Monday, April 16, 2007

Procrastination:

(pro-crass-tin-ay-shun)
noun
1. the act of procrastinating; putting off or delaying or defering an action to a later time

noun
2. slowness as a consequence of not getting around to it

(pro-crass-tin-ate)
verb (used without object)
3. to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.

verb (used with object)
4. to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.

verb (intr.)
5. to put off doing something, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness.

verb (tr.)
6. to postpone or delay needlessly.


10 Interesting Facts About Procrastination

1) Procrastination derives from the latin procrastinare meaning "defer till the morning" - from pro meaning "forward" and crastinus meaning "belonging to tomorrow" (from cras meaning "tomorrow").

2) The word procrastinate was orignially coined in 1548 by Edward Hall in The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancestre and Yorke and was recorded as an English word for the first time in 1588.

3) "Procrastination" was dictionary.com's Word of the Day on August 17th 2002.

4) Here are some pictures of people procrastinating:





5) The physiological roots for procrastination are thought to come from the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex which "acts as a filter by decreasing distracting stimuli from other brain regions. Damage or low activation in this area can reduce an individual's ability to filter out distracting stimuli, ultimately resulting in poorer organisation, a loss of attention and increased procrastination" (Wikipedia).

6) Paul Graham argues that not all procrastination is bad:

"There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination."

7) Procrastination is thought to have more to do with anxiety than laziness.

8) Here is a good example of where procrastination can lead:



9) The internet is both the best friend and the worst enemy of the procrastinator.

10) 20% of the population identify themselves as chronic procrastinators.

Hmm. Interesting. I should probably get on with my report.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

When it comes to procrastinating Glyn, I don't think I have ever seen anyone as good at it as you! Congratulations!

Liz said...

I think the guy defrosting and cleaning the fridge mught not be procrastinating. He might have been putting that job off for AGES:) - I know I certainly do.

Liz said...

Oh yeah - and what's with the 'type in the characters below' thing. I'm rubbish at that - I always have to do it twice!

Liz said...

Sorry - that 'type in the cahracters above' thing.

Liz said...

Right I really must defrost the fridge now - oh I'm SO funny :)

Glyn Harries said...

I think the guy cleaning his fridge quite clearly has a dissertation to do.

Unknown said...

At exam time when I was at uni my kitchen was soooo tidy and clean!

Timmy Magic said...

You make me chuckle Glyn!

Graeme said...

Kirsty has it so spot on!! Glyn, you are the king of procrastination!

Matt Leeder said...

I am reading this instead of planting flowers in my garden. Nice one Glyn - spead the love!

Andy said...

Seriously, you realy are king time-waster...