Structured Procrastination

I thought this was a very true article. As I was reading it everything he stated is exactly as I do on a regular basis. I thought it was interesting that someone who has so much to do and is a very smart individual like him would procrastinate just as much as someone like me.

At the beginning of the article he states that he has been meaning to write this essay for months. Why has he just now started it? Because he found uncommitted time? No, it's actually because he has more important things to do now. People always have multiple things to do. Normally there is something that is most important to start on but all the little miscellaneous tasks that follow under that we will start on first to get done and out of the way.

This article relates to my life tremendously right now! I have tons of things to accomplish now that were in the middle of the semester. But my number one priority should be my research paper in research methods of psych. I have been putting this paper off for months and have been doing all the other things that I need to get done before it. right now I am writing this blog; although I have no idea when this is due and yet my research paper is due next Tuesday. This paper is going to be extremely hard for me. I dont like apa style research papers I have discovered... they just are not that appealing to me. It is the number one thing on my list I SHOULD be doing but because of structured procrastination I have been putting it off. Luckily its not like I haven't been doing anything, I have actually been completing a lot of different tasks, and even been getting those tasks done before the due dates.

I think this article definitely put my life into perspective. especially for this week! It helps me recognize that this is something millions of people are probably doing. I think that if we wrote down our goals that we had each week, it would help us out tremendously. short-term goals are easier to accomplish then long-term goals. If we made a plan to get the number one thing on our list accomplished first, then that may help us out. But if we were to get the number one task competed, who is to say we would finish the other tasks we need to get done. It is a very interesting concept. I think that although I have been putting off this paper; I have done so many more tasks that I would normally have been putting off as well.

This article was so amazing because it was so eerily like my life. I am a huge procrastinator and am usually finishing things right before the deadline (like how I just finished by my reading blog an hour before it was due). I often off set things I should be doing with small for attainable tasks and whats funny is I feel accomplished for those menial tasks when I have larger more urgent tasks in the wing. When I am working on those tasks, I find myself walking away and doing something else or doing pretty much anything other than the assignment coming back to it every so often and adding a little more. A three page paper can take me painful hours.
Terminology that best represents this idea is, for one, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. I always do the most interesting tasks first because, obviously, I had some urge to do them. When they are awful assignments, I drag them on for days and days or as long as the deadline lets me. Autonomy has a lot to do with it because when I am not given a choice in the matter, I feel much less interested in doing the assignment. However, at the same time, when I am extrinsically motivated by something, I want less options because then I don't have to spend too much time thinking about things I have no interest in. Just give me the topic so I can do it and be done with it. The entire chapter on goals has something to contribute to this subject. It takes me awhile to accept the goal at hand, and when they are something I don't want to do I may exaggerate the goal difficulty. Even the achievement of completing tasks is not enough to push me to finish the tasks sooner.
Sometimes I wish that I had the motivation to finish tasks sooner than they are due (ironically I am finishing this assignment way before it is due and I realize that because it is a simpler task than the ones I have ahead of me) but changing this well developed habit is extremely difficult. But now I don't feel so bad about it.

I loved this article! It felt like a I was reading the story of my life. I tend to wake up every morning and think of all the things that I need to do. Things such as homework tend to get put as most important but last to be done, where as run to Target and get stuff seems to always come as first priority. I found it very interesting that even as a grown intellectual man he still found ways to procrastinate and make excuses, like the article he was extremely late on writing, when in fact taking the time to write the letter he could've been working on writing the article. I believe that is something I do.. and excuses are easy to come up with when you continually put things off. This article can be related back to intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. I do what interests me and I find fun first and then go in and do what I have to do because if not there will be some sort of consequences, like a failing grade for example. I also see how this article can relate to autonomy, when trying to complete tasks it's always easier to do things that I know I have control over and can do as I please. Achievement is another area that can be related to this article. By having structured procrastination it's easy to feel that you've accomplished something. It may not be what was number one on your list or what is most important but by getting through so many other items on your list lets you feel as though you have achieved a great deal. This article has made me see the flip side to my procrastination, instead of always feeling bad about how I've avoided things I should be happy that I was able to get some things accomplished.

Great words and thoughts. Being a procrastinator is not so bad then. I can see how does it apply to my every day life. I do make a list of my task for every day or every week and always start from the small ones that will not take so much time and my energy to do them. Then I am "cumulating" my energy for the big tasks. Even task that I know I cant achieve them anytime soon, but like maybe next year I still write them down to not forget and come back to it later. I actually just accomplished something recently what I wanted 2 years ago. But due to many other things going on and knowing that I do not have to have it until my graduation I was procrastinating it until now, my last year of college, but I did it and because it was all the time in the back of my head and on my Big do to list.
Structured procrastination according to this article turns out as a positive thing. Because of procrastinating big tasks we actually make to do many other, smaller tasks instead of doing really nothing. For instance,from my experience when I do not do anything, even not accomplish little thing, something that I suppose to I would feel guilty,so I usually ended up doing at least something which could be other task that I suppose to do, but still it is something; better than nothing. So I definitely agree with the author of this article.
Something procrastinating can brings positive outcomes.
Also, I think doing this assignment right now it is sort of procrastination because I actually suppose to work on something else, but I know it would have to required more time and energy consumed from me than this assignment, so to not feel guilty of doing nothing productive I am writing this comment right now. Is is interesting how this article made me realize those things. I pretty much always been doing this way, avoiding as long as I can the big tasks and doing the little ones first.

I thought this article was very interesting because I am not a procrastinator. My roommate is a major procrastinator and I never understood her until now. She will be cleaning her room, washing dishes, or doing laundry for hours when I know she has a project due the next day and will have to stay up all night working on it in order to get it done. It didn’t make any sense to me why she would be doing these other tasks that could be done at anytime when she was going to have to pull an all nighter to get her project done by the next day. I now realize that it is because her project is at the top of her list and all the other chores she is doing are also on her list, just lower on it. As a way to avoid working on her project she does these other tasks, so she is still being productive. This is the complete opposite of the way I am. I love getting things done early so that I don’t have to worry about them. I make lists and I work on the tasks that will take the most effort first so I can get them out of the way. I started working on my book report for this class a month before it was due because it was bothering me and I felt the need to get it done.
I think autonomy has a lot to do with why people procrastinate. They want to feel some control over all of the tasks they need to complete and they exercise this by putting off the important things until they don’t seem as important anymore. When I have a lot of things to do, I gain exercise my autonomy by completing the tougher tasks early and getting them out of the way. Also, when I make my list of things to do at the beginning of each week, I set goals for myself and write which day I will work on which task. I feel like goal setting might help procrastinators because it will focus their efforts on the things that need to be completed first. I realize this goes against the way procrastinators work however, so it might not make a difference. It seems like procrastinators have less intrinsic motivation to get important projects done early than nonprocrastinators. I feel good about myself when I get something done early and out of the way. I also feel a sense of achievement getting something done early, while it seems that procrastinators get this from completing many tasks while avoiding big tasks, and then finally completing the big tasks when they move down on the list. The source of sense of achievement and the way the need for autonomy is satisfied are some of the main differences between procrastinators and nonprocrastinators.

I appreciated the discussion the author had on procrastination, as he turned a typically negative trait and discussed the positives of the trait, instead. I'm just as guilty about being a procrastinator, in many similar ways that the author is. He wrote this paper in avoidance of other, more demanding tasks. I do the same thing, as I will work on smaller, easier assignments or even add other tasks like cleaning my room or responding to emails instead of working on a project or long term paper. The assignment will get done by the deadline because there is the grade aspect, but it definitely won't be the first thing I work on.
This topic directly relates to the notion of intrinsic vs. Extrinsic motivation. The author is more willing and motivated to work on an shorter essay or play ping pong with students because it's of more interest than working on dissertation drafts or other major writings. The author is more willing to do the more interesting tasks because they are driven by intrinsic motivation, or the motivation to do something that is personally interesting and enjoyable. He ends up completing these other tasks because they involve work and further, monetary rewards. The monetary rewards act as the extrinsic motivator or the reward or gain for completing a task.
Goal setting also is related to the topic of procrastination. It's much easier to create an implementation intention plan for smaller tasks, which may lead to willingness to complete smaller tasks and assignments. Although difficult goals tend ton increase motivation, these goals still need to be specific and accepted by the person to elicit motivation to do them. With major assignments, just saying that one wants to finish a major paper isn't giving specificity to the goal. however, no goal will elicit motivation if it isn't accepted as their own goal.
Procrastination is also related to the need for autonomy. Those who have a high need for autonomy are more inclined to do tasks that they can have more control over. This means that those with a high need for autonomy will be more inclined to do smaller, easier tasks that they know they can have more control over to complete them. Completing a task also plays on someone's need for achievement. Easier tasks and assignments have a much better opportunity to fulfill the need for achievement.

This article made me feel a lot better about my chronic procrastination. I love how the article discusses how most procratinators, including myself, rate their tasks in order of importance. We then essentially pass our time by doing the less important things to avoid the more important things. For instance, I have a pretty good sized paper due tomorrow that I haven't started yet but instead I am working on this blog because it is more interesting than the paper and less pressing also. By doing this, I can still feel productive about my day. However, after I finish this blog I will then start to feel discouragd again. To get rid of this feeling, I will start reading a book for my book report that is due on Monday night. To me this is an example of cognitive dissonance because I know that I am a procrastinator but I don't want to be one. By doing other, less important tasks while avoiding my more important ones, I am able to rid myself of some of the guilty feelings I have about procratinating so much. Also, by making a list like this article suggests, I am able to have a sense of autonomy(which is very important to me). I can motivate myself to work on things I want to work on instead of working on things that I may not want to work on or that I may have otherwise been forced to do in other settings. Overall, I really enjoyed this article and it was helpful to realize that more people than I think are most likely procrastinators....Procrastinators unite!

I really enjoyed reading this article! It explains my daily thought process to a science. Almost every day I go through this situation. I have a trillion things to do, but end up doing the least important of them. I get a lot accomplished through the day, especially when I have a huge, difficult project or assignment to complete. Most of the time, I have a great since of accomplishment until I look at the importance of the things I completed. However, that doesn’t stop me from taking that small bit of accomplishment and use it to justify all the things I didn’t get done.
One thing that stood out to me was the part when he states, “They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastination and get them done.” I am the opposite on this comment. As a procrastinator, I try to pack my schedule as full as I can. I hope that knowing I am so busy will elevate the desire to procrastinate and actually make me finish it on time or ahead of time. I think I also use it as a tool to excuse myself when I don’t end up getting something done.
In some cases, I think that procrastination has an influence on a persons need for autonomy, or a person’s desire to have a choice and control over their actions. For example, an assignment is given to a student; many times the assignment is undesired. The student has no choice but to do the assignment or suffer the consequence in their grade. By being able to procrastinate, one is able to exert autonomy by choosing to put it off. They chose to finish tasks of least importance because many times those are full of autonomy. Along with this, one often choses to finish activates when they are intrinsically motivated instead of extrinsically motivated. Intrinsically motivated people complete a task because they are interested and seek out to finish it on their own. In the case of an assignment, most often a student is extrinsically motivated to finish it because they are receiving reinforce, or a grade, on the assignment. They opt not do the assignment for a significant amount of time because they don’t possess any interest in doing the assignment.
Personally, my procrastination stems from both autonomy and extrinsic motivations. I have high need for autonomy. I often don’t like people telling me what to do or when to do it. I have never considered this to be a reason for my procrastination before because completing assignments is a part of being a student. However, I can now see that when I procrastinate, it is often because I was assigned, forced, or have no interest in finishing. Often, things at the bottom of my list are small things that I am excited to do, or intrinsically motivated to do. This is why I regularly tend to accomplish these instead of the bigger assignment ahead of it.

I really enjoyed this article. The defines me to the T. This assignment was the main thing I had to do today. However, I found myself doing things that, while they did need to get done, could have waited until I was finished doing all my homework. Despite the fact that I am finally sitting down to do this assignment, I did get a lot done today. These were things that had to be done and I am still doing my homework. Procrastination works very well for me. Sometimes I do put off things until the very last minute and then I have to scramble to get it together, but I still get it done. And it still is pretty good.

The part in the article where he states, "Procrastinators try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done." That is exactly what I do. I try to make it so I have an easy work load and maybe I will get done what I need to. This never works for me. When I have hardly anything to do I will not do anything. I still wait until the very last minute to do whatever it is that needs to get done. My procrastination is a hundred times worse. I find myself sitting in front of the TV or staring at the computer for hours upon hours. I actually work a lot better when I have a lot of stuff to do. It keeps me on track because I know I do not have the extra time to do nothing.

This article was very good at explaining procrastination. Some people just work in different ways and aren't sure of how to organize their time. Or they work better this way. It has helped me greater by writing a list of things I need to get done. I still do them in the least important to the most important but it has helped me keep somewhat organized. This article was really enjoyable.

This article was extremely interesting for many reasons. I am definitely a procrastinator myself and find everything he talks about to be pretty true! It is definitely true that when procrastinating I tend to do other things that still actually benefit me even though they aren’t the tasks that are most important to do on my list. When I should be doing homework I usually clean my room, organize files on my computer, run errands around town, or check my e-mails and planner for what I should be getting accomplished and organize my thoughts. It’s very interesting that even though procrastinating is looked at as a bad thing, it can also be good. If I wasn’t a procrastinator, I would probably get everything that is important done right away and then I would feel the need to be lazy and relax the rest of the day, but if I do the least important things first I still feel the pressing need to get the important things done on time and eventually do those also. So, procrastinators can actually get much more don’t than non-procrastinators when looked at in the right way.

I loved how the author started out the article explaining why he was writing the article in the first place, because he was procrastinating more important things! That humor in the beginning really grabbed my attention and made me laugh because it’s exactly something I would do and it was crazy that someone of his profession would actually be the same way!

I think this article has a lot to do with goals, intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation. People are more likely to reach their long term or hard goals when they have smaller goals leading to the bigger ones. This relates to procrastination because it is sort of the same. People are more likely to get the more important things done on their list when they do the not so important tasks first. Intrinsic motivation relates because people are motivated on their own to do the more important tasks because after doing the small stuff, they usually are more alert and ready to keep going. Extrinsic motivation also plays a role in procrastination techniques, because people are more likely to get the important stuff done after the smaller stuff because they start to feel pressure from outside sources to get their work done.

The bad thing about this procrastination technique is that sometimes the smaller things on my list aren’t really anything worth accomplishing. I notice that I procrastinate doing homework by cooking food. This is very bad because I catch myself eating five suppers daily! I sit at my computer and think to myself about all the things I should be doing but eventually start to drift off and think about all the food that sounds really amazing at that point. So, I cook another meal or snack, not because I’m hungry at all, but just because I’m bored and it gives me something to do rather than homework or other more important tasks. I notice that on days I have a lot of homework I eat a lot more and feel a lot sicker. I realize that if I didn’t have as much homework, I would be a lot more healthy and skinnier. Also, I catch myself painting my fingernails, shopping, or doing my roommates hair because I feel like I should be doing those things, when really they aren’t important at all. Overall, procrastination does normally get my to do more work than I would if I did the important stuff first, but it can also lead to overeating (not good), over shopping and being broke (not good), and having really cute hair and fingernails (not important). 

All in all, I loved this article because it relates a lot to my life and is so true! Procrastination definitely does work for some people, me being one of them!

Key Terms: motivation, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, goals

This was a very interesting essay that grabbed my attention right from the beginning, structured procrastination! Everybody at some point has faced the difficulty of deadlines and especially with college students getting their work in time. So why does procrastination happen? If we come to realize the important assignments that are due with plenty of time to get them done, it makes it that much harder for a lot of people to motivate themselves to do them. He mentioned all the busy and important stuff he had to get done, and even talked about ranking the importance of his priorities, yet became months behind on their due dates. Such as his reason for writing this structured procrastination essay, we find more less important things to choose to accomplish to avoid the important, top of the list priorities. That is the structured procrastination. “We make the bad trait work for us”. A lot can be said to why I have always been found in the category of procrastination and doing last minute work. Even this blog today, many had accomplished when it was first available and others, such as myself, are pushing the limits, finding smaller and less important things to do, then finally replying to the post much later. I really like how he mentioned procrastination can lead you to be a useful citizen, someone who is seen as getting a lot done. I feel this really does relate to me, because while I find ways to push aside some of the biggest assignments until hours or minutes before they are due, I manage to get my work done and have truly accomplished the task in the end. I do find a problem whether the structured procrastination is accurate in the sense that with minimal time or late work, how well the work is done. Would I be able to write differently on papers and utilize more thoughts having spent weeks preparing verse hours? Maybe. I do, however, manage to obtain desired grades in class with structured procrastination. With procrastination there are always multiple task to accomplish, so there is always something placed highly in relevance to how important it is. I am motivated to succeed on my school work, but as he mentions, finding ways around it to fulfill less important tasks structures the amount of work I get done. Though the important assignments aren’t getting done ahead of time, I am still make use of accomplishing other forms of class work so, ultimately, I am making use of my time. It amazes me how a man of his caliber can write about how much he procrastinates. I would have guessed where he is in his line of work, that he would be the complete opposite. It just goes to show that procrastination and our motivations are all different, but by being labeled a procrastinator isn’t always a bad thing. As for myself, it seem everything usually falls into place where I like it, this is probably why I continue to procrastinate, but in a structured way.

I am amazed by this article. I feel like it describes exactly what I do on a daily basis! I am always making very large to do lists with the “most important” things at the top of the list followed by another ten things that seem important to get done but I really don’t need to do them and should be spending my time on other things. Then of course at the bottom somewhere are the things I never end up doing until something else more important is due and these things because the new way to put off the more important things. My worst problem is cleaning. Anytime I have a lot of homework to focus on I suddenly feel like I really need to do the dishes and get my apartment spotless because I haven’t done it in so long and think that when the apartment is clean I’ll focus on my homework better. The problem is my apartment gets dirty again within a few days and then my homework is days late. Clearly structured procrastination hasn’t worked out that great for me, but it still surprises me how motivated I can get.

I think that intrinsic motivation has a lot to do with structured procrastination. When I am procrastinating I am putting off doing the things that I am extrinsically motivated to do by either a grade or a paycheck. Instead I want to do the things that are interesting to me, especially things that give me positive feedback and make me feel like I’ve gotten a lot accomplished (especially when I really haven’t). I also think Autonomy has a lot to do structured procrastination. I make these huge to-do lists with way more things than I could possibly accomplish in one day and suddenly instead of feeling like I’m being forced into doing a certain homework assignment I have lots of choices of what I can do with my day.

I’ll start out with a question. If the structured procrastinator does things to avoid other, more important tasks, how does one then finish that most important task? I agree with him though, I find myself doing this. I don’t do the dishes unless I have a paper due or a reading assignment I don’t want to do. Even now, doing this assignment, it’s difficult since I’ve waited so long to do it and have other things on my mind. This is what is important now but I have a strange urge to clean my room and do laundry. I think that this principle is highly related to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Those things that one is not intrinsically motivated to do, that one wouldn’t normally do if they weren’t required to, are the things that fall into structured procrastination. If you are extrinsically motivated to do something, such as doing an assignment on time to receive a good grade, that will not be as good a motivator as an intrinsically motivated task. Those things you enjoy are put out of the way first so all that’s left are the extrinsically motivated tasks. When those are categorized, desire to do the task will be based upon what is most difficult or what is the most daunting task. If something is difficult, you might choose to do an easier task first to give yourself “free” time where you don’t have to do that one really not pleasant task. It’s an avoidant behavior, to find other things that will put off the imminent tough task.

Autonomy may also play a big role in procrastination in general. I prefer to do tasks of my own choosing, not something that someone else has told me to do. The tasks that I leave until last, those that I really procrastinate, are typically one’s that I find to be out of my control. I’ve been told to do it by a parent or teacher, or it’s just something that must be done, like cleaning the shower or grocery shopping. Tasks that we are not able to avoid, those we have no control over, we tend to not always like as much as those tasks we enjoy and can choose to do. There is a lot to be said about when you choose to do something, the structure to the procrastination. If there is something you really don’t want to do, you’ll do everything else first even if you find it to be annoying or difficult. You get to choose those tasks, setting your own schedule of when your set task gets done. That control on time is helpful to autonomy and helps describe why the structured procrastinator still gets their work done.

I enjoyed this article a great deal, and yes, I also fall into the procrastinator category outlined by the author. I tend to be motivated strictly by deadlines and what people tell me to do and then dawdle away potentially productive time in between. Like the author, I tend to use these in-between times to be productive in all the wrong areas. Procrastination often does not mean that a person is not getting anything done; they just tend to be fighting to do everything but what they know they should be doing.

As expected, this discussion relates very well to the motivational concepts we have gone over in class. I believe that one of the most obvious connections to our textbook is the sections about intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. As we learned, a great deal of extrinsic motivation tends to kill innate motivation – this is why college too often boils down to forcing oneself to meet a constant series of deadlines. Many students do not feel inclined to do work on their own timetable because one has already essentially been created for them. If I were better at setting clear and easily attainable goals like our book says, I would likely be much better at finishing my work consistently without having to constantly press up against the time at which it is due. A great way to circumvent my bad habits would be simply to set a regular 2-hour period at the same time each weekday in which I do nothing but write. This is a simple goal, and accomplishing it would mean that I would get a TON of writing done throughout the week BEFORE deadlines approach! This would also dramatically increase my autonomy over the work that is to be done and could help to negate the ill effects of the externally-motivated environment that I otherwise would be working in.

"Structured Procrastination" is simply a method of maintaining productivity and avoidance simultaneously. It requires a fair amount of prioritization skills as well as the ability to deceive one's self in order to be effective. While I could nod my head in agreement with much of what the author presented in this piece, I disagree with a few of his points.

"All procrastinators put off things they have to do."

I disagree with this statement. Procrastinators put off things they don't WANT to do. We gladly spend time doing things that we enjoy or are "fun." It's the things that are dauntingly challenging, boring, or judged as trivial or unimportant (a "waste of time") that we tend to put off or avoid. Any time I hear someone give the excuse of, "I didn't have time..." I always respond with, "Bullshit." Last I checked, every single one of us has 24 hours a day to spend doing as we so choose. We all HAVE time, it's a matter of what we prioritize to spend that time doing. There are certain obligations we must fulfill that are generally non-negotiable (at the risk of facing serious consequences), and there are times when we are so "busy" we have to eliminate certain things from our schedules in order to allow ourselves the time for what we have judged to be more important (prioritized).

Personally, I need 9 hours of sleep a night in order to feel rested. Because of this, I have fewer hours available in which to be productive, and yet I choose sleeping over doing many things others consider to be fun, like going out or watching movies. Eating, to me, is a necessity that takes up time I'd rather use to do something else. While I eat regularly, there are times when I choose not to, because I'd rather spend that time doing something else.

"Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things."

I agree with the author that procrastinators are often highly productive people, just not in the right ways. I have an ongoing list of projects and "things to do" that I have titled, "Things I'd Rather Be Doing When I'm Supposed To Be Doing Something Else." I would find myself wasting so much time by dawdling on the internet or doing random odds and ends things around the house, that I finally just told myself that if I wasn't going to do what I was supposed to be doing, I might as well utilize that time working on one of my various projects (similar to the author's "Structured Procrastination") and have something to show for it.

"Structured procrastination requires a certain amount of self-deception, since one is in effect constantly perpetrating a pyramid scheme on oneself."

Fooling myself is not something I am very good at. What he calls "Structured Procrastination" is simply a way to maintain productivity while still avoiding what ought to be made a priority. It doesn't make it any easier for me to perceive that avoided task as something that is fun, manageable, or worthwhile. These tasks one must perceive as simply necessary -- obligations that we do because we have to. Bottom line.