Preface
I love procrastination as much as I hate it. I don’t attribute my habit of procrastination to a distinct property that hovers consistently throughout my daily life, however, I have identified a formula that acts as a measure of how influential procrastination is per that specific activity that I wish to complete.
The formula outputs a factor of which procrastination plays a role in the decision making process of an activity on a scale from 0 to 1–0 when I will not procrastinate at all throughout the activity lifetime, and 1 when I will procrastinate for as long as possible.
Factors
Fear of Failure (F)
My first variable in my formula–arguably the most influential factor–is fear of failure or F. Fear of failure is an irrational fear of making mistakes, experiencing setbacks, or not meeting expectations. I view it to be my chance of failing at the first attempt at the activity, since I expect myself to perform the best I can in exams where I’m only given one chance. It is also influenced by the amount of setbacks I expect to face, of which I would be unaware of the time each setback would take.
To explain these variables in a clearer manner, I will hereby provide a sample activity to help explain my choice: a coding assignment. What would my first attempt be? Well in this case, it would be writing the code and submitting to the test cases and seeing if it worked. Nine times out of ten, it won’t so the fear of failure for this assignment would be a 9/10, or 0.9. Additionally, I expect to face, on average, three to four setbacks, or 3.5 setbacks for this individual assignment. Thus, I calculate F=0.9 * 3.5 = 3.15.
Influence on Identity (INoID)
The next variable, influence on identity, states the impact of which activity influences my personal well-being at that moment in time, on a scale of 0 to 1. These are not simply the scale at which the activity is placed on in my life, but also enjoyment of such activities. Examples of such can be: soccer in the summer with my father and brother brings a high influence (0.9), an English blog due in two calendar days brings medium influence (0.5), and doing the dishes (0.2). There also exists negative influences on identity, things that are not relatively enjoyable, but also could be detrimental to my perceived emotional state. In the example of the coding assignment, the INoID = 0.6.
Urgency (U)
Urgency would be how soon the particular activity is “due”. Washing the dishes is due before bedtime, an assignment might be due tomorrow, my college essay might be due in a month. However, urgency isn’t just a magnitude of temporal distance from the present, it is also relative to the expected time it takes to complete the activity. Thus it would be the ratio of how long it takes to the amount of time I have left (units do not matter since they cancel). In the example of the coding assignment, U = 4 hours / 72 hours 0.06.
Energy (E)
Energy is referencing my own personal reserve of willpower to complete the activity. I’ve noticed that my energy is highest in the early evening, however the time of day isn’t the only factor in determining energy. Previous night’s sleep, physical activity prior, and individual initiative (I feel confident/unconfident, from scale of 1 to 5) are also determinants of Energy. Thus, energy in of itself, is also a formula given by:
E = Sleep - Physical - Time difference from 6pm+0.1(Initiative)
In the example of the coding assignment, E=0.1(8.5) - 0 - 2.75+0.1(4)=-1.5.
Bias
As with many of our decisions in life, a plethora of influences may not be initially perceptible, but certainly exist at the moment we make a choice. Whether it be a spiral of emotions flashing in and out of our psyche, a sudden rush of empowerment, or a sporadic influx of lethargy, procrastination can sometimes just come from “I just don’t feel like it.” And that is where bias comes from. In the example of the coding assignment, the bias will be set to B=0.5.
Final Thoughts
While this formula is far from perfect, it has indeed provided interesting insights into my personal motivation to do the things that I do. While the function outputs an interesting insight into how procrastination may manifest itself within my decision making, the deliberate act of walking myself through each variable–asking myself how I feel about it–stimulates reflection into my passions and priorities. So how do these variables come together?
A straightforward summation: Procrastination Factor = sigmoid(F+INoID+U+E+B)
A sigmoid function takes all real numbers and translates it into a magnitude from 0 to 1, exclusive. The procrastination factor for the coding assignment would then be: sigmoid(2.81), or 0.94, a very high procrastination factor. Thus, I will likely go as far as possible to try and procrastinate.
Hey Henry,
ReplyDeleteThis is a pretty cool format for your essay. Connecting procrastination to your interest in coding was quite clever. It also brings up an important factor of procrastination—many contributing parts create procrastinating behavior. Each part of the coding equation represents a different factor for your procrastination. I do not have any significant suggestions; maybe add some more specific narrative to your examples if you need more words. Overall, an enjoyable read and a unique perspective. Good job!
Hey Henry,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great piece of literary work. The format is different from all the non fiction essay I have read, and I have never seen someone implement coding references into their blog post. I also wrote about my procrastination habit but I did not go into specific detail about the factors or reasons for my prostration, but rather focusing on a broader reason. The way you created a formula to output your procrastination factor based on how you score each factor is really unique. Overall, this is a great essay.
To Henry, my beloved,
ReplyDeleteCollins and Tim had to physically restrain me from jumping into your arms after reading this absolute masterpiece of a post.
What succeeds so well in the post is your utilization of an unconventional stylistic structure to provide the reader with an immersive narrative experience. By utilizing formulas, lettering, and mathematical terminology, the reading experience - one characterized by the lingering curiosity to understand the genius that lays within the author's mind - remains immensely enjoyable.
A suggestion could be to further lean into the terminology you utilize, ingraining symbols (such as the summation notation). This would increase the scientific aura the passage is so intended on yielding.
Great work here!
Hi Henry, this was an interesting essay to read through. I thoroughly enjoyed all the factors that ultimately contributed to the procrastination value. Everything in the essay made sense and it was definitely coherent throughout the whole essay. I don't have any major issues but I can suggest that you can write a little more about how this value impacts your thoughts about an assignment needed to be done. At the end you said that 0.94 was a high procrastination factor but how does that impact you? If you knew that the value was going to be high before you started doing the assignment, will that therefore make you procrastinate even more? Will you go into the assignment with a more negative thought because you know you will procrastinate it more? Really cool essay!
ReplyDeleteHello Henry. This blog post reminds me a lot of an article I read for my ASTR 100 course a few weeks back. The article talked about the Drake equation, an equation that predicted the number of intelligent alien civilizations in the galaxy using variables like the number of stars and planets in the galaxy and the likelihood for planets to have life (very similar in purpose to your procrastination quantities). Anyway, that equation is a lot like your procrastination metric because both systems are not trying to come up with a specific, accurate value. The number of civilizations in the galaxy can't really be predicted exactly, and neither can a mental process procrastination really be quantified. But the idea is to get at least some reference on the subject and gain a better perspective on what you're working with. Anyway, this is a very good post. It's obviously very mathematical, which is sort of pushing the formula of these personal essays, but I think it works.
ReplyDeleteHi Henry! I love this fun nerdy approach to your essay a lot. It is very unique and expresses you well. Because bias (B) is a subjective variable, I suggest making a more direct connection to how you arrived at 0.5 and providing a scale range that you based this number off of like 0 to 1.
ReplyDeleteSomething that might interest you to check out: Mathematician Piers Steel also wrote a procrastination formula: Motivation = (Expectancy to Succeed x Perceived Importance) / (Tendency to be distracted x Delay Time). You can estimate your procrastination because it is inversely related to your motivation.