At many points in my procrastinator’s life, I’ve had an inkling this was the way to go.
All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. […] The procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
John Perry, Structured Procrastination.
Look at what I’m doing now: I have exams to prepare, laundry to do, piles of books to read, a website to update. And I’m writing for my weblog. Writing for my weblog is definitely not a high-priority task. But on the other hand, over the past year or so, I’ve started to gain a reputation for being an active weblogger, worth reading by some.
Now, this doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop fighting my procrastination. Actually, one of the reasons I’ve been “going the wrong way” lately (ie. refusing commitments) is very precisely because I’m trying to get to the root of my procrastination. I’m inching nearer each day, actually. But on the other hand, when I’m deep in it, I might as well do something useful, mightn’t I?
[link from Glenn, again!]
Similar Posts:
- Structured vs. Freeform Work [en] (2011)
- My Journey Out of Procrastination: Doing Things Now [en] (2010)
- The Tweak to Google Tasks That Makes it Work [en] (2022)
- How I Made my To-Do List Fun to Use [en] (2005)
- Prune Your To-Do Lists, Mercilessly [en] (2010)
- Dealing With Procrastination [en] (2007)
- My Journey Out of Procrastination: Perfectionism, Starting, and Stopping [en] (2009)
- More Thoughts on Weekly Planning [en] (2009)
- My Journey Out of Procrastination: Five Principles [en] (2009)
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