Procrastination, what makes it feel so good?

Procrastination is a truly lovely thing isn't it? I find myself doing it constantly. When Im supposed to be studying I find myself on Facebook. When I need to write a paper I find myself doing anything but writing the paper. The other day I made a paper firework out of small post its instead of doing some work I had to do. Now I ask you why is it that we do these things that are so unimportant, not even interesting, instead of the things that must be done? We work so hard to get out of working. I have to wonder if we do so to sabotage ourselves. Why is it that we are willing to put off something that is important to do something so remedial? Perhaps we are seeking to minimize our energy expenditure. After all it is more difficult to do something productive. Its more difficult to sit down and write a paper when you could play with a piece of paper. I even find myself putting off watching certain TV shows because I get enticed by something else. I constantly think to myself, "What if this is a really good show and I change the channel? It could be lost in TV land forever and I will never know." Perhaps we value things in the wrong ways. I think that as American's we tend to value things based on quantity over quality. If I do more little things that have miniscule value then I fell that I have collectively done more and thus I have done enough. Perhaps we put things off so that subconsciously we can rack up all the little things we can do in that time we would take to do the one big thing. This could be a way of never getting anything done however. I also find when I have something to do that is entirely up to me I have a harder time starting. I have a difficult time making decisions when it comes to anything as do many people I know. Often people will deflect decisions to me and I will deflect them back.. in turn no decision gets made. We are perfect examples of choice overload. When we are presented with too many choices we do not know how to handle the situation. I always say we act like malfunctioning robots when there's too many things to choose from. There is no possibility for conversation when choices need to be made. We have the tendency to start a sentence and stop halfway though and when asked what the other person was saying we stutter and can't finish the sentence. It is as if our brains do not know what to do and are slowly shutting down any areas that would be doing anything but focusing on making a decision. After a taxing day of making choices that we have put off for far too long we often find ourselves tired. Our brain is worn out from all the extra use. Perhaps this is why the older we get the more we need to nap, the strain of making decisions with everything we do is such a strain that it makes us tired by the end of the day. I know that this video was already posted but I planned to use it because not only is it hilarious but it is true. Another video I have was one from the Daily Show. It is from a few years back and it talks about President Bush. Putting things off is just human nature and no person is immune to it. No matter how big you are; such as the president, or tiny; us poor college students, everyone does it. According to Ellen what would we do if we had an extra chunk of time? Nothing! Which is what makes procrastination feel so good. Procrastination is not the problem. It is the solution. It is the universe's way of saying stop, slow down, you move too fast. Heed Ellen's advise, Procrastinate now, don't put it off!

The first link is to the Daily Show the video refuses to imbed.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june-19-2008/the-procrastinator