gets done. But the stress is draining. You swear you'll never put yourself through that again, but the vow is soon broken. Why, oh why, do we keep doing this to ourselves?



Piers Steel knows the answer. Or, at least, he has some extremely educated guesses. An assistant professor at the University of Calgary's Faculty of Management, Steel, 36, has spent more than three years conducting a "meta-analysis" of practically everything ever written on procrastination. He's pored over nearly 700 professional papers from the fields of psychology, economics, philosophy and sociology, and examined historical documents dating back 3,000 years. His conclusion? "Procrastination is our normal state of being," says Steel. "It's not procrastinating that requires effort."

Steel argues that, in terms of evolutionary psychology, humans were hard-wired from the beginning to attend to present rewards, and dangers, rather than future possibilities. When life revolved around hunting and gathering, such behaviour made perfect sense. "It meant you were going to survive, mate, feed," says Steel. But priorities started to change, first with the move to an agrarian economy, again during the Industrial Revolution and, most dramatically, in the current high-tech era. Goals and deadlines became increasingly long-term, as did the rewards for meeting them. Meanwhile, a tantalizing array of possible diversions -- think television and, especially, the Internet -- presented themselves.

Small wonder, then, that we have become a society of dilly-dallyers. A series of surveys taken since 1978 show the number of people who say they are moderate procrastinators has increased from about 15 to 60 per cent, while those who admit to frequent procrastination jumped from one to six per cent. It's also the rare individual who is entirely free of the vice; fully 95 per cent of respondents say they put off the avoidable at least occasionally.

While there are many dictionary definitions of procrastination, Steel has come up with his own: "to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay." The point is, the decision is not rational. The delay isn't for strategic reasons (as is often the case in military conflicts) or because of a lack of information. We know we should act, and that failing to do so will bring us grief. And yet we do nothing. "When we procrastinate, it's almost always about long-term objectives," says Steel. "Instead of attending to those, we go with what is more pleasurable or less painful right now."

Men are slightly more likely to procrastinate than women. Young people are far more likely to do so than their elders (high-school and university students are among the worst offenders). Impulsive people are especially vulnerable, because they are so easily diverted. Different people procrastinate about different things. Workaholics, for example, almost always meet their job-related deadlines. But many of them will put off going to a doctor, doing their taxes or seeking counselling for a troubled marriage. Typically, people feel bad about their inaction. "Often they are struggling against it, much like an addiction," says Steel. "People will say, 'no matter what I do, I can't seem to stop putting things off.' "

One of the earliest references Steel found is from Hesiod, a Greek poet, who wrote around 700 BCE. "Industry makes work go well," observed Hesiod, "but a man who puts off work is always at hand-grips with ruin." The Hindu text, the Bhagavad-Gita, which took written form about 100 CE, lumps procrastination in with a host of other personality flaws, including vulgarity, stubbornness, malice and laziness.

A tad more recently, one of the giants of English letters, Samuel Johnson, wrote in 1751 that procrastination is "one of the general weaknesses, which, in spite of the instruction of moralists, and the remonstrances of reason, prevail to a greater or lesser degree in every mind." The esteemed author of one of the first English dictionaries was no exception. Legend has it that Johnson was once so late in delivering an essay for the periodical The Rambler that the publisher sent an errand boy to retrieve the manuscript. Johnson scrambled to pen the article as the courier waited patiently outside his door.

Writers through the ages have been particularly prone to procrastination. And in recent years, says Steel, the Internet has given them, and many others, yet another reason to dawdle. So much to surf, so little time to do, well, much of anything else. Perhaps it's only fitting, then, that the Web is home to several tongue-in-cheek pro-procrastination sites. Typical is the Saskatchewan-based International Society for the Promotion of Procrastination. Visitors are told that prospective members (the only kind they have, it's noted) should put their personal information as well as an unsigned cheque (post-dated, of course) into an envelope and send it to an address in Findlater, Sask. Alas, when one clicks to open the society's alleged postal code, nothing happens.

So if you are saddled with the curse of procrastination, what can be done about it? There are, says Steel, several possible remedies. It helps to understand the link between energy levels and delay: the more tired you are, the more likely you are to dither. So get plenty of sleep and exercise and deal with particularly aversive tasks in the morning, when energy levels tend to be higher. Another tip is to break down large projects into several staggered goals; as you complete each one, you are motivated to tackle the others. Personal routines are also good. By establishing a set of steps for doing things automatically, there's less chance for diversion. Steel offers the example of brushing teeth: children have to be constantly reminded to do it, but by adulthood it's become an ingrained behaviour.

Steel admits that his abiding interest in procrastination -- he plans to write a book on the subject -- has some personal roots. As a high-school and university student, he would often pull all-nighters, cramming for a test because he had put off studying. And even now, he keeps temptation at bay by making sure his office computer is clear of all video games. But the Calgary academic has some encouraging words for fellow sufferers. "There's enough slack in our society that people can goof off occasionally," says Steel. "Most people can moderately procrastinate and still live pretty good lives."

Okay, then, take a break. Just make it a short one, eh?

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I need all of you and depend on this group so much, but I haven't been drawing on the well-spring of motivation and inspiration that is found here as much as I should. Thank you for being here for me. I love you all!

Diana graemlins/bcbsalute.gif :cool:

[CathyJ]

Glad to see you posting, Diana. Even if you're not hearing the click right now, if you behave as if you do, you'll get the results you want.

Thanks for the procrastination article. I've been thinking a lot about procrastination lately myself, and it ties in with something else I've also been thinking about, shadow comforts or soft addictions or whatever one wants to call them. I waste a lot of time surfing the net, playing computer games, etc., when I could use some of that time to exercise, declutter, write, or do other things that are meaningful. For me, those soft addictions are a form of procrastination.

Cathy