I'll Start Tomorrow

A New Yorker article on procrastination: It explains a lot about why my open items get rolled forward for months. A few of the useful ideas and terms from the piece:

Procrastination is a basic human impulse, but anxiety about it as a serious problem seems to have emerged in the early modern era.

[Procrastination is] a powerful example of what the Greeks called akrasia—doing something against one’s own better judgment.

Hyperbolic discounting - as the present gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm their long-term goals. [Example: movie rental lists, where for the movie they wanted to watch immediately, people tended to pick lowbrow comedies and blockbusters, but when asked what movie they wanted to watch later they were more likely to pick serious, important films (that never get watched when the time comes)].

The divided self – we are composed of divided selves constantly “competing and bargaining” with each other. [Pleasure-seeking self wants to watch TV in the future, so will allow hard-working self to win in the present….sometimes.]

Weapons to combat procrastination: deadlines, bets (e.g., pay if don’t lose weight), divide long-term vague objectives (e.g., being rich) into nearer-term concrete achievements (e.g., save 6% of salary in 401k).

For all our contemporary insight it’s not clear that our understanding has progressed much beyond that of the ancients. They named the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, envy, lust, anger, sloth, and gluttony), four of which I have trouble with and without which my procrastination would be largely cured. Or it just may be the devil that overpowers my angelic self when it comes time to turn off the television or put the ice cream back in the refrigerator.

Where has the time gone? There are three things I was supposed to do today but (yawn) that nap looks inviting.