While reading this excerpt I found it to be very interesting and strange because I could identify with many of the definitions and examples of procrastination in my life as a college student and otherwise. I definitely fall into the group of students in which surveys says, ‘college students procrastinate’. However, even though enjoyable the reading was challenging and a bit difficult to follow at times.

In the second paragraph the first sentence stated “Academics, who work for long periods in a self-directed fashion may be especially prone to putting things of:”. I understand that he is speaking of students and people alike himself, authors, but my question is who are academics, who work for a long time in a self-directed fashion, what does this phrase, self-directed fashion, mean? Another area of confusion in this excerpt is in the eleventh paragraph when the social scientist Jon Elster referenced General George McClellan to create an example that our attitude to the task being avoided as another area to be explored to discover what procrastination really is. I was confused with the entire explanation of General George McClellan procrastination problems. I later discovered it was references of times he could have led the army to take Richmond, but he was hesitant, indecisive, he over planned and in the end lacked confidence to lead the army into victory. But my main issue, why mind stop reading and understanding was because I hate army novels and any scenery with wars etc. So, I became my very own hinderance, but after rereading the paragraph a few times I got the jest of it.

The second area that posed some confusion and inquisitiveness was in paragraph six, the writer sited the Greek word ‘akrasia’ which means doing something against one’s own better judgement. Also, paragraph nine when Loewenstein commented that Socrates believed that akrasia was impossible. The text I understood but I never studied Greek mythology or any of the ancient mythologies, and though I am very interested in learning more about it, whenever I stubble upon readings that quote or refer to it, I get instantly confused and wonder if I am misinterpreting the meaning of the quote. I combat this by reading and rereading the text till I have a working knowledge to move forward.