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On Procrastination 23:43 (2005.07.22:1 philo1#2 PlannerHacks:5 emacs#6)
Tish Tejada writes:
PROCRASTINATION NEVER DOES YOU ANY GOOD! GOT THAT?! YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE!
Umm, not that I'm a philosophical nitpick, but isn't `procrastination never does you any good' a proscription implying the evaluative judgment `procrastination is bad *is true*'? (Blame Acuña's Unit II on this one ;)
If that's the case, then I can easily falsify that claim by two counterexamples. The first is this interesting blogpost by Sacha Chua:
For me, procrastination is simply the ability to choose what I'd like to work on today, knowing that I can work on other things tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. It's not perfect, but it does give me a happy feeling about how much I accomplish each day and excitement about what I'm going to do tomorrow.
I find it extremely effective for me to keep my momentum in my studies by actively plotting my TODO list in my plan pages. For instance, my AssociateInArts page will show all the top-priority assignments and the exams I need to work on during my AA stint at the UPOU. It may seem to be a daunting tasklist, not for the faint of heart, but I don't really mind the length and breadth of the tasks because I know I can put these tasks on hold (and several of them are ;) so I can focus on those tasks nearest the deadline. Also, since I am using PlannerMode which provides wiki functionality, I can put notes on these tasks (as well as notes on just about everything) in a single coherent infobase; and even when I'm offline, these notes are always with me in the form of Hipster PDA pages, so that whenever I'm idle, or when I just want to remember things, I can do so at will, without having to spend so much on fleetingly passé digital devices.
And that brings me to the second counterexample from my own experience in using PlannerMode and the Hipster PDA to keep track with what I'm supposed to do any given day---as I write down tasks for the day on the Hipster, I am distinctly aware that I may not be able to do some or even all these tasks: however, I do not feel guilty if I skip some tasks by the day's end, because I know that there is another sun rising tommorow, barring Hume's empirical observation.
Procrastination is good is true as long as you have a good way to plan your procrastination. In other words, if you want to skimp on doing your commI assignment while keeping in mind that its deadline is just a few days away so you can shave your yak or play with your wikiblog's stylesheet, you need to organize. Organizing need not be an expensive effort; one may just need only index cards, a clip, and good pen or pencil, and presto! You're on your way to productive procrastination...
Then again, evaluative judgments are verified by an intersubjective consensus of the public, so, here goes the old acronym again: YMMV.