It’s worth adding that the whole business is rather dangerous, because you’re ceding control of your mental activities to a process you don’t have much control over. So while the ideal of structured procrastination is “I should be writing that article … but I’m going to slack off and work on that other, slightly less important article instead!”, it often manifests instead as “I should be writing that article … BUT I CANNOT HAVE A MOMENT’S PEACE UNTIL THE BATHTUB HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY SCRUBBED!”
And then you wind up half a day later with nothing accomplished, but with a very clean bathtub. And tomorrow it’ll be the oven. &c.
So in a sense, structured procrastination is only an anti-akrasia technique for the already-not-particularly-akrasic.
So in a sense, structured procrastination is only an anti-akrasia technique for the already-not-particularly-akrasic.
In this, it differs little from most advice for the chronic procrastinator. Honestly, the first time I heard of this structured procrastination idea several years ago, my first thought was along the lines of, “I should maybe try that sometime.”
It’s worth adding that the whole business is rather dangerous, because you’re ceding control of your mental activities to a process you don’t have much control over. So while the ideal of structured procrastination is “I should be writing that article … but I’m going to slack off and work on that other, slightly less important article instead!”, it often manifests instead as “I should be writing that article … BUT I CANNOT HAVE A MOMENT’S PEACE UNTIL THE BATHTUB HAS BEEN THOROUGHLY SCRUBBED!”
And then you wind up half a day later with nothing accomplished, but with a very clean bathtub. And tomorrow it’ll be the oven. &c.
So in a sense, structured procrastination is only an anti-akrasia technique for the already-not-particularly-akrasic.
In this, it differs little from most advice for the chronic procrastinator. Honestly, the first time I heard of this structured procrastination idea several years ago, my first thought was along the lines of, “I should maybe try that sometime.”
Never got around to it. ;-)