Structured Procrastination. Steve Pavlina Reader. iProcrastinate Podcast. The Procrastinating Caveman: What Human Evolution Teaches Us About Why We Put Off Work and How to Stop. July 10th, 2011 · 60 comments Survivor: Paleolithic Edition Rewind time 100,000 years ago: several different species of humans co-exist on earth.There was, of course, our own species, Homo sapien, but we were joined by our more athletic siblings from the Tree of Life, Homo erectus, who had left Africa and colonized Asia long before we ventured beyond the mother continent, all the while another sibling, the stocky Neanderthal, was hunkered down in a European ice age.
Advance another 90,000 years, however, and our species is the only game left in town. Scientists have worked hard to figure out why we survived while other early humans did not. The answer to this question lies at the core of our species’ story, but it also provides insight into a topic of significantly less importance on the grand scale, but nonetheless one that haunts many of us in our everyday lives: procrastination. The Planning Edge Rethinking Student Procrastination Let me flesh this out.
(Image by Kevin Dooley) Procrastination. The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. —Mary Heaton Vorse What this handout is about This handout will help you understand why you procrastinate and offer strategies and to combat this common writer’s ailment. Introduction Everyone procrastinates. You can tell whether or not you need to do something about your procrastination by examining its consequences. Is there hope? If you think you are a hopeless procrastinator, take heart!
You may not be surprised to learn that procrastinators tend to be self-critical. If you don’t care why you procrastinate—you just want to know what to do about it—then you might as well skip the next section of this handout and go right to the section labeled “What to do about it.” Why we do it In order to stop putting off your writing assignments, it is important to understand why you tend to do so in the first place. Because we are afraid. Because we expect ourselves to be perfect. Because we don’t like our writing.