Positive Procrastination
[What follows is an essay I evidently wrote about five years ago. I was surprised to get to the end and find that I have done just what I said I should do, even though it's taken some time and I haven't hired the staff yet. All things in the fullness of time….]
Yesterday morning I woke up thinking about procrastination, for some reason, perhaps from reviewing the long list of things I'd been wanting to get done recently, and I thought I'd write a few notes. This morning I woke up thinking about procrastination again, probably because I hadn't written about it yesterday.
I am a world-class procrastinator, always have been. But what does that mean, I asked myself. Certainly it can describe the fact that I frequently have lists of outstanding tasks that have been outstanding for some time before I get around to completing them.
It seems to me that the language of procrastination is oddly positive, as though "procrastination" is a sin of commission rather than a sin of omission. There are times when I look at some pending tasks and think that I'll do some later rather than now — but how does that differ from prioritizing? In intent rather than fact, it would seem. But note how everyone seems to treat "to procrastinate" as though it's a very active verb, as though one is continually making decisions to keep putting something off. You know, it just doesn't work that way, and I suspect that this approach to the verb is a vast conspiracy among tedious, extroverted, let's-do-it-now! kinds of people, those who seem to flail about a lot but accomplish very little despite all their activity. (There are, of course, people I secretly envy who speed through tasks and accomplish a great deal, but that seems about as inscrutable to me as rocket science apparently does to normal people.)
I prefer to take up each task in the fullness of time and the ripeness of priorities. Have you ever noticed that there are frequently urgent tasks that, if they mature a bit, are discovered to be not so urgent after all? Recognizing true urgency rather than manufactured urgency takes careful consideration, in my opinion.
But, still, I'd generally be recognized as a procrastinator. Sure, there are reasons — or excuses, if you prefer, it doesn't matter much to me what you call them.
In my advancing dotage I've been becoming ever more absent-minded; while I've always been a bit too much on the absent-minded-scientist side of things, it only seems to be getting worse. It's similar to the familiar refrigerator amnesia: standing in front of the open refrigerator wondering how and why one is there. Well, things I think of fly out of my head in no time at all — a few seconds can be enough. I have some idea I want to remember, I reach for my pocket notepaper to write it down, and half the time it's gone before I get the paper out of my pocket.
There's some single-mindedness, oddly enough. Years ago I used to think that I was not very good at concentrating on a particular task, but that's not really true. I don't know whether I've changed or my self-perception has changed, but sometimes now my concentration can be consuming and immediate. Oh, I think, let's take a short break and call, say, for a doctor's appointment. Whoosh! Before I know it my mind is back to work on some absorbing task and it quickly turns into evening, tomorrow, next week, or next month. I could, of course, make notes and task lists but … (see the previous paragraph).
Yes, there's good, old-fashioned avoidance, too. There are many things that I'm quite good at avoiding these days, particularly things that need doing but cost money, since I try to minimize cash outflow while I have so little cash inflow. That sort of avoidance also depends on whether I'm feeling more or less depressed; avoidance was high on my list of coping tactics a couple of years ago, but the dark clouds are substantially reduced these days compared to those days.
So, I'm working on coming to a new, self-empowering understanding. Coupled with my absent- and single-mindedness, it's also the case that I tend to work rather slowly on my projects in progress, largely because so many of them are in progress at the same time. Over long time periods — sometimes approaching geological time-scales, it seems — I've discovered that things I'm doing do get done. I could, I suppose, try to make progress of fewer fronts simultaneously, but I have way too many things I want to get done to attempt that.
Sometimes I think that maybe my only recourse is to start a company to work on lots of these projects, and hire some employees to remember things for me.
What a lucky coincidence that that's one of the projects that I'm working on!
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on Thursday, 6 August 2009 at 22.58
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For many years I've been accused of procrastination by those who know me best. My sibling is one of those people who gets through the first 20 things on the to-do list before breakfast every day, and doesn't know the meaning of the word "relax". It's exhausting to watch! I'm reassured to know that I"m not alone in embracing procrastination, and getting around to things "in the fullness of time and the ripeness of priorities". That's beautifully put! I need to remember that . . . so perhaps you want to franchise this company you're thinking of starting? I could open a branch.
on Friday, 7 August 2009 at 17.16
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Aging ain't for sissies, that's for sure. On occasion, some maturity and wisdom come with age. When we procrastinate on some things, it may be because they really aren't that important . . . and we know it.
And as to the absent-mindedness, all I have to say is, um, ah, . . . . . . what was I going to say?