( SC: ) Concepts & Ideas
Last edited June 16, 2008
More by Alfredo Abambres »
Structured Procrastination
www.structuredprocrastination.com/
I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things. This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish and the good use they make of time. All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
Labels: *ideas
Molehill » Our Mantra
www.themolehill.com/index.php/mantra/

The line between passion and chore is fine.
Here’s how we stay passionate.

We are out to solve real problems.

All Molehill software is derived from real problems that we have personally encountered. It’s pretty simple really. We look for things that annoy us, take too much time or are overly complicated. At Molehill we embrace these points of frustration and develop products with the goal of making your life simpler.

We create software that fills needs in our areas of expertise.

If you haven’t experienced the pain you’re in no position to offer a solution. We don’t venture outside our area of expertise; we build what we know, period.

We like software that is productive and fun to use.

Truth be told most people would rather chew a light bulb than learn a new software application. We’re out to change that. When software does what you expect, gives you the information you need and is designed with a gentle learning curve, it can be productive and fun to use.

Our products do one thing and do it great.

There will always be a place for software that allows you to do everything under the sun, but that place is not the Molehill. We include the features you need, leave out the ones you don’t and tuck away the widgets you only use once and awhile. We start simple and end simple. Powerfully simple.

We believe in honesty and transparency.

Servers go down, browsers are funky and we make mistakes. While none of this is desirable you can rest assured if it happens we will tell you. On a side note we also believe in grace.

We prefer integration over convergence.

We look for opportunities to work with other best of breed software. When another application does something well and gives us an opportunity to tie into it, great. We are out to build simple software and that includes providing flexibility for various workflows. Jobs get done a lot faster when you use tools built specifically for the task at hand. No camera phones here.

Software shouldn’t be too clever.

Bad things happen when software tries to be clever (insert your favorite Microsoft joke here). Smart, yes. Brilliant, sometimes. Clever, never. Nuff said.

We like communicating with our customers.

All of our paying customers have direct access to us via email 24/7. During business hours we typically respond with the hour. The solution to an overwhelming amount of technical support is not to burry the support email address behind 20 pages of FAQ’s - it’s building better software. Communicating with our customers helps us build better software so we make it easy for you to get in touch should the need arise.

Happy customers only please.

No contracts, no commitments, no fine print, no surprise invoices. We offer free trials and/or free plans for our products that require no billing information so you can try before you buy. And if the time comes when you want to take your ball and go home we won’t stand in your way. Canceling is just as easy as subscribing. No hard feelings.

 LIVEMOVEMENT 
  • Build Up The IDEA → Get a PROJECT
  • Unleash The PROJECT → Get RESULTS
  • Share RESULTS → Get ”ENERGY”
  • Use The ENERGY to Explore New Possibilities → Get a New (Better) IDEA
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