Category: Unit 1.5: Difficulty Paper – “Later” (Page 6 of 20)

Re-reading “Later” I realized nothing new but it gave a little more clarity on what Surowiecki meaning of procrastination is to him. Procrastination is a physiological thing humans go through when there’s  pleasure of doing something  instead of doing something that’s boring and a waste of time. When important due dates come up for things to be done we tend to push it back knowing it’s important but when the due date comes up it’s done last minute or done late. Surowiecki argues that procrastination is a universal phenomenon that affects individuals across various cultures and professions.

Worldwide humans tend to procrastinate most of the time and this can bring problems worldwide. Having awareness of your procrastination is the first steps, Surowiecki advises readers to recognize their procrastination tendencies and take steps to bridge the gap between their present and future selves. With endless distractions at our fingertips, it’s easier than ever to succumb to procrastination. The author suggests that understanding the psychological underpinnings of procrastination can help individuals develop strategies to overcome it. This might involve setting clear goals, breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable steps, and using techniques like the Pomodoro technique to stay focused and productive.

Surowiecki offers valuable insights into the nature of procrastination and provides practical advice for overcoming this common human tendency. It serves as a reminder that we all struggle with procrastination at times, but with self-awareness and effective strategies, we can better align our present actions with our long-term goals.

This time rereading “Later” by James Surowiecki, I approached it slowly and read it word for word. I found it to be much more informative and interesting this second time. I realized as I read that the author was not just spewing examples at random but was dissecting the problem of procrastination by breaking down every aspect of it. The author includes surveys with the results being that college students tend to procrastinate and writers struggle to finish their own pieces. However the outcome is not just a display of laziness but taken from a different perspective it is a “basic human impulse”. By the 18th century, Samuel Johnson was describing it ;” for having so long neglected what was unavoidably to be done, and which every moment’s idleness increased the difficulty.” This common problem was persistent to modern times, Piers Steel performed a study in which people admitted to difficulties with procrastination, the resulting percentage quadrupled between 1978 and 2002. One of the more intriguing perspectives to me , is from the philosophers in “The Thief Of Time” with a more radical explanation called “the divided self”. This interpretation from Thomas Schelling suggests that bargaining with your short term interests and long term goals is the result of procrastination. The author then goes into solutions, one being “the extended will”. This is going going out of the way to take precautions using external tools and techniques to help with work. For example getting someone involved to help keep you responsible for your work. The opposing argument that disapproves the reliance on external tools, advices you to strengthen your will rather that depending on techniques. With research supporting will power to be “in some ways, like a muscle and can be made stronger.”, however the same research, “also suggests that most of us have a limited amount of will power and that it’s easily exhausted.” Throughout the reading James Surowiecki illustrates every possible aspect of procrastination, ranging from controversial theories and perfectionism.  

As I reread the article I found it easier because I had a few words defined that I hadn’t known the first time reading it. I got used to using the context clues as well instead of just finding google definitions and actually trying to challenge myself to figure out the meanings. This time around I focused more on specific places where I got lost during the reading and tried to dissect that specific area. One of the specific places that I got distracted the most was when he talked about the movie titles. At first I was more focused on being able to identify those movies and realizing that I knew some of them instead of actually focusing on the story that the author was trying to tell. The author used these examples of watching a more comedic movie in earlier dates and then watching more serious movies at a later date to show how procrastination works in many ways. By leaving a movie for later you are more inclined to find a funnier and more comedic movie in the time period in between and may not even remember to watch the more serious movie when you were supposed to. This experiment goes to show that our preferences aren’t going to be the same over a period of time. As I reread this specific part I focused more on the overall message instead of focusing on bits and pieces and in the end it actually made sense in my head what the author was trying to say in that specific place in the passage. One of the main things that also helped me this time around was printing and highlighting my own copy so that I could mark all the places that I found confusing in order to dissect it throughout the passage.