Why Procrastination May Potentially Benefit You
Procrastination: the act of delaying or postponing a task or set of tasks.
In this day and age, people who procrastinate are associated with being lazy and unproductivity. However, for most of history, procrastination has been viewed quite the opposite. The Ancient Greeks and Romans respected the art of procrastination, as they believed that when you sit around doing nothing is when our creative ideas begin to manifest in our minds.
Even Professor Adam Grant also claims that some of the greatest moments of human history have been due to procrastination. This is including Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech.
“The greatest speeches in history were re-written at the last minute so that you had a lot of flexibility to improvise while you’re still on stage, as opposed to getting the script set in stone months in advance.” — Professor Grant
This is even true for Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address. In Professor Grant’s new book, “Originals,” Grant details how Lincoln didn’t write his closing paragraph until the night before his speech and it wasn’t until the morning that he had finished it. This is probably what made it so great!
So the main question that you may be asking right now is:
Should I start procrastinating as well to make progress?
The simple answer is YES if you approach it methodically, but NO if it’s not in moderation.
Ok, let’s take a generic dilemma: You have a deadline looming e.g. final college assignment and you probably should have started 3 months ago, but unsurprisingly, this work is due in tomorrow. Despite all the odds being against you, something magical happens in your brain.
A surge of panic settles in, as the negative consequences which may follow if you don’t get this work done dawns on you. Hence, a rush of adrenaline flows through your brain. But more specifically, your body produces a huge amount of epinephrine. This hormone is literally cocaine on cocaine! With this, your productivity shoots up and the ability to soak in more information is also greatly enhanced.
But of course, these effects are only temporary. Also, you may usually feel the stress and anxiety the following days, due to deprivation of sleep. In fact, the scientific study done by P Steel has discovered that 95% of us do this regularly, which is slightly alarming.
However, as I eluded to earlier I will show you a more methodical approach to procrastination so you can become more productive.
How to Manipulate your Procrastination to become more Productive?
Assign mini-deadlines for yourself when challenged with a massive task
This way you can procrastinate until it is time to do the mini-task. As the mini-deadline approaches, you would feel the slight adrenaline rush to get a portion of the task done. Once you’ve accomplished that task you would feel a slight flow of dopamine, giving you a sense of accomplishment.
Personally, this is the way I have managed to consistently write stories, without dealing with the classic writer’s block i.e. staring at a blank screen for hours on end, inevitably not being able to start writing.
In addition, click here to see the extensive scientific research done by Felix Bast who states that ‘scheduled mini-tasks’ are the way to go. Obviously, if you end up procrastinating these mini-deadlines, maybe try to get an accountability partner to make sure you can be focused on your tasks.
Another method he recommends alongside the mini-tasks is called the ‘Pomodoro technique’. This is when you attempt a task with a timer set at 20 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. Repeat this cycle four times, then take a longer break of 15–30 minutes.
I have also personally used this technique when studying for my exams, as you tend to remember content both at the start and at the end of the revision session. If you want more in-depth information about revision techniques, I would highly recommend checking out The Patterson Group.
Why do we Procrastinate in the First Place?
But why do we intentionally put things off to then experience the major panic of trying to rush finishing the task? Well, this is because it relieves the stress surrounding the task at that given moment.
Sure, with the more methodical approach to procrastination, you can set yourself up to achieving superhuman levels of productivity. However, if this is not done in moderation, you may end up suffering from chronic procrastination, which can completely change the path you take in life.
Why I say this is because there are 2 types of tasks we do in our lives. The first is the deadline tasks and the other is the self-imposed tasks.
Deadline tasks are tasks imposed by that of a boss or an educational institute. With this, you may usually end up leaving it last minute and rely on the adrenaline rush to get the job done.
However, this cannot be the case when you set yourself a task. A great example is trying to start your own business. The time and effort required to get the business started always seem to be monumental. Hence, you end up procrastinating eternally.
Why? Because you have not set yourself a deadline to get things done.
This, unfortunately, turns into chronic procrastination which will cause major negative effects in your life, potentially missing out on life-changing opportunities. The reason for this is because we as humans are designed to avoid taking risks. Ironically, these decisions usually end up being the most self-fulfilling moments in your life!
Ways to Cure your Chronic Procrastination?
- Just START the damn thing in the first place!
I know it sounds very simple, but when you say you are going to do a task for 5 minutes, you usually end up entering the flow state. You will end up finding it harder to stop doing the task as supposed to you continuing. For more information about entering the flow state, check out this blog from the Vault.
- Start doing Mindfulness Meditation
This is because mindfulness training can help you overcome your brain being overwhelmed with conflicting emotions and struggling to prioritise the task at hand.
Dr Pychyl supports this practice as he says: “Research has already shown that mindfulness meditation is related to amygdala shrinkage and the expansion of the pre-frontal cortex.” In other words, you can act upon important tasks without the resistance of your emotions or behaviours.
- Tap into some form of Pain
This is something that I’ve personally become more aware of when I’m writing these stories. Whilst I may be a pebble compared to all the other writers on Medium, I feel like I’m being somewhat selfish if I’m not posting stories and providing potential value to readers who may be in search for some clarity. An advocate of this is a Youtuber and a high-performance coach called Richard Yu who explains this very concept in this video.
If you are also interested in a simple method to become more productive, which goes hand in hand with avoiding chronic procrastination, check out the story below.
Finally, I would like to thank you for reading. I hope that you have a deeper understanding of the topic of procrastination and how you can make it work in your favour!
