We are all familiar with different forms of procrastination, ranging from students handing in work done at the minute or past a deadline to our own last minute attempts or missed deadlines for handing in departmental forms, reviews, and other academic and professional work. But it may come as a surprise to some that a similar form of procrastination occurs for activities that one might consider pleasurable or desirable, a form of "deferred reinforcement" is you will (though some folks from Florida might not suffer from this difficulty). The NY Times has an interesting article on this point titled "Carpe Diem? Maybe Tomorrow"; see: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/science/29tier.html
The key point is that, in general, when it comes to the perception of time and its management, people think that they will have more free time in the far future than in the near future. With the pressing demands of today, tomorrow, and the next day, it appears easier to put off "discretionary" or "optional" or "non-deadline" activities until next week or later when it is assumed that there will be more time to engage in them. Of course, if one has a stable busy schedule, then unless the schedule changes to reduce the number of obligations one has to meet, one is unlikely to have that expected free time. Quoting the article: |We’re trying to do a cost-benefit analysis of the time lost versus |the pleasure or money to be gained, but we’re not accurate in our |estimates of “resource slack,” as it is termed by Gal Zauberman and |John G. Lynch. These behavioral economists found that when people |were asked to anticipate how much extra money and time they would |have in the future, they realistically assumed that money would be tight, |but they expected free time to magically materialize. | |Hence you’re more likely to agree to a commitment next year, like |giving a speech, that you would turn down if asked to find time for it |in the next month. This produces what researchers call the “Yes ... Damn!” |effect: when the speech comes due next year, you bitterly discover you’re |still as busy as ever. For fans of the movie "Sideways", there is a suggested means for dealing with this problem: |Another tactic is to give yourself deadlines. Cash in the miles by summer, |even if you can’t get a round-the-world trip out of them. Instead of waiting |for a special occasion to indulge yourself, create one. Dr. Shu approvingly |cites the pioneering therapeutic work of Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, | who for the past decade used their Wall Street Journal column on wine to |proclaim the last Saturday of February to be “Open That Bottle Night.” | |But you don’t even have to wait until Feb. 27. Remember the advice |offered in the movie “Sideways” to Miles, who has been holding on |to a ’61 Cheval Blanc so long that it is in danger of going bad. When |Miles says he is waiting for a special occasion, his friend Maya puts |matters in perspective: | |“The day you open a ’61 Cheval Blanc, that’s the special occasion.” -Mike Palij New York University m...@nyu.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
