Procrastination and New Yorker Essay

Submitted By ashmo
Words: 322
Pages: 2

We all have had a time where we have a certain task that we have to get done and we just keep putting it off until the “last minute” possible before a deadline. This is a problem people who procrastinate have to experience all too often. If there’s one thing all procrastinators can agree on, it’s that we know when we are doing it, we dread starting our work, and we know we shouldn’t be procrastinating in the first place. We know we have work that needs to be done, but just can’t bring ourselves to do it, even though we know we should; that is what being a procrastinator is all about. An article from the New Yorker by James Surowiecki entitled Later takes a more philosophical look at procrastination, and tries to analyze what procrastination says about us as people. Early on in the article Surowiecki says this about procrastination, “It’s a powerful example of what the Greeks called akrasia—doing something against one’s own better judgment. Piers Steel defines procrastination as willingly deferring something even just wants to get it done, and the other side that says why do it now when there’s time tomorrow. I think that although the delay may not always make us worse off, if we continue to delay it will eventually make us worse off. It’s the degree to which we procrastinate that decides whether we’ll be worse off from it. When rationalizing with ourselves, we always tell have time tomorrow; Surowiecki brings up a good point saying “…we fail to take into account