Awaken the Giant Procrastinator Within!
For those who follow Getting Things Done or any other kind of a productivity system, you know what I mean if I use the phrase “productivity guilt.” You have something on your schedule that you’re supposed to be doing, or some task that is on your to-do list, and you just don’t want to get around to doing it. What to do? You could try to psych yourself up and convince yourself to want to do it, or you can try to use sheer willpower to force yourself through it. I’m here to tell you that there is another productive option… procrastinate!
The Productivity Guilt When You’re Overworked
This guilt is associated with the overachievers - those who are consistently productive 99.5% of the time, and beat themselves up for the 0.5% of the time when they have a momentary lapse of productivity weakness. Here’s a test to see if you are susceptible to productivity guilt: right now as you are reading this blog, are you saying to yourself, “I should be doing [insert boring task] instead?” OK, I might not be the best writer in the world and it might be me causing it, but do you say this every time you’re not working on a task?
My friend, you have too much on your plate! Lifehack has a nice article on what to do when it’s all too much. Suggestions include being more disciplined, working more efficient, and also procrastination. You’re human and not a machine, and even machines can’t continue when the energy source is all used up. The article suggests putting the task off for later after you have been recharged. Also, procrastination can even be helpful to help weed out unnecessary activities and trim down your list of tasks.
The Productivity Guilt When You’re Feeling Unproductive
Sometimes the productivity guilt occurs when you are faced with a task that you simply just don’t feel like doing at the time. The energy levels with the mind and body fluctuates throughout the day, and we should be mindful of this and plan our schedules accordingly. However, even the best laid plans don’t work as expected, so you’re faced with doing something that you’re not in the mood for. At this point, many people unconsciously procrastinate and gets sidetracked towards some other time-wasting distraction. The best thing to do here is to do pro-active procrastination instead. Clean your desk. Pay your bills. Make a call today that you planned to do tomorrow. Do something that requires a different energy level that you would eventually be doing.
The Discipline of Procrastination
What I am describing is also called structured procrastination - instead of doing nothing, just be doing something else. Professor John Perry of Stanford University’s philosophy department, coined the phrase in his essay and has a web site dedicated to it. A quote from the essay:
The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it.
- Prof. John Perry, Stanford University
I believe Professor Perry might be on to a new movement… there are even cool T-shirts with this slogan!
Additional Info
Below are additional articles from other sites on how to procrastinate productively.
- Pick the Brain: 14 Ways To Procrastinate Productively
- Lifehack.org: 10 Ways For Productive Procrastination
- Zen Habits: Unproductivity: 8 Fantabulous Ways to Make the Most of Your Laziest Days
- David Allen (The Huffington Post): The Delights Of “Dummy Work”
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“The Productivity Guilt When You’re Overworked” .. I can related well to that!
Great insight.
Hi Sham - thanks for the feedback. Yeah, the productivity guilt is a bad one to have… every minute needing to be scheduled for the day and all.
In fact, I think I didn’t type this comment as fast as I could have typed it, so my productivity has now dipped below 99.5%. I’m such a loser
Hi Ai,
Yes, instead of stalling, keep the momentum by doing
other things first. Then go back to do whatever is needed
to be done. Good advice.
Gamy
Hi Gamy - agreed, I think that’s what Prof. Perry is saying is the key point. It’s consistent with the mantra of “working smarter, not harder.” I appreciate the feedback.
Good advice, Al… Writing is a very good example. Sometimes you know you have to write another article. But instead of writing garbage. Take a few minutes off to do constructive stuff. Who knows? It may bring new inspiration to your writing!
Cheers,
Ellesse
Hi Ellese,
Agreed wholeheartedly - I think writing is a great example! When it’s forced, only muddled garbage comes out. It’s much more productive to do something else in its place and to get back to it when one gets the writing spirit back (wish I practiced this on some of my past posts
)
Thanks for that advice Ellese.
Al, I have taught a lot of students and those who tend to procrastinate also tend to do second rate work. That’s because the paper lacks the polish that planning ahead can bring. So while you advocate this, procrastination has another side that does not always lead to the quality results folks might enjoy.
If I spend day after day playing around, eventially I pay the piper.
But I do schedule in fun to my weekly activities because all work and no play does not work well eiher! Balance counts!
Hi Robyn - there’s no disagreement that procrastination is one of the biggest vices for students (as well as anyone who faces deadlines
).
I also hope to not spread that procrastination in general is good. The idea I wanted to propose was using pro-active procrastination, or what Prof. Perry called “structured procrastination.” This can be looked at as productive rescheduling. However, if there is a paper due tomorrow, then there really isn’t any room for productive rescheduling (i.e., procrastination).
Pro-active procrastination would only be effective with flexibility in the schedule, as well as a proper follow-through with actually doing the task later.
[…] presents Awaken the Giant Procrastinator Within! posted at 7P Productions. When you’re not feeling productive for a task, you could try to […]
Structured procrastination, gotta love it!
I’m following GTD and I noticed that I can solve overwork and similar problems by renegotiate my own commitments. Even scrap some, there’s not a better feeling that when you decide NOT to do something you earlier decided was important. …
@HabitosVitales - couldn’t agree more. In fact, I like the term “renegotiate commitments.” Having hard and rigid commitments is sometimes not smart… for example, refinancing when interest rates are favorable is a good example. Thanks for the feedback!
[…] presents Awaken the Giant Procrastinator Within! posted at 7P Productions, saying, “When you’re not feeling productive for a task, you could […]
Structured procrastination, gotta love it!