Monday, December 29, 2008

The Art of Procrastination

I find once again that I am procrastinating instead of doing my work. It is exactly the kind of thing that I was arguing with my son about this morning before he went to his dads. What is it with the human mind and the avoidance of the task in hand? It's true I know one or two people who seem to be able to complete an assignment or a piece of work well before their deadline (well one actually) but the majority of the people that I know, like me, leave it until the last minute. I'm not so bad these days that I have to stay up all night the day before a piece of work is due in, but I am down to the last couple of days.


There's more than one flavor of procrastination. People procrastinate for different reasons. Dr. Ferrari identifies three basic types of procrastinators:

arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.

avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.

decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision. Not making a decision absolves procrastinators of responsibility for the outcome of events.

I think that I probably fall into the avoider category - Dr Ferrari suggests that the only way to solve this problem is cognitive behavioural therapy.

I think I had better just get on with my work!