The Virtues of Procrastination

I happened to be browsing around Digg this morning and came across an article with the headline “Making Procrastination Work - A Great Life Mod.” Having no qualms with admitting to myself that I am quite the procrastinator, I decided to have a look. I was lead to an extremely interesting article/website called Structured Procrastination.

As I read through the article (written by Stanford professor John Perry), I was struck by how exactly it described me as a procrastinator, though I had never recognized it in such a way. Basically, Perry’s thesis holds that procrastinators don’t have to be (and are usually not) unproductive, but rather they choose to avoid the most important/pressing tasks by accomplishing other, seemingly less-important tasks. But these “escape” tasks don’t have to be meaningless or unimportant, they just have to be something other than the most important/pressing task, or the task “at the top of one’s list.” Case in point: this blog post. Really I should be working on reading a book for a project that is due the 20th of June (and I will do my best to do so after writing this), but instead I am writing a blog entry. I’m not being unproductive, I’m just not doing what is at the top of my list.

For such reasons, as Perrry points out, procrastinators such as these actually often get a reputation for “getting a lot done.” And it’s true, in my case as well as many others I’m sure. Just the other day, when I was mentioning how I wasn’t getting enough of the things done that I needed to, one of my friends said “you will be fine, you are the most productive person I know.” I do get a lot done, I just often put off doing what is at the top of my list until the last minute.

Does this mean the procrastinator is better than the non-procrastinator? Not at all, at least not in my opinion. It is just a different way of doing things, not only the things that one must do, but also other things that they do in order to avoid what they must do. Personally, I find that I often work better when under a lot of last minute pressure. I really get into the zone, going on a sort of binge to accomplish whatever task is at hand. And in all the time other non-procrastinators would have been accomplishing the same task, I am accomplishing other tasks, perhaps leading (in the end) to a greater amount of overall productivity on my end.

If you are at all a procrastinator, I highly recommend heading over and reading Perry’s article.