Procrastination Research Group

November 15, 2003 7:49 PM

I've been meaning to post this for the longest time.
posted by staggernation (23 comments total)

[In case you don't want to follow a link blindly, it's the "Procrastination Research Group" at the Carleton University psych department.]
posted by staggernation at 7:54 PM on November 15, 2003

Got it.
posted by wendell at 8:07 PM on November 15, 2003

* clicks on link *

* laughs until he chokes *

* waits a few weeks before adding a substantive comment *
posted by yhbc at 8:28 PM on November 15, 2003

I'll check it out later.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:02 PM on November 15, 2003

huh? wuzzuh?

*thunk*
posted by quonsar at 9:09 PM on November 15, 2003

Brilliant.
posted by anastasiav at 9:18 PM on November 15, 2003

Is it OK if I get around to thanking you for this post tomorrow or sometime later, staggernation? :)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 9:46 PM on November 15, 2003

I was gonna use those very words "I'll check it out later" but I see now that Crash has already done it so I don't have to. That's what I get, for putting off responding to this thread. Early bird gets the worm and all that. Ah well. I'd think of something funnier to say but maybe later. I'm too busy putting off going to sleep.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:06 PM on November 15, 2003

I was thinking about posting something pretty much like what Zach posted. I had the beginnings of a rough outline and everything...
posted by Guy Smiley at 11:20 PM on November 15, 2003

...but I am le tired.
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:26 PM on November 15, 2003

Okay. These two procrastinators walk into a bar... no wait that's not the joke... There were these two procrastinators see? And they were ...they were thinking about walking into a bar. And one of them opens his mouth like he was gonna say somethin, right? And then he shuts his mouth and looks down at his feet. And the other procrastinator says, "were you gonna say somethin'?" and the first procrastinator says to the second procrastinator, "why didn't our moms ever give us names?" And the other procrastinator says, "she's still thinkin' about it." And then... oh forget it.
posted by ZachsMind at 11:38 PM on November 15, 2003

But, but, the page made it past the "Under Construction" phase...
posted by Samizdata at 11:52 PM on November 15, 2003

Double you tee eff.

Also, I really wanted to post something like this ages ago, but you know, stuff happens. It's not because I procrastinate like crazy or anything. Not at all.
posted by bedhead at 11:53 PM on November 15, 2003

This approach has been used by Ferrari and his colleagues (e.g., Ferrari et al.,1995) who have developed an approach to the treatment of academic procrastination known as "Doing It Now."

Well, that's one idea, anyway.
posted by brookedel at 2:46 AM on November 16, 2003

sounds awful fraught with, like, effort and stuff.
posted by quonsar at 7:23 AM on November 16, 2003

"According to Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, willpower is like a muscle -- it gets tired, same as a bicep. If you exercise your willpower too much, it becomes exhausted, and is less able to prevent your attention from wandering. In an exercise designed to test this theory, Baumeister placed a group in a room with a plate of chocolate chip cookies, and told them not to eat the treats. Another group was placed in a similar room and told they were allowed to eat the cookies. Both groups were later asked to conduct a tedious exercise that simulated work. The group that had already used their willpower plugged away at the tedious exercise only half as long as the group that hadn't previously disciplined themselves. From this, Baumeister concluded that willpower weakens as it is exercised...."

Ah, science.....
posted by troutfishing at 7:33 AM on November 16, 2003

That's an interesting conclusion. I would have concluded that cookies give you energy.
posted by staggernation at 8:14 AM on November 16, 2003

This page takes for-ev-er to load . . .
posted by palancik at 10:05 AM on November 16, 2003

Cookies? Stagger, you got some cookies?
posted by billsaysthis at 10:12 AM on November 16, 2003

Hehe, it even procrastinates about loading.
posted by ilsa at 10:22 AM on November 16, 2003

staggernation - that's what came to my mind.
posted by troutfishing at 10:22 AM on November 16, 2003

I'm glad to hear about that procrastination research about cookies. From now on I will go ahead an eat cookies, saving my will power for more important things, like, uh, the extra running I'm going to have to do to work off the cookies.
posted by orange swan at 10:34 AM on November 16, 2003

Amusing, considering that Carleton is considered the 'safe' university to apply to in Ontario if your marks might not get you in where you'd like to go. Otherwise known as "Last-Chance U".

No offense, Carleton people. I've heard the bars are good. :)
posted by denbot at 9:08 PM on November 16, 2003