# Two forms of procrastination

I noticed something about myself when comparing two forms of procrastination:  
  
a) reading online discussions,  
b) watching movies online.  
  
Reading online discussions (LessWrong, SSC, Reddit, Facebook) and sometimes writing a comment there, is a huge sink of time for me. On the other hand, watching movies online is almost harmless, at least compared with the former option. The difference is obvious when I compare my productivity at the end of the day when I did only the former, or only the latter. The interesting thing is that _at the moment_ it feels the other way round.  
  
When I start watching a movie that is 1:30:00 long, or start watching a series where each part is 40:00 long but I know I will probably watch more than one part a day, I am aware from the beginning that I am going to lose _more than one hour_ of time; possibly several hours. On the other hand, when I open the "Discussion" tab on LessWrong, the latest "Open Thread" on SSC, my few favorite subreddits, and/or my Facebook "Home" page, it feels like it will only take _a few minutes_ \-\- I will click on the few interesting links, quickly skim through the text, and maybe write a comment or two -- it certainly feels like much less than an hour.  
  
But the fact is, when I start reading the discussions, I will probably click on at least _hundred_ links. Most of the pages I will read just as quickly as I imagined, but there will be a few that will take disproportionally _more_ time; either because they are interesting and long, or because they contain further interesting _links_. And writing a comment sometimes takes more time than it seems; it can easily be a half an hour for a three-paragraphs-long comment. (Ironically, this specific article gets written rather quickly, because I know what I want to write, and I write it directly. But there are comments where I think a lot, and keep correcting my text, to avoid misunderstanding when debating a sensitive topic, etc.) And when I stop doing it, because I want to make something productive for a change, I will feel _tired_. Reading many different things, trying to read quickly, and formulating my answers, that all makes me _mentally exhausted_. So after I close the browser, I just wish I could take a nap.  
  
On the other hand, watching a movie does not make me tired in that specific way. The movies runs at its own speed and doesn't require me to do anything actively. Also, there is no sense of urgency; none of the "if I reply to this _now_, people will notice and respond, but if I do it a week later, no one will care anymore". So I feel perfectly comfortable pausing the movie at any moment, doing something productive for a while, then unpausing the movie and watching more. I know I won't miss anything.  
  
I think it's the mental _activity_ during my procrastination that both makes me tired _and_ creates the illusion that it will take _less_ time than it actually does. When the movie says 1:30:00, I know it will be 1:30:00 (or maybe a little less because of the final credits). With a web page, I can always tell myself "don't worry, I will read this one _really fast_", so there is the illusion that I have it _under control_, and _can_ reduce the time waste. The fact that I am reading an individual page really fast makes me underestimate how much time it took to read _all_ those pages.  
  
On the other hand, sometimes I do inverse procrastination -- I start watching a movie, pause it a dozen times and do some useful work during the breaks -- and at the end of the day I spent maybe 90% of the time working productively, while my brain tells me I just spent the whole day watching a movie, so I almost feel like I had a free day.  
  
Okay, so how could I use this knowledge to improve my productivity?  
  
1) Knowing the difference between the two forms of procrastination, whenever I feel a desire to escape to the online world, I should start watching a movie instead of reading some debate, because thus I will waste _less_ time, even if it feels the other way round.  
  
2) Integrate it with pomodoro? 10 minutes movie, 50 minutes work, then again, and at the end of the day my lying brain will tell me "dude, you didn't work at all today, _you were just watching movies_, of course you should feel awesome!".  
  
Do you have a similar experience? No idea how typical is this. No need to hurry with responding, I am going to watch a movie now. ;-)