Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation.
This seems to vary by individual somewhat—while I do have a problem with procrastination, I do find that it’s helped by having less things to do. If I have too many tasks I should be doing, the end result isn’t that I end up being productive on part of them. The end result is that I become paralyzed by indecision and get absolutely nothing done.
Tycho from Penny Arcade talked about something like that once—that when he has one new game, he can’t keep away from it, but when he has three, they cancel each other out. I can’t find the post, though.
From the linked essay:
This seems to vary by individual somewhat—while I do have a problem with procrastination, I do find that it’s helped by having less things to do. If I have too many tasks I should be doing, the end result isn’t that I end up being productive on part of them. The end result is that I become paralyzed by indecision and get absolutely nothing done.
Tycho from Penny Arcade talked about something like that once—that when he has one new game, he can’t keep away from it, but when he has three, they cancel each other out. I can’t find the post, though.