Here I am again, with my final exam drawing ever closer, writing another blog post and once again just generally wasting time.
I often find myself scouring blogs or Wikipedia for things that interest me. It will start out with an interest in a certain subject or topic and I will find myself clicking link after link, and going off on tangents; I end up reading about things that are not at all related to the initial topic, but none the less interesting. I can often spend hours doing this; hours some would say much better spent revising or working, but not to me. I can never see a thirst for knowledge as a waste of time, for by increasing your own knowledge base you are bettering yourself (or at least that's how I justify it to myself!).
It was by this that I came across a post talking about a book by Neil Fiore about procrastination (a topic well known by me!). Instead of attributing it to laziness that can simply be cured by a good old fashion dose of hard work, he delves deeper into the psychology of it. He associates procrastination as a mechanism for coping with anxiety, especially that stemming from starting or completing a task. He sees it as a method of resisting pressure from authorities, as a method of lessoning fear of failure by providing you with a decent excuse for poor performance; you simply didn't try very hard.
I find this idea intriguing and when applied to myself probably largely true. I often put off work and keep putting it off until the pressure truly mounts and I find myself rushing frantically, reprimanding myself for not starting sooner. Yet despite this, I never learn and will continue with this behaviour every time after. I have always been one who did well in school, doing well in my GCSEs with minimal effort and well in A-Levels without increasing that effort level. However this started to cause problems when I hit uni and the work became significantly harder, yet my effort levels didn't increase. In fact I probably now find more things to distract myself with.
Is all this a bad thing? Probably. Will I regret not working harder later in life? Quite possibly, but for now it is exactly what I wanted so I hold no regrets.
As the English philosopher Bertrand Russell once said - "the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time" an adage I choose to live by.
that's the thing about regrets though, they always come when it's too late to do anything about the reason you have them. I'd say work now, you'll need to learn self-dicipline sooner or later.
ReplyDeleteI know, I know its odd really. Anything like uni work (exam revision, coursework) I just put off. However any time I have an actual job I focus solely on doing my work and doing it well (a bit of a perfectionist really). And I spent a year in industry working for Xerox so at a proper 9-5 job with a salary. It seems that when its for my benefit alone I just can't be bothered, weird I know.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about getting lost in wikipedia, going link to link. It's just rarer for me, hah. But once I start, it's always the same way.
ReplyDeleteThe excuse seems very true when it comes to the way I handle assignments. I probably want to look good in spite of doing it the night before :/
ReplyDeleteI hit the wall earlier than you. GCSEs, perfectly fine, As across the board. Dropped out of A-Levels my second year. I've come back for another go though and doing much better this time.
ReplyDeleteHehe, I do the exact same thing. Fascinating stuff I have to say.
ReplyDeletewasting time? no such thing. just recharging your genius is my excuse :D
ReplyDeletei enjoy wasting time, so im not actually wasting time :)
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how wikipedia articles can draw you in with their knowledge. I often find myself spending hours reading there as well. Just live the way you live and be happy with yourself! :) though it is extremely hard breaking out of normal cycles.
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