Motivations & Decisions

I've always had a hard time finding out what sort of things motivate me the most, and that question has still gone unanswered. I continue to lose track of time, assignments, and deadlines. Which leads me to worry whether or not I put this stress on myself, or this was all scheduled chaos.

To draw in associations from recent readings, Predictably Irrational sheds light on a situation where procrastination is a major issue in students. The study showed how those who chose to make the deadlines of all of their projects near the end of the semester, they failed miserably. Those who did the opposite did much better compared to their peers. Sadly, it is MUCH harder to break a habit of procrastination, especially if it has positively reinforced you.

Although it has been shown that negative things influence us more than positive things (called negativity bias), that doesn't mean that positive things don't take hold. In my case with procrastination, time and time again it has paid off. For some unknown reason, when I put off an assignment 'till the last minute, I tend to do better overall even though I put less time into it. When writing a paper, if I start writing the day it is assigned and work on it slowly for the duration, although I am less stressed about writing, I seem to always perform worse. My only theories regarding this are maybe I'm not in the same mind set, and I am trying to hard to combine thoughts of my multiple moods. Or maybe I am using my stress of failure to extract the free flowing writing inside of me. Without any other influences on my mind besides the fear of falling, I can harness my inner ability. Without any inhibition, I can fluently convey a thought that otherwise was blocked by constant interference. Of course, this doesn't ALWAYS happen, but it happens more often than not.

Some research suggests that there is some credibility behind quick decisions, or choosing without time to think about it. In one of my psychology labs, I was listening to a talk about a study which showed that people  made decisions conditions of either no time delay, 5 minutes time delay, or 5 minutes of distracted time delay. The study showed that people made better decisions when they had to make a choice immediately, and were happier with their decision when asked about it. The unconscious mind is constantly processing information at a rate we can't quite comprehend. This kind of immediate processing sometimes makes our unconscious a better judge of things. It has the facts, and is not influenced by emotions. Emotions tend to get in the way of A LOT of social/personal problems. Which makes me sort of envious of sociopaths...

Back to the point. When making decisions, regardless of their importance, it is good to keep your motivations in mind and leave out as many emotions as possible. Some of the happiest moments of my life have come from impulsive responses, but they have also been the source of many disappointments. Either taking an adequate amount of time to think, or letting your unconscious mind take over in certain situations can be a highly beneficial tactic. As long as it is used properly, making an impulsive decision when it truly requires some thought could leave you in a more stressful place than you first imagined. If you are aware of which situations require certain tactics, you can better be prepared to make the most appropriate and pleasing decision in your near future.