如何克服拖沓的习惯

How To Overcome Procrastination

July 7, 2008 By John Richardson

Procrastination is an insidious thing. It creeps up and strikes even the best of us from time to time. In fact many of us may not even realize that we are procrastinating. As you read this, for instance, you may be putting off doing something important. Maybe it’s that report to your boss, a new sales call, or that phone call to apologize to a friend.

Whatever it is, procrastination can be overcome. It’s actually quite simple…

Just do it!

I know what you’re saying… Don’t you wish it was that simple. The fact is we procrastinate because we have too much to do and not enough time to do it. In our modern society we have a huge amount of things coming at us from all directions. The cell phone is ringing, e-mail is notifying, your calendar is screaming, and your boss is standing in your doorway.

Something’s got to give!


The definition of procrastination is…

Putting off or delaying or deferring an action to a later time.

Given the amount of stuff we all have to do, it’s just natural that we have to put off some things to a later time or just not do them at all.

So the real question is… what do we do now and what do we put off until later?

Do we do the urgent?

Do we do the important?

Do we do what makes us feel good now?

The answers to these questions can really affect our future.

Dan Ariely, in his new book, Predictably Irrational did some experiments with a group of students to find out how structure effects procrastination. The results of his test are interesting and may give us some insight on overcoming this insidious problem.

Dan gave three of his classes different criteria for submitting their papers during a 12 week semester.

Structure was very important to the overall grades of the class. The class that was allowed to pick it’s own deadlines decided to follow a scheduling form that the teacher provided.

The take away is this… people do better in this order

Externally imposed deadlines

Personally imposed deadlines

No deadlines at all along the way

This has been my experience over the years with many different classes, goals, or other accomplishments. Over the next few days we’ll look at some structured ways to overcome procrastination in different areas of life. From diet to money management we’ll take a look at some successful programs that let you say…

Let’s get started… NOW!

The first class had no deadlines at all. They merely needed to submit their papers by the last class. They could turn the papers in early but there was no grade benefit in doing so.

The second class could pick their own deadlines for each paper at the beginning of the course. They could set them at intervals throughout the semester or just set them all for the last day of the class. Once the deadlines were set they could not be changed. Students would be penalized 1% of the grade for each day it was late.

The third class was given dictatorial orders. They would have to submit their three papers on week 4, 8, and 12 respectively. Their was no choice or flexibility.

At the end of the semester, the grades were tallied for each group. The group with the dictatorial structure did the best, followed by the class that set its own deadlines, with the free form group coming in last.

中文译文：

如何克服拖沓

作者：约翰 理查森 2008年7月7日


拖沓是一种隐患。它悄悄潜伏着，甚至在我们认为最好的时刻却给予致命的一击。事实上，我们很多人甚至不知道自己经常拖沓。例如，当您在读本文时，您也许正推迟着某些重要事情呢。也许那就是给你老板的报告、一个新客户的电话，或者打给朋友的道歉电话。

但无论如何，拖沓是可以克服的。这其实很简单...只要做就行了！

我知道你在说什么...难道你不希望它是如此简单。事实上，当我们拖沓的时候，往往是因为我们有太多的事情要做，却没有足够的时间。在现代社会，我们有来自四面八方的大量事情要做。手机铃声正响着、电子邮件正等待回复、日程安排正在催促、老板正站在你门口，等等。

各个方面都得关照！
拖沓的定义就是...

将一项活动推迟或拖延或顺延到以后的时间。

将我们都必须做的一大堆活让步，这是很自然的事情，我们不得不将一些事情拖延到以后来做，或者干脆不做。

所以，真正的问题是...什么是我们现在要做的？什么是我们要推迟做的？

1、我们做紧急的？

2、我们做重要的？

3、我们做能让我们现在就感觉心情舒畅的？

对于上述这些问题的回答真的会影响到我们的未来！

丹 艾瑞里在他的新书《怪诞行为学》中以一组学生的实验来揭示什么样的结构导致拖沓。他的试验结果非常有趣，并有助于我们了解如何克服这些拖沓隐患。

丹给他的三个班级学生分配了不同的标准，要求在为期12周的一个学期内提交论文。

第一个班根本没有明确提交的期限。他们只需要在学期末提交论文。他们可以提前交，但不会加分。

第二个班可以在课程开始前为他们的论文确定最后期限。他们可以将最后期限设定在期中，也可以设定在期末。但是，一旦他们设定了最后期限就不能改变，而且每拖延一天学生将会受到扣除1%分数的惩罚。

第三个班则严格限定最后期限。他们必须在第4周、第8周和第12周分别提交三份论文。他们没有选择性，也没有一点灵活性。

然后，在学期末记录各个班级的成绩。结果，严格设定最后期限的班级做得最好，其次是自行设定最后期限的班级，而采取自由形式的班级则最差。

让我们开始吧...现在！

结构对于班级的整体成绩是很重要的。那个被允许自行选择最后期限的班级最后决定的提交形式却是老师提供的。

可取之处就是这样的顺序...人们往往以限定的方式来使事情做得更好：

1、外部强加最后期限

2、自行设定最后期限

3、顺其自然没有期限

这就是我多年来针对不同类别、不同目标、或其他结果所采取不同方式而造成不同拖沓结果的经验。在接下来的几天里，我们将会让您看到在一些不同生活领域所采取的结构化方式而获得成功的项目，包括从饮食到资金管理方面。