I've just realised that over the last 5 days or so I've re-learnt HTML and PHP and written a website; all in the name of avoiding writing a paper that I have due next week.

Anyone else do anything they can to put off doing important work?

I've built whole a whole dedicated web/mail/ftp etc server. Spent weeks helping others with their coding and problem solving. Made a smashing self-compiling, auto-updating CV that I can print out at a moments notice, knowing the dates and addresses etc are all correct for that day.

Loads of pointless stuff. But it's all good.

I've become rather handy at Bejeweled Blitz – the best minute on facebook!

How sad. 😥

I'm on here….

I'll get back to you on that soon….

If my wife takes the kids out for the day, so I can get on with marking coursework, she knows she'll get back to no washing up, a few loads of washing done and rather less tea and cake and biscuits than when she left.

IMO…

Procrastination is not lazyness. There is a reason why you put things off and sometimes a good reason.
Ideas, creativity etc do not come at will, but of their own accord if you create the right psychological conditions e.g. in-the-bath, in silence, in conversation, alone, calm, panicked, pressured, slightly drunk, coked.
An idea or solution often has a gestation period during which you pour information into you head and while you are looking the other way it cooks in its own time and then appears as if by magic. Procrastination in action [sic].

Best not to worry or get depressed because that subdues brain activity which kills creativity. Chill; it will be done.

Made a smashing self-compiling, auto-updating CV that I can print out at a moments notice, knowing the dates and addresses etc are all correct for that day.

That sounds cool – any chance of a public release? Or at least give us a clue what you used (PHP?) to build it. Please

Why put off today what you can put off tomorrow?

Epic procrastination for me and officemates here:

http://theragingpowerofdeaver.kicks-ass.net/

You have to be fairly techy to get why it's so pointless. Basically I challenged my officemates, with identical machines, to a bzip race to compress a random binary file. Then it got a bit out of hand. Scroll to the very bottom…. we found an old ipod, 3rd gen so the slowest CPU in any ipod, installed linux on it, then set it bzipping the file…. there's some other odd hardware in there too…

Hmm – procrastination… must get round to trying that sometime.

Why do today what you can put off 'til at least next week…

I'll edit this & post my thoughts on the subject after I get a cuppa

i'm with deadlydarcy. bejewelled blitz should have cost me my distinction, but it didn't so long may it continue. oh but its currently costing me a new job… :/

I was gonna post on this earlier, but never got round to it.

Was also gonna post, but thought I would make a cup of tea first:
Why do today, what you can put off altogether.

I've counted every single shaving of desiccated coconut within a 2kg catering bag prior to typing this.

Bejeweled Blitz is a killer, especially for the iPhone as it's now portable.

Taught myself to juggle instead of revising for GCSEs, and guitar instead of a-level.
Also, and I'm not proud of this but…i was team leader for a bike hire facility at a holiday park and managed not to touch a single bike in a 12 hour shift…that was a long day, but I did get Bumley to post a picture of herself in a bikini on here! 🙂

Normally, a danger ****, or two

on a gap year placement I managed to draw one large pipe diagram, which wasn't wholly accurate or particularly useful
however I received an award for 'overcoming adversity' because my boss had retired through illness after 2 weeks and I was left unsupervised for the rest of the time
I spent my time playing solitaire, sleeping in my boss's office, walking round the plant pretending to be an engineer and hitting stuff with a hammer and looking at the porn in the workshops

I miss that job, £10k for doing sweet FA

I guess I did learn SAP and CAD whilst I was there

Lister – Thanks for reminding me!

post it again!!

Its at times like these I wish I didn't procrastinate so much.
As I have to hand in this essay tomorrow, its the rules that I have to start it at about 9pm the night before. Finding text books and papers to reference is almost procrastination, so that has already been done…
along with:
Booking a holiday
ordering a bike frame
buying shiny bike bits
bought coffee
made coffee
drank coffee
arranged to meet up with friends after hand in time

The ridiculous thing is when I was at Uni I'd start things the night before and if they were on a topic that you could just right flowery verby shite i'd always get mid to high 2-1; construction management, environmental construction, health and safety etc.

Anyhow i'm now a teacher (sort of) and spent last week when I was meant to do the grades for my 340 students doing everything to avoid them, started on the last morning I had available as was hiking the next day and submitted at 12:30 the following morning.

Procrastination is often efficient in my opinion.

Buzzlightyear is right.
In my organisation there is sometimes a premium placed on those who make decisions there and then. They look decisive and they appear in command and macho.
A disproportionate amount of these decisions turn out to be wrong!
My approach is to make decisions when they need to be made and not before. In the meantime some problems either solve themselves, go away or sufficient information can be gathered in the interim to make the eventual decision easier and the correct one.

Just finished my 2,500 word essay, due in before 9 this morning, started 4 hours ago. Spent the past 6 weeks telling myself it wouldn't take long, and the past week doing anything other than work, checking and re-checking blogs I know won't have changed in the middle of the night, hunting down old friend on facebook, with no good reason or chance of finding them, I even took a day off work to get on to it yesterday, only to spend the day mincing about the house feeling miserable about the imminent work, over-eating and resorting to copious amounts of coffee as the deadline ticked ever closer and my will to work remained untriggered until 3:30am….

In my first year of University I lost over 30% of my overall mark due to lateness, taking my mark from a high 2-1 to a fail! But it was ever the case, having never revised in my life, and avoided just about every chore ever asked of me, and avoiding academic work doing pointless chores.

Nice to know that others are happy to jump in to the same boat… 😕

Was it Abraham Lincoln who said ……….?

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

I only just got around to reading this thread…

IA, MacBook pro 2.16GHz, 17secs747

Shit, better take daughter to school. Late again

Free Cell for me, used to go 3 miles into Uni because trying to do work at home just meant more games.

I prefer procrasturbation 🙂

A busy day when I have loads of accounts to do usually consists of

9:00 open up
9:05 Check STW
10:30 is it that time already, best get some breakfast, better still head to local bike shop via Sausage & Egg shop. Diverts phones to mobile
12:00 better get back to work
12:01 actually the kettles just brewed…
1:00 def back to work now….. hang on its lunch time.
3:00 ok really back to work now
3:05 Check STW
4:30 ok lets get some work done…. to late to start anything now better just make a brew

Sorry Jedi, no way, its not worth the abuse!

I seem to be spending too much time on here when I should be packing my stuff for the 'puffer…

bumley, do it do it do it

I'll get back to you on that one…

Chvck, I started a business. My dissertation is a year late but business is thriving. 😛

I'll get there eventually though, got about 500 words…lol

I have always found that i get much more done when there is something else really important that i should be doing, otherwise i just end up sleeping. I call this proactive procrastination.