Nearly all of us do “it.” We procrastinate more as children or teenagers; I estimate my own kids are average in this tendency while in their college years. (Their talking about it at lunch the other day moved me to write on the subject). I remember having lengthy high school term papers, for which we had two months to finish. Last day – last morning, 2AM my mom typing it up for me. Even as adults, few of us are as annoyingly efficient as some inner voice says we “ought to be”. For one thing, it may be great to have employees or teammates be well-oiled machines, but we seem unlikely to pick friends and love partners with this on their resume. It hints at boring and unspontaneous.
Delaying to the last minute or beyond has its appeal. We can believe that we are controlling a task rather than having it control us. (Of course, "I'll do it when I'm good and ready" stances really just give an illusion of control.) We can get an adrenaline rush vaguely similar to what a member of a bomb squad might feel racing against precious time. Perhaps it gives us a fallback position in case things go ok, but not great: “ Well, I didn’t have much time…” Remember, as well, that delay invites further delay. Apologies provide a classic example. How often do we postpone a called or written apology so long that we now feel embarrassed to do it at all? Procrastinating can also be a slippery slope...some things we keep putting off we eventually plain forget.
Some procrastinations might be renamed “intelligent” or “healthy” delays. This would include not rushing with important decisions while gathering both information and tempered feeling until a move simply has to be made.
One area of procrastination which is not intelligent is avoiding the doctor when you feel pretty sure something about your body is off or needs a check-up. This is particularly a tendency for men, and I believe a strong reason married men outlive their single counterparts – their concerned wives get them to go by pressure or car.
Fortunately, most of life is not an all-or-none proposition. We needn’t do something either instantly or just before a designated deadline. Chipping away, doing or thinking/planning some minimum time each day…going with occasional surges of energy or enthusiasm to go further. This has many advantages which must be experienced to be appreciated. All the parental advice, real or internalized, will rarely move a procrastinator, barring enforced threats.
The main advantages we all know by heart, although the one of freeing up time for the unexpected which may arrive at normal “cram time” bears repeating. It may not show up often, but a great night out, a problem that really needs your attention, feeling sick – any of these can kill the 11th hour buzz.
Focusing steadily builds a truer confidence than late show heroics. And I strongly believe our subconscious mind is more active as a helper when we have some conscious connection to our goal each day. As well, doing a good deal of something early allows more time to change direction.
It’s tricky in today’s world. The rate of change we witness and are nearly forced to experience can be breathtaking, terrifying. We can shut down in the face of it. Procrastinating can be an aspect of this reaction. On the other hand, we can over-adapt and become adrenaline junkies. The panic “high” of late performance can be a turn-on with this profile, too. Either response is less than healthy, of course. Actually, taking back some control through a bit more care in planning… this seems likely to reduce some of the stress of our times, not to mention the stress which accompanies postponing the inevitable.
I believe labels, by others or self-imposed, are restrictive. Calling yourself a procrastinator creates yet another unnecessary box. You may have a tendency, but tendencies can change – they don’t have to define you.
Experiment today or this week, doing or starting something you would normally keep delaying.
A final thought – What we value, what we love; we naturally approach these with greater care. We prepare more when these people, jobs or interests are involved. That’s as it should be. These are focuses for which we should avoid “time squeezes” as best we can. As for other things in life – procrastinate away!
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Procrastination, in any form, is firmly against my upbringing. I was always taught, "the difficult we do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer." This has become my philosophy of life. That which I most abhor doing, I do first. Or at least, I that is my goal.
ReplyDeleteThat which we procrastinate is rarely as painful as we think it will be. The more we procrastinate, the bigger and more overwhelming the issue becomes until it is so frightening, we never do it. But if we tend to it quickly, we quickly realize it is not so bad.
although opposed to procrastination as a matter of academic discourse, it is the rare assignment that gets done before a deadline begins to stir the adrenaline...and thus procrastination begins to look like a necessary ingredient in the creative process, poppydock of course. but here's a good example of procrastination that worked out. for days the wife has been trying to get me to hang those tacky icicles on our cape cod home's farmer's porch. then the storm hit, and mother nature took care of it for me...you should see them now, dripping in the glare of a rising sun, a hundred long daggers of ice served up just in the (old saint) nick of time...
ReplyDeleteIt is normal for people to procrastinate to some degree, but chronic procrastination could lead to a lack of productivity and creativity. I believe that personal upbringing, environment and some genetic factors plays a role in the development of procrastination behavior.
ReplyDeleteI personally sabotage my procrastinations by letting someone be aware of why I am not doing or postponing the activity. And it turns out that I gain an ambition to achieve what I had been planning to put on the back burner. I also write a list of goals for days when I multitask and try to finish at least the most important ones.
One question I have for the group: " Is it possible for a person to have different behavior shades, so that a workaholic can sometimes be a procrastinator, the same way our other habits, desires, sense of the world and our value in it can fluctuate? I guess the answer is pretty clearly yes, but what accounts for that?"
You are right, of course, about chronic procrastination. There are many things to say on the subject...a couple of entire books have been written on the subject. My goal is to say a few perhaps novel/wake-up type of things and mainly stimulate some thought and discussion from 500-750 words. So much gets left out, even as there is much I don't know.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of telling others about your stalled activities to get feedback and witnessing to your behavior. I can see how that could facilitate greater flow..
I am an incessant list maker. Sure, sometimes I forget to look at the lists, but by and large they help a good deal; especially if I order them using a combination of priority of importance and urgency. They are guidelines. I use them as best I can. Some days "life intervenes" with our plans one way or another.
As to your final question regarding the range of personality aspects we can display: I think it is a rare person who does not inhabit a wild variety of behavior clothes. We nearly all have identifiable dominant tendencies, and yet these "shadings", variations from our norm, are a range of movement. They can be fun or balancing to explore; at their more rapid or wider fluctuations I suppose they can be manifestations of manic-depression.
I few years ago I started doing something that helps me procrastinate less.
ReplyDeleteI focus on how much better it feels to get things done than to have them hanging out there on my PENDING list.
A few days ago I started mounting a bunch of old family photos that had been sitting in a pile for months...maybe years. Now I have one frame with black and white photos of my parents when they were kids and their families. And I'm working on a frame that is a collage of photos of my daughter from the time she was a baby through her high school graduation.
In the process I've enjoyed the memories both alone and with the kids, I've cleaned up a catch all in the house and I've done some decorating.
As a general rule I don't procrastinate on the real important stuff, it's more with the not so important stuff that gets left aside. If I find myself procrastinating on the important stuff, it's usually because I don't have clarity about what I want to do.
What I do know is that I feel a lot better smiling at those black and white photos than I did when they were in a messy pile in the corner.