Procrastination: Is Your Future Self Getting a Bad Deal?

   I read "Procrastination: Is Your Future Self Getting a Bad Deal?" by Timothy A Pychyl Ph.D. for Psychology Today.  As I started reading I was confused on what the author was trying to express. At first, I thought that the article would be about the long term consequences on ourselves due to procrastination. As I continued I realized the main points that the author was getting out. He explained how procrastinating is due to a lack of willpower and courage to get the job in the present done, but also the moral of the present self in relation to the future self. Pychyl expressed that if we had more empathy for our future selves it would prevent us from making such present-based decisions. Because by putting the job onto our future selves, we are assaulting them.

    What I especially thought was very interesting was how Pychyl linked our future selves to our relationships with other people. Normally, we think about other people and we don't put our responsibilities on them. If we were to think about our future selves like other people and put ourselves in their shoes it would help us get the job done now, and not put the burden on our future selves.  I think that this point is very helpful and is a good way to think about things that need to get done that we don't necessarily want to do.