The Problem of Procrastination

"Procrastination is like masturbation. At first it feels good, but in the end you're only screwing yourself."
Unknown

I really need my dissertation done (or at least drafted) by the end of January in order to give the next semesters lectures a good crack. That gives me 31 days from now, once I add in time for applications to PhDs and the inevitable hungover days that come with returning to an awesome shared-house after a month away I am left with somewhere around 20 days in which to write 30 pages coherently.


The Less Wrong blog is always a good place to find methods of thinking which are often helpful and this topic is no exception. I am reading the article as I type this so I'll note things as I go along, firstly my procrastination appears to be a mixture of dislike for doing lots of writing and an impulse to do more interesting things. As phrased in the article and fitted into the equation below: "Writing a term paper is grueling (low value), the results are uncertain (low expectancy), and the deadline is far away (high delay)."

So once more taking guidance from the article, I need to set up goals in which I will succeed in order to increase my expectancy for success to do this I will write in this blog regularly (because it's easy and it's something I have wanted to do for a while, a goal) and ensure I keep running (aiming to do increasing distances thereby having infinite goals).

Optimism is the next point, I think the best bit I can take from this is the motivational speeches, quotes and biographies; starting as I mean to go on:

Mental contrasting is next, Where do I want to be and how does that compare with where I am now? I want to be doing a PhD after getting a first, running a marathon and having a good understanding of the field I am working in. I am currently behind on my third year project, I only just managed to run 6 miles a couple of days ago, I struggle with sit ups and often feel my basic knowledge of science is lacking.


Next, avoiding over-optimism, I think I did this anyway. Plan for the worst but hope for the best hence having 20 days of real work.


That's optimism out of the way, now I must increase the value of the work I am doing. Whilst I am instructed that to reduce the boringness rating of my task I should make it more difficult, I think the task is pretty difficult already so I'll avoid that. The same goes for meaningfulness. Energy seems to be an area I can tackle:

• "Drink lots of water.
• Stop eating anything that contains wheat and other grains.
• Use drugs (especially modafinil) as necessary.
• Do short but intense exercise once a week.
• When tired, splash cold water on your face or take a shower or do jumping jacks or go running.
• Listen to music that picks up your mood.
• De-clutter your life, because clutter is cognitively exhausting for your brain to process all day long"

All of these seem achievable, for drugs I'm going to go caffeine; jumping jacks or showers when tired seem like a good plan, nice and easy too; music perhaps, but it may be distracting so I'll see how it goes; clutter can be dealt with easily enough, I'll tidy my room later today.


Rewards seems to be another area I can implement simply, I shall buy some fizzy strawberry lances (the Roger Federer of chewy sugary goodness) and reward the completion of a section with a pack and a chapter of whatever book I am reading.
Finally for value is passion, I feel I have enough of this in what I am doing so I'll just skip over this.


Time for the last big factor I have control over, Impulsiveness. Pre-committing is the first strategy, getting rid of distractions; as my distractions include TV, sleep, books and the delights of the internet. I shall turn off the TV and keep it off, I shall set an alarm at 9 and ensure I am up before 10 (if I fail to do this I will have to find a new strategy), I will set books up as a reward and thereby keep them out of the room otherwise and finally, I can't really work without the internet for reference but keeping my browser closed when I am working is likely to make a real difference.


Setting goals, I have already done this to a degree, it is worth noting that rewards tie into this well. My current goals measure outputs (i.e. this much work done) as opposed to inputs (i.e. doing work for this long) so perhaps it is worth having some input goals as well:

• I will aim to do work in blocks of 1 hour at a time and I will aim to do 5 hours per day.

I think this is a good start (aside from being an excellent bit of procrastination per se); I will post as to how things are going, which strategies are working, which need to be changed and which are total flops.