The Science Of Procrastination

I was, uh, procrastinating by watching this video about the science of procrastination. The science here seems to be that people are biased to value near rewards more than distant ones (in time). I’m not sure this is a bias as in a misperception, however. I mean, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. They site the example of people valuing $100 now more than $110 later, but it is worth more. In finance there’s something called Discounted Cash Flow which calculates how much less money is worth in X years time because it is worth less. You could be earning interest if you had the money now.

From there they go to cover why checking the news or FB or Twitter is so addictive. Which I do agree with. At the time I actually was bouncing around on Devour for quick hits of video stimulation. My current opiate of choice is the US elections, mainly through Andrew Sullivan. Watching Mitt Romney accidentally expose what Republicans really think and implode is quite a good and recurring hit of dopamine.

The video recommends some exercise whereby you work for 30 minutes then give yourself award. I suppose that works and there must be apps for that. For me personally, if I meditate in the morning I can focus and if I don’t I don’t. Go Buddhism.

Posted on Friday, September 21st, 2012 in Science, Video.

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2 Comments »

Getting nothing done. « Life as a Side Project

2012-09-21 13:21:18

[...] wrote this post about the science of procrastination, and I had a good time reading it coz procrastinating [...]

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ALCH3MIST

2012-09-21 14:26:03

We’re jobless and bored, all of us :\

w00ts for being lazy!

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