Procrastination is typically seen as a negative in productivity circles. There are plenty of books and articles about how to overcome procrastination.
For instance, there are the books “How to Stop Procrastinating” by S.J. Scott and “Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” by Brian Tracy.
Procrastination Can be a Negative
Procrastination can significantly reduce our productivity. It keeps us from doing meaningful work. Important things don’t get done because we keep putting them off. Maybe we fear failure or know it will be hard work, and we don’t want to do it.
It also creates artificial stress. When we keep putting things off until the last minute, we have a deadline looming over us with little time to complete the project.
The Benefits of Procrastination
However, there are also some real benefits to procrastination. Procrastination is not just a negative but can also be a positive. It depends on the circumstances.
1. Procrastinating gives us more time to think and gather information about a topic or project. When planning to write on a topic, I’ve noticed that my mental radar picks up quotes and information from other sources I read that relate to that topic. I can collect more info and think more about a topic by taking more time. This can result in a better blog post.
However, you don’t want to let preparation act as a substitute for doing the work. See my blog post, Prepare, Then Do the Work.
2. Procrastinating gives us time for a project to incubate. Our minds continue to work on a topic after we stop focusing on it and we’re doing other things. This can often result in creative thinking and organization.
When I went to junior college in the early 70s to prepare for ministry, I took a class on preparing and delivering sermons. The teacher taught us to intentionally include incubation in our preparation process.
He advised that we do our research and put together a lot of information on a topic early in the week and then just let it sit for a few days. He suggested that by the time we got back to it later in the week, we’d likely already have an outline of the material with ideas about what we wanted to include. He was correct.
Another professor called it our “sub,” short for the subconscious. He said the best thing to do is feed it information and then sit and let the sub do its work, and it would do half of the work for you while you were not consciously thinking about it.
Intentionally procrastinating to allow material to incubate can boost creative thinking. See my blog post, Incubation — the Key to the Creative Process.
3. Procrastinating allows us to focus on other, more important work we didn’t anticipate. Sometimes, things come up that demand our immediate attention and can’t be put off. There’s a death in the family. The water heater starts leaking.
In those situations, it’s good to procrastinate. We can intentionally set aside a task or project to allow time for something more important or urgent. Later, we can go back to what we set aside.
4. Procrastinating prompts us to review whether a task or project really needs to be done. If you keep putting off a task or project, ask yourself why.
Perhaps you keep procrastinating because it doesn’t need to be done. In that case, you can delete it. Or, if you determine it needs to be done and you don’t want to do it, you can either delegate it or hire someone else to do it.
Using Procrastination to Our Advantage
While procrastination is often seen as a harmful habit that hinders productivity, it also has some benefits that we can leverage.
Procrastination can enhance our creative thinking and efficiency by giving us more time to gather information, allowing projects to incubate, and prioritizing more urgent tasks.
Let’s embrace the positives of procrastination while being mindful of when it may be holding us back. Take a moment to reflect on how procrastination impacts your work and consciously use it to your advantage.