Pros of Procrastination: In defense of delay

Right now I should be at the gym, or packing my bag for a trip in less than 48 hours, or reading a book I have for an upcoming class.

But when I think of doing these things I feel like this:

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So, to avoid feeling like Ursula and more importantly, to avoid actually doing any of the things I should be doing, I’m writing this article. And that is the essence of productive procrastination (ironically, not an oxymoron): triaging your life.

Dr. John Perry, a philosophy professor at Stanford and the original procrastinating pioneer, argues in his book, , that the key is to add structure to your putting-off. 

“At the top of your to-do list, put a couple of daunting, if not impossible, tasks that are vaguely important-sounding (but really aren’t) and seem to have deadlines (but really don’t). Then, farther down the list, include some doable tasks that really matter. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list.” [NY Times]

We’ve all been there, I’ve even stooped so low as to put “wake-up” on my To-Do list – something that meets the “vaguely important-sounding” and “deadline” criteria – just so I have something to cross off (a wonderful feeling).

Dr. Perry found inspiration for his research in a wise remark by famous American humorist and Algonquin roundtable member, Robert Benchley:

“The psychological principle is this: anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.”

A truer statement is hard found. Yet, to properly productively procrastinate, there is an element of make-believe and self-deception required…

Piers Steel, one of the foremost researchers on procrastination (yes, there is an entire field dedicated to doing work “tomorrow”) writes:

“Productive procrastination is a bit of make-believe, along the lines of setting your watch five minutes fast. You know you did it, but you still pretend you didn’t.” [NY Times].

So, if you were among the students who tricked themselves into believing that cleaning their dorm room the night before an exam was a good idea, productive procrastination will likely work for you.

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In high school, my parents always threw me the axiom, “If you want something done, give it to a busy man” to highlight that often, the busier you are, the more productive you become.

Turns out they were right. On his webpage, Dr. Perry explains the psychological principle behind the annoying saying: 

“Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation.”

That “source of motivation” is the driving force to do nothing!

According to this principle, if you really want to get something done, give yourself a lot to do. This will trick your inner-procrastinator into thinking that you aren’t really doing much of anything. A good method would be to make a To-Do list of 10 things, and think, “I have to do all of these things”, when in reality, you only need to cross out 2 or 3 by the end of the day.

Sneaky, sneaky.

And if you need more convincing, the procrastinators got themselves together enough to make t-shirts !

 

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