RAB Source Entry 2- Briana Lliguicota

Source Entry #2 for “It Took a Pandemic to Change the Nature of My Chronic Procrastination” by Li Yiyun  

Part 1 MLA Citation  

Li, Yiyun. “Opinion | It Took a Pandemic to Change the Nature of My Chronic Procrastination.” Opinion  It Took a Pandemic to Change the Nature of My Chronic Procrastination, 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/09/06/yiyun-li-post-pandemic-covid-procrastination/. 

Part 2 Summary  

The article “It Took a Pandemic To Change the Nature of My Chronic Procrastination,” by Li Yiyun  is about how the COVID-19 pandemic altered her perspective on procrastination habits into a positive and healthy mindset . The writer states, “I spent more time thinking about making appointments than picking up the phone.” Yiyun expresses that she was very aware of her procrastination yet continued to act through procrastination. Yiyun mentions that she used to agonize over her tendency to procrastinate, accept her bad habits and then remind herself of all the things she had not accomplished. She implies that procrastination was an ongoing cycle for her that never seemed to stop repeating. Yiyun also emphasizes that during the lockdown period she was forced to face isolation and disruption in her daily life, changing her perspective on time and productivity. She uses the example of how when her lawyer congratulated her and her husband when they signed their will after 15 years of finally putting it off. Yiyun was able to accept it instead of beating herself for taking so long and she had realized her relationship with procrastination had changed through this moment. Yiyun concludes her opinion piece by claiming that a procrastinator is fundamentally an optimist, so accepting her procrastination and becoming more considerate of time has changed her relationship with the bad habit of procrastinating overall.  

Part 3 Rhetorical Analysis  

The genre is an opinion piece. The primary audience is the current youth of society. The purpose is to express her beliefs and thoughts on being a procrastinator. The author’s writing style is reflective and thoughtful. Yiyun strongly uses the appeal of pathos throughout her article by expressing her hardships within herself through procrastination. She provides many examples of procrastination in her life to evoke an emotion out of a reader. The author of this piece ,Yiyun, is credible because she is the author of a memoir, “Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life,” and known author to numerous memoirs. The Washington Post is a reliable source because it’s one of the leading daily newspapers in the U.S. The newspaper’s mission is to its readers and to the public, and not to the private interests of its owners. This article was written in 2023, so the information and thoughts are very current to our society now. Procrastination has only become worse this past year, so this article is very fresh focusing on how procrastination works and how it affects an individual.  

Part 4 Notable Quotes  

“At the same time, I agonized over my tendancy to procrastinate, until the agony was too sharp. Then I reconciled with my weakness. Then something reminded me of the unmet goals, and I had to face my hopeless procrastination.”  

“So much of life is beyond our control, a fact heavily underlined by the pandemic and the many forms of losses in the past few years. Sometimes it is hard to be optimistic. “ 

“Things don’t always get done late these days. When I face a new task, I weigh my options: Will I suffer more from the pressure to tackle the task from the guilt of procrastinating?