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Self-help from Scientific American

March 15, 2005

The April SciAm reports that two researchers have found out why people procrastinate: “…they idealize the future, expecting they will be less busy then.”

Translated into language I would understand, it means: “Do it now.  Tomorrow will suck just as bad as today does.”  I’ll be just as busy, just as tired, just as uninclined to do paperwork as I am right now.  Well that makes sense.

And you thought self-help advice only came from those obnoxious “7 Habits” people.

Ignoring the adage “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” is all to easy.  Gal Zauberman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and John G. Lynch, Jr., of Duke University may have found out why:  people idealize the future, expecting they will be less busy then.  In surveys of 900 volunteers, they found that respondents could not guage their future supply and demand of time as well as they could of money.  If they lack knowledge of upcoming tasks, people ask as if new demands will not inevitably arise that are as pressing as those that currently exist.  When tomorrow changes into today, people discover they are too busy to do everything they promised.  The findings were finished in time for the February Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
- Charles Q. Choi, pg. 32 of April 2005 Scientific American

Question:  which self-help gurus do you find most annoying?  I think the “Chicken Soup” series is the one I hate the most, though “7 Habits” would be a close contender.  Anyone have other nominees?

How about self-help gurus you DO like?  Despair, for example.

Categories: Humor
  1. Lucas
    March 18, 2005 at 19:07 | #1

    I like the Shut The Fuck Up and act like an adult school of self help.  That’s a pretty goddamned effective school if actually followed.

  2. VernR
    March 19, 2005 at 19:20 | #2

    I was never very good with to do lists (in truth I was terrible.) Apparently my instincts were sound.

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