Latest James Surowiecki Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Framing effects can be very influential, and to the degree that you can think of a task as close rather than distant, you're more likely to actually get it done.

  James Surowiecki

  Thinking, Degrees, Tasks

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• I typically don't adopt the ascetic approach. In part, that's because I do use the Net for research even as I'm writing (to check facts, or so on). But I think it's also because I find the possibility of distraction comforting.

  James Surowiecki

  Writing, Thinking, Comforting

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• I do think that procrastination evolved in humans for good reasons. If you're trying to stay alive as a human being on the savanna 20,000 years ago, worrying about what's right behind that bush is a lot more important than worrying about what might happen three weeks from now.

  James Surowiecki

  Procrastination, Thinking, Years

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• One of the problems that exacerbates procrastination is the feeling that you have lots of different things to do and no clear sense of which matter more, when they should be done, etc.

  James Surowiecki

  Procrastination, Feelings, Different

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• Meeting external deadlines is much harder than meeting internal ones. On the other hand, internal deadlines sometimes don't feel real, and are therefore easy to evade.

  James Surowiecki

  Real, Hands, Sometimes

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• Breaking tasks down into smaller sub-tasks can be very useful.

  James Surowiecki

  Tasks

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• You'll sometimes hear from people that they actually do a better job of getting their work done when they have a lot of other obligations - in effect, it removes the possibility of procrastinating.

  James Surowiecki

  Jobs, People, Done

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• Addictive behavior is kind of the inverse of procrastination: procrastination is about not being able to do what you want to do, addiction about not being able to not do what you don't want to do (drink, use drugs, etc.)

  James Surowiecki

  Procrastination, Addiction, Drug

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• I think there is clearly a connection between free time and procrastination. The more you have of the former, all things being equal, the more likely you are to procrastinate.

  James Surowiecki

  Procrastination, Thinking, Connections

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• I do think to some extent multitasking is a way of fooling ourselves that we're being exceptionally efficient.

  James Surowiecki

  Thinking, Multitasking, Way

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• I think people don't understand compound interest because typically no one ever explains it to them and the level of financial literacy in the US is very low.

  James Surowiecki

  Thinking, People, Levels

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• Most of the work on multitasking suggests that it generally makes you less efficient, not more.

  James Surowiecki

  Multitasking, Efficient

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• In effect, dividing your attention means that neither (or none) of the things you're working on is really getting the full effect of your intelligence, and that it in the end takes you longer than it would if you did one thing at a time.

  James Surowiecki

  Mean, Attention, Ends

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• Procrastination also can be a way of self-handicapping: if you don't do a great job, you can always say to yourself, "If I'd only started sooner, I'd have been able to produce something excellent."

  James Surowiecki

  Jobs, Procrastination, Self

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• There are lots of people who believe there may be at least some genetic component to procrastination, and even if there isn't, it seems to be the case that procrastination habits are often set relatively early in life (that's certainly the case with me). But I also think that there's lots of evidence that external tools can help quite a bit in getting people to stop procrastinating.

  James Surowiecki

  Believe, Procrastination, Thinking

  Source: www.newyorker.com

• I tend to delay writing by doing more research - it's really the act of writing the piece that I have the hardest time with.

  James Surowiecki

  Writing, Pieces, Delay

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• I tend to have a hard time working on pieces long before they're due. That's why I think the fact that I write a column is really good for me - the column has to be done, and there's no getting around it.

  James Surowiecki

  Writing, Hard Times, Thinking

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• There does seem to be some evidence that as people get older, they procrastinate less, perhaps because they feel the pressure of time more.

  James Surowiecki

  People, Doe, Pressure

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.

• Older people do a better job of managing their impulses, and so they're better able to put off putting off.

  James Surowiecki

  Jobs, People, Able

  "Ask the Author Live: James Surowiecki on Procrastination". Live chat, www.newyorker.com. October 1, 2010.