Skip to main content

Week 5 [23.11-29.11] Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

 

Procrastination is one of the main barriers blocking you from getting up and making the right decisions. Recent studies have shown that people regret more the things they haven't done than the things they have done. In addition, feelings of regret and guilt resulting from missed opportunities tend to stay with people much longer.

The mind of a procrastinator is a special mechanism that Tim Urban helps us to understand in his hilarious and insightful talk.

 


Questions:


  • Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?


  • How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.





Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html

https://procrastination.com/what-is-procrastination

 

Comments

Anastasiia Bida said…
I absolutely liked this video. The speaker is charismatic and made me laugh often. He explained the problem of procrastination very clear and with humour.
Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?
Honestly, I try to be a self-organized person and sometimes it even works. But of course like everyone I can procrastinate. My 'monkey' wants to have fun and takes the wheel. Usually, it concerns complex tasks which I do not want to do (for example, like a writing diploma ) or with no deadline. If it is something easy and clear there will be no problems.

How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.
The main thing that helps me is the existence of deadlines. 😅
Fortunately, my 'Panic Monster' wakes up a few days before, not on the last day of the deadline. And another way to overcome procrastination is planing. I try to make to-do list weekly, and then I distribute tasks by days.
Maciej Antonik said…
1. Mostly I am very well organized. I think that my university teachers appreciate it very much. I put all projects and tasks on time, I am almost never late and I am quite active. Although there are times when I feel overwhelmed by the amount of responsibilities I need to rest. That's when my standard short procastination period begins. I take it easy, relax and return to my duties after a few days.

2. Well, let me tell you about my story. I just realized that I was finally starting to be an adult. I have to start taking care of my affairs, education and work because my future depends on it. It was not ambition but fear that made me quite a conscientious and organized person. One day I wish it was the other way around and I would like to start doing things out of ambition and not fear of consequences
1. Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?

I am a person who likes order and organization very much. Therefore, I am definitely a self-organizing person. I don't like procrastination, when I have a task to do, I do everything to get it done as quickly as possible. I don't like to leave something for later because it never ends well. For example, I prefer to work very hard for 3 days and then have more time for myself on the next 2 days.

2.How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.

My way of overcoming procrastination is by giving myself rewards after completing the task. This reward system motivates me. Whenever I complete a task ahead of schedule, I'm happy. For example, today, in order to complete the task faster, I decided to order myself a delicious burger.
Olga Przytula said…
I think I perceive myself as a well-organized person. I like to work and develop my creativity, even though I struggle with it on everyday basis. I also don’t feel comfortable leaving tasks for the last minute, it makes my head feel lost and preoccupied and usually I have a tendency to finish my tasks way ahead of time.

Nowadays, during COVID-19 I let myself procrastinate a little. Mostly because there are not many activities to choose from and over the time I just feel tired and weary from the prevailing situation.

As I don’t have the urge to overcome procrastination (because I am not very prone to it :D ) it’s hard to answer this part of the question. However, to keep myself well organized (and as I suppose – train my brain, because I rarely forget about my tasks and responsibilities) I create a list of tasks on a small piece of paper every day to control what I should do throughout the day. As the day passes, I cross out my tasks. This gives me motivation to do the rest of them faster (and have a free evening) and lets me know if it’s possible for me to do often breaks or I should focus more on today’s work.
Hello Dariia! You chose an interesting topic for your presentation.
Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?
I think everyone knows the feeling of procrastination. For me, the most remarkable period of procrastination was during the first term of university. We had a few projects and I was more focused on living in a new big city than my studies. I regretted my behavior during the session. I was extremely scared and stressed. In the end, I realized that procrastination is not worth it. I’m still working on it and I can proudly say I’m not a procrastinator. Now I’m focusing on my mindset and becoming a “doer” rather than a “thinker”. I also like to say to myself “doing nothing brings you nothing”. Sometimes I work so hard that I become overstressed and almost burned out. It’s not good at all but I don’t want to slow down. I have so much to do! Many passions I want to dig more. many projects and exciting stuff!

How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.
My first life hack to avoid procrastination is something I came up with by myself and I called it “reverse procrastination”. When I have some task to do and I have one month for it I’m started to do it immediately as I had only 3 days for it. Somehow I managed to feel the stress of the deadline and start doing things.
Another thing I always do when I have my working days (and how Elon Musk said “every woke hour is working hour”) is planning the next day every evening. My favorite way to do it is with a notebook and pen I always focus on the most important things to me. I never write down stupid things like “cleaning”. Also, I try to be very realistic and I don’t plan too much.
The important thing is regular work. Sometimes I like working and “chilling”. For example, I watch tv shows while designing. But I let myself acting like this because I know that I have a lot of time until the deadline.
Every task that takes me less than five minutes I do immediately.
When I have something that is very discouraging for me or it’s very hard I’m doing the Pomodoro technique. We set the timer for 20 minutes and focus intensely. Then we have 5 minutes break. The cycle repeats 4 times and then we have a longer break (around 30 minutes)
In summary, I don’t like procrastinating at all. Doing things before deadlines have more advantages. But I'm not perfect. While working, my biggest weakness is browsing online stores.
Artur Król said…
1. Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?
I'm a big procratinator. It's a fact and a bad habit i'm fighting with. I usually remember the things i have to do but if the deadline is far far away i simply tend to relax and not really think about it. I can't tell that im not self-organized as I'm always making things on time. It's just the procratination that makes it more difficult. That is the thing im trying to get rid off
2. How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.
Sometimes I'm trying to simply motivate myself a little to do some work thats deadline is far away. Baby steps, baby steps. Not all at once. It is important to divide the work into small pieces. Doing something that takes literally 15 minutes is way easier than spending around 2 hours and usually getting worse result overall.
1. Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?
I am trying to organize my time. I have to-do list and i try to keep doing things every day. Anyway i think everyone have less productive days from time to time. In my opinion it is quite important to find some balance in that and take a rest at some days.

2. How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.
I think the best motivation is deadline. I often postpone some things i don't know exactly why but it happens. At the end when i have just few hours to do some things or for example projects for subject my productivity is insanly groving and i finish this on time. Sometimes obviously it not works and then you can take adventage of the polish rule "bez spiny sa drugie terminy" which means: dont worry you can do it on second deadline. ;)
Jan Bryński said…
Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?

I don't perceive myself as a particularily well self-organized person. However, I'm much better at facing hard tasks now, compared to couple of years ago. I've learned that solving tough problems can give me a fair amount of satisfaction so I don't procrastinate that much anymore when it comes to studying. Nevertheless, there are still multiple areas in which I'm not that good, when it comes to not procrastinating.


How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.

I believe that the best way of overcoming procrastination is just doing things you have to do. It may sound too trivial to be true but I think that making yourself "mad" at the task you need to complete is quite an effective way of gathering enough energy to face hard tasks.
Piotr Góralski said…
1. I believe that I am a very well-organized person, leaving nothing to chance. I try to accomplish all the things on my to-do list as quickly as possible. This approach to doing things that you will have to do one day may seem tiring, but in my opinion it brings more advantages than disadvantages. The biggest advantage is the fact that after performing the action, we can delete it from the list and we do not have to remember about it. Then we have no mental pressure which only increases when we add new things to the list.
2. The best motivation is to let go of the pressure that increases as things pile up on our to-do list. If we feel the relief of doing things as quickly as possible, we will be more willing to do new things in the same way. We can also imagine how much free time we will have when we quickly perform all the duties and what we spend it on, then the thought that we are getting closer to all these pleasant things will motivate us more and more.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Anastasiia Bida I'm glad you liked the video. Nothing is more motivating than an impending deadline. I also know that our minds somehow understands how long it takes us to complete a given task. Thus, we try to allocate the minimum necessary amount of time to work on the task. For this reason, we sometimes start at the last moment.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Maciej Antonik Yes, I think I also feel same. This is how I feel about deadlines. I also try to do everything on time, but sometimes I get very tired of a large number of tasks and responsibilities. Then I rest for several days, sometimes even longer.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Daniel Trzaskoma I wish I could be as organized as you and complete all the important tasks in the first 3 days. Your reward system seems to be really efficient, i think i might also try it.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Olga Przytula I used to make a to-do list too. It really works and helps you plan your daily tasks.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@ Justyna Woźniak Hi Justyna! Thanks for your feedback. Your "reverse procrastination" technique sounds very interesting. I also believe that you must be a responsible and organized person if you can just start on the first day without putting things off until later, at least until tomorrow:)
I personally tried the Pomodoro technique and it really worked for me. Now this is one of my favorites.
And like you said, i also think that regular work is important. For me working and chilling does not work because I get distracted easily.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Przemysław Witek "bez spiny sa drugie terminy" - comes in very handy from time to time to be honest:)
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Jan Bryński Yes, as you mentioned, problem solving can really be satisfying. After all, when we complete a task, the brain releases dopamine, which is the hormone of happiness.
Dariia Koreiko said…
@Piotr Góralski For me, the to-do list worked once. Then I stopped doing all the tasks on the list, and this only increased the stress. I also know that not everyone reacts this way to "uncrossed lines".
Viktor Ryś said…
1.
I tend to think that I'm quite self-organized, altough if a need to do a specially gruesome or daunting task which I don't know exactly how to do I tend to parocrastinate just as the next normal person.

2.
I think that todo lists are amazing at planning work, remembering stuff to do, and then
having a clear plan on what should be done on that day. The tasks should be as small as possible and having clear instructions so they can be finished easily, then it's much easier to start a task and finish it.
When it comes to self-organisation I am probably the worst case ever. I identify myself as the most practiced procrastinator alive. My biggest problem is waking up. I feel like I would do so many things if only I had the ability to get up in the morning. When I was going to school, I was forced to do things, but right now the pandemic doesn’t really help. It allows me to attend lessons from bed, after which I fall asleep again. Sometimes there are days when I really do a lot, but sometimes I am able to do nothing for the whole week. There are two ways for me to overcome this. The first one is deadlines. I procrastinate a lot but I will also never allow myself not to pass the exam or not to hand over the final work on time. As long as I know that I can procrastinate, I will obviously do it, however when the deadline comes, something in my mind changes and I can work 24/7. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t call it self-organization, but rather compulsion. The second thing is travelling. When I travel and plan the trip, I am the most self-organized person ever. I always have the whole plan with me, which includes the hours of sunsets and sunrises. I can sleep 4 hours a day if the plan says so. I feel like when I’m travelling I am a totally different person.
Zhypargul Maraeva
Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?
I am trying to be a self-organized, but it is quite hard at this time because I have a lots of task to do. Adult life is like you have to do and plan everything to be on time to catch the time.
And now we have so much free time but at the same time we still have tasks which you have to do remotelly. It means we have to be more organized otherwise lazy and same day routines can consumed us. And I might just turn into a lazy and boring amoeba

How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.
I think just do what you have to do when you feel you want to do.
I don't know the ways to overcome procrastination. As for me I know that if I don't do that no-one is going to do that for me and I am just doing. As I mentioned above adult life is kinda like that you have to plan, perform and that's it.
Also I believe it will be rewarded in the future, so it might be helpful too.
1. Are you a self-organized person? Or do you tend to procrastinate from time to time?

I'm definitely organized person. Organization has always come easy to me. I truly organize things like my tasks at work, desk or even time. This helps me a lot especially when deadline is coming. I like doing things earlier to not to worry about them later.

2. How do you overcome procrastination? Please share your ways in the comments.
I think, it's naturally in my case. I fill my day with low-priority tasks. Read emails every hour to make sure that I don't miss something important. When I'm doing something big, something that has high-priority, I'm making few breaks to not overstrain.
1. Honestly, I am not an organized person, nor do I procrastinate with various things. I think I'm somewhere in the middle. There are certain things that are important and need to be organized. There are also things that are less important and can be postponed. It all depends on the situation and time.

2. How do I overcome procrastination? Unfortunately, I won't answer that question because I don't usually do it. If I procrastinate, it has been procrastinated and I'm not going back to it.

Popular posts from this blog

Week 12 (12.01-18.01.15) Are you an early bird or a night owl ?

Owls are nocturnal creatures. They’re wide awake at night and they sleep during the day. If this sounds like bliss to you, then, like about 20 percent of the population who find themselves most active at around 9 pm, you may fall into the same category as our feathered friend. Night owls often have difficulty waking up in the morning, and like to be up late at night.  Studies of animal behaviour indicate that being a night owl may actually be built into some people’s genes. This would explain why those late-to-bed, late-to-rise people find it so difficult to change their behaviour. The trouble for night owls is that they just have to be at places such as work and school far too early. This is when the alarm clock becomes the night owl’s most important survival tool. Experts say that one way for a night owl to beat their dependence on their alarm clocks is to sleep with the curtains open. The Theory is that if they do so, the morning sunlight will awaken them gently and natura...

Week 11 [03-09.06.2019] The problem with ecological cars emission in UK

The problem with ecological cars emission in UK Since the adoption of the European Emission Allowance Directive in the European Parliament, all car makers have tried to submit. Since 1992, the Euro I standard has been in force, which limited the emission of carbon monoxide to the atmosphere. The Euro VI standard currently applies, which limits the series of exhaust gases. These include: hydrocarbons, nitrogen and carbon oxides, and dust.   The most significant change was brought by the Euro IV standard. For the first time it introduced the limitation of nitrogen oxides, which are responsible for the harmful compounds of smog.   What is smog?   Smog consists of sulfur oxides, nitrogen and carbon. In addition, solid substances such as suspended dust (PM). Dust suspend in atmospheric aerosols may be in liquid and solid form. These can be particles of sea salt, clouds from the Sahara and artificial compounds made by people. These compounds...

Week 4 [06-12.11.2017] This is what happens when you reply to spam email.

James Veitch is a British comedian. In today’s Ted Talk James with characteristic for himself a sense of humor shows how he deals with spam emails and why responding to junk messages may be sometimes dangerous. Questions: What do you think about James’s  way of dealing with spam? Why are junk messages legal, even though it sometimes may be a fraud? Dou you have a problem with spam? How do you deal with with it?