Monthly Archive for June, 2007

Right now I should be on topic 8 of my sociology revision, but I’m only on topic 6. So what better way to get a bit further behind than to blog. Anyway, I have an excuse to not revise. Will’s not here!

Yep, he’s fucked off to Manchestaaaa, well Didsbury, and even if it is very lovely, I miss him loads. So much I’m listening to soppy HIM songs. I haven’t listened to HIM since I was like…13 or something.

I stayed over in Manchester last Saturday after helping him move that day. Much to my dismay assembling his bed wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be without instructions, but I got there in the end, although only to find it’s a single and a half. It’s a lot more stable than his last bed though, but I’ve not have enough experience in his new bed to decide whether it’s a good thing or not!

After some good hard bed making (haha!) I was starving. So we decided to order in a Domino’s -Saturday nights are expected to be busy so I wasn’t too annoyed at being put on hold. I was quite chuffed when my order was taken to get chatty with the phone girl, and find out you can get 4 dips for a quid! The driver even remembered the Fanta! It was looking like a new pleasing Domino’s experience compared to Ansdell, until the pizza box was opened to find all of Will’s half of topping stuck to the box lid. We were not happy. So I rang up and asked for the manager. His name was Steve -I didn’t think this was a good sign from what I have come to expect of Domino’s managers named Steve, but he definitely made my day when he was so apologetic and kind enough to send us another large pizza, and not one but TWO portions of sticky dippers. Kudos to Didsbury Domino’s service! Even if the drivers do need a bit of work…

One thing that did put a downer on my weekend was one of Will’s new neighbours. Upon arriving at the new house, we had to unload a lot of his belongings from my car, so I parked up, partly blocking a double driveway to get closer to the house. I made sure I left room for the car in the driveway to drive out. Shortly after there was a knock at the door, and there was the neighbour asking if I could move my car so she could park in her drive way, which I promptly did. She was all fine and forgiving. Until the next morning when I returned to my car which was parked far away from her driveway, to find a note on the window screen saying:

Please don’t park in front of my drive way again.

I was outraged. So was Will. How dare she be so two faced and so petty! Argh. I want to hit her!

Hmm, it’s my last A level exam tomorrow, the dreaded sociology -crime and deviance. I always think saying that sounds like some kind of movie advert voice “The Dreaded Sociology -crime and deviance”……yeah. Then after that exam I’m driving to Manchester, well I’m picking up Will from work then driving to Manchester -I’m not sure which is worse, I don’t know my way either way. Staying the night to celebrate end of exams, then taking him back to work on Thursday morning. Then it’s Le Prom on Friday night! Hopefully soon, Will will make my gallery so I’ll be able to put up some photos.

For some news on other aspects of my life, my mum has recently taken over The Sheep Shop in St.Annes (It’s the wool shop on the crescent). So I’m going to learn how to knit! I’m actually excited! My mum is making me the most gorgeous bag out of ribbon at the moment!

Right well, the last comment scared me at how girly it was, and I have 6 topics to learn in about 5 hours, so I better get going if I actually want to go to MMU this September!

xxx

A procrastinator is an individual who avoids tasks or who is avoiding a particular task.

Research on the physiological roots of procrastination mostly surrounds the role of the prefrontal cortex. The area of the brain that is responsible for executive brain functions such as planning, impulse control, and attention. Damage in this area can reduce an individual’s ability to filter out distracting stimuli, resulting in poorer organization, a loss of attention and increased procrastination.

There are said to be two types of procrastinators:

The relaxed type…
These procrastinators view their responsibilities negatively and avoid them by directing energy into other tasks. It is common, for example, for relaxed type procrastinating children to abandon schoolwork but not their social lives. This type of procrastination is a form of denial or cover-up; therefore, typically no help is being sought. The procrastinator avoids situations that would cause displeasure, indulging instead in more enjoyable activities.

And the tense-afraid type…
This type of procrastinator usually feels overwhelmed with pressure, unrealistic about time, uncertain about goals and many other negative feelings. Feeling that they lack the ability or focus to successfully complete their work, they tell themselves that they need to unwind and relax, that it’s better to take it easy for the afternoon, for example, and start afresh in the morning. Usually have grandiose plans rather than being realistic. Their ‘relaxing’ is often temporary and ineffective, and leads to even more stress as time runs out, deadlines approach and the person feels increasingly guilty and apprehensive. This behaviour becomes a cycle of failure and delay, as plans and goals are put off, pencilled into the following day or week in the diary again and again.

I believe I fall under the category of the latter.

But what I want to know is..are we born with the disposition for one or the other of these types? Or have we learnt from observation, association, or reinforcement to behave this maladaptive way? Or maybe procrastination is caused by our biology, or our cognitive thoughts?

I hope to see an increase of research in this area, seeing as all we tend do is stick a label on it, such as ADHD, or student syndrome..How about, we figure out the root causes of procrastination, instead of diagnosing more children, because if no one will even try -I’ll take ADHD as my diagnosis please. I could even make some money on the sly selling Ritalin to school kids.

But setting aside my ‘is procrastination innate?’ question, why have these new disorders come about?? Nothing’s changed -taking E numbers out of smarties hasn’t made a difference -they just taste shit now. Personally, South Park have a great view on ADHD.

See here.

I don’t know nearly as much as I’d like to know about this subject, but hopefully one day, when I’m a famous psychologist, I will.

…Procrastination, just one of the things I wondered about today whilst revising.

Edit: It just so happened that on the psychology exam I had on June 20th, I got a question about procrastination -about why we do it! What a coincidence! As for the exam I made up some bullshit about social learning theory.