Saturday 17 December 2011

The deadline-comedy axiom

The closer a deadline is, the higher the levels of procrastination. And as often enough, we procrastinate with something entertaining rather than difficult to watch or constructive, we end up watching TV. In my case, that is either comedy or romance. In these past couple of days, for whatever reason, every single episode I saw, be it sitcoms or Mythbusters (I watched plenty of both) was funnier than they usually are. Thus, it appears that the closer you are to a deadline, the funnier things seem. The explanation? Intensity. You're getting closer to a deadline, levels of stress and anticipation rise, and proportionally, so do levels of enjoyment. A side-effect, on a psychological level, is that we want to find things funnier because we need higher justification to continue watching sitcoms. We feel less guilty for continuing procrastination if it's a really good one. We would feel more guilty for doing it, if it wasn't even good. A bit like cheating- if you're going to do it, it'd better be with someone hotter than your partner.
3 days of TV and studying to go.

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