Confession of a Procrastinator

About two years ago, I came across a popular theory online developed by a Stanford Professor in Philosophy whose name is John Perry. Let's not yawn just yet, because the "theory" is more like a fun parody rather than one of those hardcore and long-winded chains of thought. The theory is called Structured Procrastination. I'm not an internet expert who knows before everybody else what's hot in the cyber world and I guess by the time I realised the theory's existence many people might have already heard of that. Well, I could be late, but it doesn't change my opinion of it - that guy's essays are ridiculously funny.

He published a book on it too

If you haven't visited the procrastinating webpage, I think you should. It means to offer a self-help program for procrastinators by making them productive without changing their procrastinating manner. Sounds great, doesn't it? We all know how hard it is to shake a bad attitude. I consider myself an occasional or maybe seasonal procrastinator, and I think the theory would work for me.

For instance, I was supposed to post stuff on this blog a few months ago but since I am in my procrastinating state of mind, I prefer to clean the house, change into my Lycra gear to do yoga, even peel and core seven Granny Smiths to make apple crumble. I was ready to undertake more complicated tasks just to run away from the most pressing one on the list. I'm pretty sure everyone behaves that way from time to time - some more often than others.

So, one of the method Prof. Perry suggests is by using a to-do list which breaks down one task into smaller portions. For example, instead of writing on the yellow sticky note: "Write a blog entry", I write: 1.Turn on your laptop and position it in a well-lit spot; 2. Log on to Blogger; 3. Put a sexy heading; 4. Write four lines; 5.Drink a glass of water; and so on. By so doing, we enjoy the thrill of checking the listed items every two minutes and feel so productive - almost like a non-procrastinator. Not a bad way to lure me in.

I have some students who are somewhat reluctant to study for IELTS. They can take half a day to write a 250 word essay and one whole day to finish three reading passages. Well, why don't we try the method above? Make a list: 1. Take out your IELTS practice test; 2. Find some room on your desk; 3. Read the writing Task 2 question; 4. Draw a table for the essay plan; 5. One sip of tea as you put down the main idea for the first paragraph... 

Wait a second, what is an essay plan?

More on that next time :)