When procrastination is productive
I’m here right now, and by “here right now”, I mean in that slippery space. That glowing crevice between jumping into action to brew my fifth tea and gently pawing at the keyboard. Waiting. Anticipating the moment that my brain lights-up with inspired wit and wisdom and for those neurons to spring into action. Into a path of clarity, slipping down my tense throat, through to my fingers and filling that non-retina display MacBook Pro with sharp, delightful little pixels that fill to form letters, that span to form sentences, that transform into a gleeful stream of textual chains.
I should be doing something else right now. But I am procrastinating and you should too.
Procrastination was that thing that lead me onto a turbulent journey through the depths of Tumblr to find that perfect photo of a glittering man covered in fairy lights, which lead me to discover the joy that was a Lithuanian photographer, which lead me to become inspired to changing the user interface of the latest product app.
Procrastination was what made me alphabetise my bookshelf, leading to the revelation of a lost postcard from a long lost love that should have been caressed and nurtured for longer than was done, which lead to the writing of a love letter, progressing to a chain of heart-quickening, screen-glued moments in front of the laptop and bank breaking data-roaming decisions, which were totally worthwhile steps to make my life a little more delicious.
The best ideas that we ever came up with while working in advertising weren’t those ideas in which we sat stifled in silence behind our computers, but those giggling moments of rebellion outside the agency, spent smoking and talking of the weekends’ perspiration-inducing threesomes with hot blonde Russians, which only moments prior had seen us star-gazing on my balcony and wondering whether the flashing lights in the sky were airplanes or stars.
Much can be said for focus. I simply don’t have any experience on the issue. I take wild pleasure and productivity in diversification, whereby completing multiple tasks, often prioritised in order of fastest completion time to longest completion time is really the only thing that prevents me from wiping the dripping milk from the slothy corners of my mouth. I can think about those tasks which require a tad more thought while tackling the quick emails, the pings and browsing labyrinth of guilty internet pleasures, those uploads, downloads and calls - those fun things that add value by lingering pleasure, leading to inspiration and therefore an indirect form of productivity.
Let’s try calling procrastination “investigation”, “exploration” or “inspiration” and rather than fuel the guilt cycle, churn out those euphemisms and I can assure you that your procrastination will turn into productivity too.
“Once you’ve accepted your flaws, no one can use them against you”, unknown
