Good vs Bad Distractions

Is procrastination a total waste of time or can it be productive? If you have something important to do, you should really spend the next 25 minutes listening to us discuss the topic. In this podcast we discuss why we feel the urge to procrastinate, and whether it reduces or increases stress in the long run. We also consider the nature of tasks we like to avoid and what the potential benefits of time wasting activities might be. A few things we mentioned in this podcast: - Wait But Why? on procrastination https://waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html - Svartdal et al, Behavioural Delay in Real-Time Settings https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00746/full - The science behind procrastination https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-wait-the-science-behind-procrastination - Westgate et al, Productive Procrastination https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5551689/#:~:text=Productive%20procrastination%20replaces%20one%20adaptive,outcomes%20in%201106%20college%20undergraduates - NYT on why procrastination is an emotional problem https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html#:~:text=When%20we%20procrastinate%2C%20parts%20of,in%20the%20midst%20of%20stress - Professor Tim Pychyl’s talk on procrastination https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhFQA998WiA&feature=emb_title Find more Cognitive Engineering episodes here https://link.chtbl.com/SQeIgc44