拖延症怎么治？!

20160531ou 一中两外锵锵三人行 今日话题： 拖延症 怎么得的? 该怎么治? Lincoln: All of us have problems every now and again, or most of us at the very least have problems, procrastinating. A recent report cited in the Washington Post tries to get to the bottom of why, Nick. Nick: Yes, so procrastination, as you said, is something which is kind of a minor annoyance in most people’s lives, but according to some studies it can even be detrimental to your health. A study found that people who were considered regular procrastinators of university age had higher stress levels, they were more likely to become ill. A couple of reasons were given for why we think that people procrastinate. People think that it’s kind of a failure to self-regulate. Lincoln: You a big procrastinator, Nick? Nick: I’m a YouTube video watcher. Lincoln: What sort of YouTube? Instructive, or what is it? Nick: Instructive, you know, we’re talking documentaries about completely unrelated things. Lincoln: Penguins falling off a cliff, stuff like that? Nick: Absolutely. Back when I was studying, I was a terrible procrastinator, and actually I realized, after a while, too, that I was including procrastinating even within my work. So in the program I was studying we would have some really big assignments and some much more frequent, but much smaller, ones, and I would always put off the big one and just do the small ones first. Lincoln: How about you, Yoyo? Yoyo: Okay, I used to be a procrastinator because while I was in school, I always took back home a huge luggage of books, something that I thought I might read during the holiday. So, I would think that I will make good use of that time. And it turns out, I start a new semester, I take back the same luggage with the books that I haven’t ever read a page of! That’s so bad. Lincoln: Oh no! Both of you guys are not good. Clearly, I never struggle with procrastination. No, that’s not true. I actually do struggle with it quite a bit, actually. I find myself, when I have work to do, I’ll usually put something on in the background, say, if I know that this album, or this particular thing, is maybe thirty minutes long, I’ll put that on in the background and say I’ll work for the length of those thirty minutes, and then I’ll stop. But what often ends up happening is, after thirty minutes, something else catches my eye. Nick: Or the background thing has become the foreground thing. Lincoln: Yes, the foreground. And there’s a big disconnect between your current self and your future self. So the idea is that your current self will do something it knows will hurt your future self, but most people have very little empathy for their future selves. In your head it’s a different person. Yoyo: And sometimes, if we simply put it off, in reality it will come back and bite us. But there can be better methods, because Mark Twain once said, “If your job is to eat a frog, eat it first thing in the morning. And if your job is to eat two frogs, eat the big one first”. Lincoln: That’s a good point, because here’s the interesting thing. You’re saying just get it done. After the end of a year, I don’t really know what I did with my time or what my state of mind was. So I have this journal, and I write in it and I plan my life, but now I’ve found that I’ve actually had to plan to write in this planner now. I’ve procrastinated so much about writing in this thing. Nick: When you’re procrastinating about procrastinating, you know things have gone too far. Lincoln: Yeah, and you know, it’s a vicious cycle, it could go, who knows where it could end up. What about nowadays? Like, in a more modern setting, like now, in 2016, now that you don’t have two holidays. How do you procrastinate? Yoyo: Nowadays I think I’m getting better, it’s because I have a special trick. It’s called rewarding and encouragement system. I will have a simple plan. If I want to finish this article, I will simply say, “If I finish this, I will reward myself with new shoes or a new dress!" Lincoln: This is what I know is going to happen, you’re going to reward yourself, and then you’re going to forget to do the thing. I can see it coming!