This Epic Flowchart on Procrastination Applies to Pretty Much Everyone, Always
Is there work to do? You’ll want to work through this, first.
Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well. — Mark Twain
Sure, there are a thousand and one guides out there to help you get over your bad habit of procrastinating, and yet we all still do it. One in five adults, by some estimates, are chronic procrastinators; putting off until tomorrow what they could get done today results from force of habit.
But it’s not all bad. I happen to think procrastinating can be a great habit, at times. In fact, it can actually breed efficiency, as some people just happen to work better when they’re under the gun.
If you’re a perfectionist, a little bit of procrastination can bring the deadline closer, creating a sense of urgency and removing that cushion of time where you’d inevitably edit yourself, second guess your work, and create redundancies by doing the same thing over and over, never quite satisfied with how it’s turning out.
Personally, occasionally procrastinating can give me time to mull things over; to let ideas percolate, while I work on other super important things, like finding new laser cat memes, or making Dubsmash videos.
So when should you procrastinate?
It’s too bad there wasn’t some kind of simple guide to help you decide when it would be OK to put something off.
Ah, but welcome to the internet! Of course such a thing exists already, by way of this epic Procrastination Flowchart I stumbled across on the Chris Voss Show website.
The next time you’re wondering whether you should go ahead and do that work that’s staring up at you from your desk, this handy little exercise can help you decide whether to proceed.
Of course, simply working your way through the Procrastination Flowchart is a small act of procrastination in its own right.
Well played, internet. Well played. (Click to enlarge)
Image credit: The Chris Voss Show
