FEW CHARACTERISTICS are more common to human nature than procrastination. Yet it is universally considered a bad thing, demanding excuse or apology. I believe it is time for someone to step forward in defense of productive procrastination. (Actually, I have thought so for a while, but just haven’t gotten around to doing something about it.)
When we face a necessary but unpleasant project—like paying bills or doing paperwork—we set about to find ways to put it off. The key to positive procrastination lies in harnessing, for useful purposes, this creative ability to duck responsibility.
A productive procrastinator puts off a distasteful duty by first working on other things for which there has not been time. For these people, procrastination is a force for social good. It first leads to greater accomplishments in other worthwhile areas, then gives way to a sense of duty that motivates them to finish the unappealing task they worked so hard to avoid.
Positive procrastination broadens our horizons. Without it, I’m convinced, most journalists would be out of a job. Spring cleaning would seldom take place if it were not for the possibility of putting off doing our taxes till the last minute. Houses are vacuumed and cars are waxed because of procrastination. It leads us to better eating. Having something to put off can result in some good “home cooking” that would otherwise be too time-consuming. Procrastination gets us to communicate with one another. Parents, avoiding work, spend time with their families. Letters get written and phone calls get made, continuing or re-establishing relationships.
There are other benefits to productive procrastination. It can lead you to gain better information prior to making a decision. It allows some problems to go away by themselves with the passage of time. Introspection can be painful but extremely useful—so agonizing, in fact, that it can take an even more painful alter-native to lead us to it.
Putting off things gives you a ready-made excuse when someone wants to impose (“I’d love to, Bob, but I really have to…”). Those who procrastinate have the strategic advantage over those who don’t, because they can always outwait them.
So let’s stop denigrating all forms of this nearly universal human trait. Productive procrastination is the answer. It allows us to accomplish more than we could without it. ("The Power of Positive Procrastination", condensed from the Christian Science Monitor, by Gary M. Galles, copyright 1987)
When we face a necessary but unpleasant project—like paying bills or doing paperwork—we set about to find ways to put it off. The key to positive procrastination lies in harnessing, for useful purposes, this creative ability to duck responsibility.
A productive procrastinator puts off a distasteful duty by first working on other things for which there has not been time. For these people, procrastination is a force for social good. It first leads to greater accomplishments in other worthwhile areas, then gives way to a sense of duty that motivates them to finish the unappealing task they worked so hard to avoid.
Positive procrastination broadens our horizons. Without it, I’m convinced, most journalists would be out of a job. Spring cleaning would seldom take place if it were not for the possibility of putting off doing our taxes till the last minute. Houses are vacuumed and cars are waxed because of procrastination. It leads us to better eating. Having something to put off can result in some good “home cooking” that would otherwise be too time-consuming. Procrastination gets us to communicate with one another. Parents, avoiding work, spend time with their families. Letters get written and phone calls get made, continuing or re-establishing relationships.
There are other benefits to productive procrastination. It can lead you to gain better information prior to making a decision. It allows some problems to go away by themselves with the passage of time. Introspection can be painful but extremely useful—so agonizing, in fact, that it can take an even more painful alter-native to lead us to it.
Putting off things gives you a ready-made excuse when someone wants to impose (“I’d love to, Bob, but I really have to…”). Those who procrastinate have the strategic advantage over those who don’t, because they can always outwait them.
So let’s stop denigrating all forms of this nearly universal human trait. Productive procrastination is the answer. It allows us to accomplish more than we could without it. ("The Power of Positive Procrastination", condensed from the Christian Science Monitor, by Gary M. Galles, copyright 1987)
