Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Type C procrastination

I think that it is very interesting to juxtaposition the article about type C procrastinators with the one about structured procrastinators. In a way, they are making the exact opposite statement. Structural procrastination is procrastination that depends on doing smaller things to avoid doing bigger things, until an even bigger thing comes up, and then the thing you were procrastinating will get done in order to avoid doing the bigger thing. Type C procrastinators avoid doing the smaller things, like daily errands, in favor of the larger things. In fact, the type C article describes a structured procrastinator as a type B procrastinator, which it terms "dangerous". In my opinion, both types of procrastination have some validity, but I myself am more of what I would coin a structured procrastinator, especially since I find the term type B procrastinator to be slightly offensive. I think that structured procrastination has many benefits. Usually, especially if you care about something, one way or another it will get done. Even the type C article admits that it's better to face a large problem from a different angle, rather than head on. For myself at least, looking at a big problem directly intimidates me and makes me feel like I can never get it done. I am an inductive thinker; I like to look at things starting from the details and working my way up to the big picture. I find that the only way I can attack a big problem is to start small, and usually the way that I do this is through structured procrastination. I procrastinate on the "more important" parts of the problem, and start with something small. Eventually, it all gets finished, but until then, small steps are key.

1 comment:

Scott Lankford said...

13 points. "For myself at least, looking at a big problem directly intimidates me and makes me feel like I can never get it done. I am an inductive thinker; I like to look at things starting from the details and working my way up to the big picture." Fascinating self-portrait.