Procrastination: is it good or bad?

We all know that procrastination, deliberately delaying procedures or actions in normal circumstances, is bad for the progress of the nation or society. We see in day-to-day life how police forces, politicians, administrators and State Heads or Rulers procrastinate because they do not have answers to certain questions or solutions to certain problems. At times desirable or needed action has to be taken whilst sticky situation goes out of control leading to domestic unrest or a national issue. Thus procrastinators get a bad reputation for being lazy or undisciplined. Yet John Perry, professor emeritus at Stanford University, openly admits his procrastinating tendencies - and that he's proud of them.

In fact, Perry wrote a book called "The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing," where he shares his insights on how to productively waste time.

"Procrastination means not doing what you're supposed to be doing," he says. "Structured procrastination means you don't waste your time. When you're avoiding another task, you do something else instead."

"When you get a task, you have to think about how important it is, and how good of a job you really want to do," says Perry. "You should limit how much time you put into tasks that aren't all that important in the long run."

A great way to organize your priorities is by performing a task triage. "Triage is a fancy word from the battlefield. When some casualties come in, someone decides who needs to be rushed to the hospital for urgent care, who can wait awhile, and who isn't going to make it," explains Perry. "When you get assignments, you have to do the same thing and decide which are important and deserve a lot of time and which tasks don't need to be done right away." The task triage is a simple strategy to use when you feel overwhelmed, so you can focus your time and attention on the stuff that's really important.

For example, your daily to-do list could include small tasks, such as getting out of bed, turning off your alarm, making coffee, and drinking coffee. "By the time you have your first cup of coffee, you will have crossed out four things on your to-do list, and you'll be feeling really good about this and ready to tackle other tasks," explains Perry. "Nobody needs to see your to-do list, but you can give yourself a pat on the back."

As for larger to-do lists, the best thing for procrastinators to do is to put something seemingly urgent - but realistically not that important - at the top. The basic idea is that instead of turning to time-wasting activities online when you don't want to work on your top priority, you reorganize your list so you will tackle a smaller task when you are procrastinating.

"You're embracing your love of procrastination, but remaining productive," Perry explains. You should shift around your to-do list and put your worthwhile tasks lower on the list, so you'll do them instead of the things higher up. The tasks at the top of your list will bother you and motivate you to do other useful tasks.

Counterintuitively, Perry says the biggest mistake procrastinators make is minimizing their commitments in an attempt to quit procrastinating. "It destroys their most important source of motivation. If you only have one thing to do, you won't get anything else done - you'll probably just lie on the couch to avoid it."

Procrastination, no matter how vilified, knows exactly when to rear its villainous head.

Or as Nassim Taleb put it in his book “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.”

“Psychologists and economists who study ‘irrationality’ do not realize that humans may have an instinct to procrastinate only when no life is in danger. I do not procrastinate when I see a lion in my bedroom or fire in my neighbour’s library. I do not procrastinate after a severe injury. I do so with unnatural duties and procedures.”

Put this way, it’s easy to see how your brain uses procrastination to show you what’s really important.

Procrastination is the act of choosing instead to do something emotionally rewarding for short-term gain.

How does procrastination work?

Procrastination can be thought of as a battle between two forces in your brain, both fighting to send you signals on how to behave. The limbic system (feeling and reacting brain) doesn’t like when you engage in complex tasks that have no short-term reward. It constantly fights for short-term dominance. While your prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) bears the burden of doing what’s best for long-term gain.

Entrepreneur and investor Paul Graham said “Some of the most successful people are terrible procrastinators. Out of three types of procrastinators, based on the activities they pursue instead of what they “should be doing.” Procrastinators are pursuing: A: Nothing, B: Something less important, and C: Something more important. The most impressive people are all procrastinators,” he writes. “They’re type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.” Or put another way: “Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work,” Graham writes.