The joy of procrastination
Procrastination is seen as a kind of laziness. Yet it does actually have its advantages. Active procrastination, at least, is about taking time to think and getting some perspective. As for passive procrastination, that is more a symptom of stress and failure.
Putting off taking action, procrastinating in an active way, has its advantages if you use it for:
- Thinking about what really matters, prioritizing, and working out what isn’t needed.
- Assessing whether such and such action really falls within your remit and your skill set – i.e. not agreeing to just anything.
- Keeping a cool head and limiting stress by not just taking action for the sake of it.
- Carrying out a quick and simple action that will help you tackle a more complex task.
- Getting your subconscious working on a future task and innovating.
On the other hand, if procrastinating amounts to doing nothing you don’t want to, force yourself or you risk:
- Creating high levels of stress and anxiety, likely to lead to mediocre results and health concerns.
- Increasing the likelihood of self-sabotaging behavior.
- Ending up taking action because you feel you have to, without being sure the action itself is relevant.
- Creating resentment among your colleagues who are negatively impacted by your delay or by botched tasks.
Make sure you weigh up the negative, medium-term consequences of your procrastination, not just your own, short-term benefits.
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