Friday, September 30, 2011

Why I blog: Structured procrastination?

I just came across a marvellous essay called Structured Procrastination

The author just won an IgNobel award for it.

It is a humorous article, but it rang incredibly true for me.

Why did I start blogging about a 11 months ago, when as a professor an researcher I am always profoundly overloaded? Because it was a way to fill in time when I was sick of working on more important tasks that were causing me stress (writing papers, reviewing, preparing grants, preparing for courses, doing administrative tasks, etc.). It was a way, just like reading the paper, or going for a walk, to exercise my brain in different directions. 

After writing a blog post, I often feel motivated to get back to the grind. Overall I have found my productivity on those important tasks has gone up substantially in the last year. Furthermore the blogging process has caused me to think more deeply about some things, which has helped aspects of my research.

I have a nice blog post in preparation showing the vast number of types of tasks professors of Computer Science have to do ... but enough for now. This little bit of structured procrastination has motivated me to tackle by two important tasks for the afternoon: Writing up some minutes and preparing for an accreditation visit.

1 comment:

  1. wonderful information, I had come to know about your blog from my friend nandu , hyderabad,i have read atleast 7 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your website gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanks a ton once again, Regards, today news

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