Procrastination Engages Your Creativity to Solve Any Problem

Ever heard, “Hurry Up! You’re late!” You might be one of many who feel a tiny bit guilty for running behind. Procrastination, in moderation, engages your creativity to solve any problem. Waiting too long creates anxious desperation but waiting just a little bit puts your ideas on an incubator and results in genius solutions.

Have you ever tried to remember what you made for dinner last week? As a mom, I can remember every detail of my meal plan up until the meal is served after which I promptly forget the whole thing. The subconscious brain connects intermediate tasks to gather to complete them. In fact, a challenge opens up a “tension field” that gets resolved when the problem is solved.

So when you get your tasks done too early, you might find that the solution is actually less genius because your creativity doesn’t engage. Setting aside a project can actually help you because you give your subconscious brain time to find the best and most efficient path to completion.

You might also see this principle at play in people whose art is never quite finished. ”If a person sees their entire career as a work in progress, they are constantly trying to improve. Whether it is a runner improving her times, a business owner improving sales, a bricklayer working faster, or a hospital administrator saving lives, these goals stimulate a great deal of effort. Considered in those terms, the incomplete task is a motivator to be reckoned with.” (Nigel Barber) The tension created by a little procrastination creates the motivation to discover the genius inside yourself.

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Nigel Barber. “The Lure of the Incomplete Task: How creative endeavors pull us in.” Psychology Today. Web.