One reason so many people fail to keep, or even start, their New Year resolutions is procrastination. Most of us, myself included, are procrastinators to one degree or another. I’d venture to say that some of the most accomplished people I know are procrastinators. So is procrastination really such a bad thing?
There’s certainly no shortage of articles published on how to cure the problem of procrastination. But I would argue that, except in extreme cases, curing procrastination may be undesirable if not impossible. Think about it. At any given moment, there are any number of things we could be working on. And no matter which we choose, it will be to the exclusion of all the others. So the question becomes not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well. With me so far?
Expanding on this concept, let’s postulate there are three types of procrastination depending on what you choose to work on. You could either work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. The last type, I’d argue, is good procrastination.
Consider the absent-minded professor who forgets to shave, eat or perhaps even notice where he’s going because he’s thinking about something more important. His mind is absent from the everyday world because it’s hard at work in another. That’s the sense in which I referred to accomplished people being procrastinators. I’ll call them Type-C procrastinators. They put off working on small things in order to work on more important things.
What are small things? Well, sometimes it’s hard to say at the time, but a list might include things like doing the laundry or cleaning the house, things that would more correctly be classified as errands. Good procrastination is avoiding errands in favor of more important work. Errands interrupt creative productivity. Still with me?
The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged Type-B because it doesn’t feel like procrastination. You’re getting things done, just the wrong things. In fact, any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading if it doesn’t consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of Type-B procrastination. In fact, possibility is too timid a word. Unless you’re working on the biggest things you could be working on, you’re Type-B procrastinating no matter how much you’re getting done.
Here’s the bottom line. People who’ve managed to make themselves work on big things all blow off errands and, surprisingly, all feel guilty about it. I don’t think they should feel guilty; there’s more to do than anyone possibly could. But realistically, someone doing the best work they can is inevitably going to leave a lot of errands undone. It seems a mistake to feel bad about that, don’t you agree? Instead, let delight pull you instead of letting a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, sail as close to the wind as you can and you’ll leave the right things undone.
You can read more about procrastination here, here and here. You may also find it interesting to take this short quiz to evaluate whether you’re a procrastinator and, if so, why you procrastinate and what areas of your life are most affected.