Levitin On Procrastination

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In Daniel Levitin’s recent article for the Los Angeles Times, Levitin teaches the reader about different types of procrastination and helps the reader prevent the habit of procrastination. Levitin has a very impressive background and has many professions. Levitin is best known as a neuroscientist, a profession that studies the brain and how it influences behavior. On September 22, 2015, Levitin wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times titled “Which kind of procrastinator are you?” Levitin immediately defines what audience he is trying to reach when he says, “…we head back to work or school,” with that audience being students and anyone who has a job. The majority of the article is loaded with interesting facts about procrastination and …show more content…
Levitin uses this argument to guilt and shame the reader. Levitin makes a point that “we make getting down to business more difficult than absolutely necessary by defining a task too broadly, with not enough detail.” Levitin seems to be making the reader feel bad if they do fall into the “defining a task too broadly” category. Another fault Levitin points out includes that people start things later than they should. Following this statement, Levitin subliminally shames and motivates the reader by stating, “Many people, for example, delay seeing their doctors, during which time their condition can become so bad that treatment is no longer an option. Or they put off writing wills, filling out medical directives, installing smoke detectors or backing up their computers until it 's too late.” Levitin uses this previous statement to try to make a light bulb go off in the reader’s head to make sure that they do things such as writing wills, backing up computers, and seeing the doctor sooner rather than later. To conclude his article, Levitin gives advice to the reader on how to prevent or get out the habit of procrastination. He makes the reader feel urged and challenged to prioritize tasks, break down large tasks into smaller steps, and get the difficult tasks out the way early. Levitin stresses to putting electronics that are unneeded out of sight and restraining from the use of social of media for a period of time while getting work done. The reader seems to be getting a life lesson at this point in the article from

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