14 January 2009

Procrastination

tassia mousaka creationThere is something skew-whiff about taking too long to buy a calendar.

Every year it's the same: mid-November approaches and there is the note on the sub-standard calendar I ended up with last year, having failed to search on time.

So all the decent ones are gone.

Actually, there aren't any good ones, period, and one day I will clean up with a set of calendars that *deliver* the goods:

  • Big enough squares in which to fit more than two three-word appointments.
  • Phases of the moon (about which my mother is endlessly curious and observant and invariably gets it ever-so slightly wrong)
  • Local Saints' and public holidays.
    • Have you ever seen the expressions on your family when you've zoomed into town for a big ol' shopping spree - yee haw, no queues! - misled* by that damfool calendar of "I Like Insects more than You"?
    • I don't want to know about the 'rich, almost gaudy colors and striking patterns inherent in the Erotylidae family of pleasing fungus beetles.'
    • Nor that the "Systemae helicopter damselflies - with their ultraslow wing beat and completely silent flight - are almost spectral in their jungle habits of Central and South America."
  • I want to be alerted to: Clean Monday ~ Greek Independence Day ~ Labour Day ~ Aug 15th's Dormition of the BVM ~ Ochi Day.* ~ Last not least, St Spiridion Day.
  • And - please - no botanical pics. I'm bombarded with planty views from the moment I step outside. At least spare my eyeballs when I finally get refuge indoors from that infernal treadmill of futility.

The problem is procrastination so I'm quite interested in Professor Piers Steel's Procrastination Equation: U=EV/ID.

  • 'U' stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task.
  • It is equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task, and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.
  • According to Il Professore, procrastination is becoming a bigger deal because many more jobs are "self-structured", with people setting their own schedules.
  • This means we tend to postpone with delayed rewards in favour of activities that offer immediate rewards.(I'm quoting all this, of course).
  • 'Procastinators tend to live for today rather than tomorrow: short term gain for long term pain.
  • Famous procrastinators include Douglas Adams who said he loved the "whoosh" of missed deadlines passing over his head.

    Hari post-scripteroo: But I doubt that Brigadier General Ahmed 'Sooty' Raza-sharp Khan falls into the Hari Procrasters category: Sword of Honour, most successful overseas cadet, medals galore, top marks. Not a man to hang around or be caught hari nappers.

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