Wednesday, July 7, 2010

"I'll get that done tomorrow"

As a college student, I know all too well about procrastination. I am sure I am not the only one who has waited until the day before something was due to start it, even though I knew about the assignment for weeks (high delay time). According to Chapter 10, students get side-tracked with activities that have a higher "utility" than, say, writing a 5 page essay. These utilities could be checking email, texting a friend, watching a favorite tv show... you know what I'm talking about. When a deadline nears, the delay interval decreases causing its utility level to rise and become more important to get done. Professor Dan Ariely of Duke University has procrastination among college students down to a T. He is spot-on about how, in the beginning of every semester, students are focused and eager to learn. Then somewhere along the way, excuses begin to pop up about why assignments could not be handed in on-time and such. This video is interesting because I have never heard a professor's point of view on this subject before.

2 comments:

  1. My procrastination level has skyrocketed since the creation of facebook. I find myself reading random things on the newsfeed which leads me to checking out profiles of people I haven't seen since high school. It's rediculous really... and kind of sad haha. Any form of media pulls me away from my school work regularly. Even I-tunes. Forget about school work when ten p.m. on a week night rolls around... primetime reality television.

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  2. I really like the professor's tactic for the students to stop procrastinating. I actually feel like this is something that would help students a lot becacuse if we were able to pick out dates we wouldn't have all our assignments due at once, which of course happens every semester.

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