Procrastination is a feature, not a bug

Edition 19th: Why procrastination is a good things and you should 'skilfully' embrace it

I have been hearing all my life that procrastination is a bad thing, we should overcome it, beat it. Heck, there are even courses and communities around overcoming procrastination.

But, what if procrastination was a signal from within that you are not made to do things others are imposing on you? Our gut feelings have been trained over millions of years, we should probably not ignore it, no?

I love these excerpts from Nassim Taleb’s book “Antifragile” on Procrastination

Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad -- at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment. It is my soul fighting the Procrustean bed of modernity.

Like many Indian adults, I was made to go for engineering. I always used to procrastinate studying for exams but noticed I naturally liked sketching even when I’m tired. No wonder, I later became a designer.

Later, I observed this pattern when I started working, for instance, I hated writing formal emails to my stakeholders; hence there was always a delay. But for the things I loved in my corporate world, like doing user research and designing interfaces, I didn’t have to block any time in my calendar for them.

This idea of blocking every single minute of your day, feels so robotic, isn’t it? If you have to block time for activities you think you like to do (e.g. reading, exercises) but can’t make time, then perhaps reconsider your relationship toward them. Do you block time for chatting with your loved one? Meals? Or plan sex on your calendar?

Sorry, I might sound gross, but I wanted to strongly put forth that if you need reminders, calendars, or any other form of extrinsic motivation to do certain things then please don’t. Procrastination is a signal. Use it to find what demotivate you, and try to arrange your life to do less of it and vice versa.

Procrastination helps me find where my Intrinsic motivation last. Then I rearrange my lifestyle accordingly.

In a New York Times op-ed column, Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate, Grant explores the correlation between performance and procrastination habits, citing an experiment conducted by one of his former students. Jihae Shin, now a professor at the University of Wisconsin, asked participants to generate new business ideas. Some were randomly assigned to start right away. Others were given five minutes to first play Minesweeper or Solitaire. Everyone submitted their ideas, and independent evaluators rated how original they were.

The result? The procrastinators’ ideas were rated as 28 percent more creative.

“When people played games before being told about the task, there was no increase in creativity,” Grant wrote in the column. “It was only when they first learned about the task and then put it off that they considered more novel ideas. It turned out that procrastination encouraged divergent thinking.”

Of course, at times, we all have to do stuff we don’t feel like (For instance, admin work like Taxes fall in this for me). For such activities, I block my calendar and try to finish in one intense session.

I would recommend you, as soon as you wake up, ask yourself, “What I am intrinsically motivated to do today”? Take that up, and I guarantee you that you’ll be in a flow state, that activity will be like meditation. There will be work and other obligations too, but still, we have a lot of time for ourselves.

Don’t become a productivity junkie, rather embrace purpose and joy in life. I used a calendar or timeboxing for activities that I was obligated to do or feel like a chore. Things I enjoy like reading, writing, and designing, why should have an upper limit on them? Often during weekends, I end up reading for 5–6 hours at a stretch, it’s pure bliss. And some days I don’t even read for 5 mins as I might be intrinsically motivated to write or do something else.

In short, I learned from my direct experiences and observation that we don’t need to unnecessarily push ourselves. External triggers, accountability, and rewards won’t last for long.

Rather, find what intrinsically motivates us and give our best toward it, period. Purpose over productivity.

Illustration - credits

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Have a chill week ahead 🫶🏽,
Shivam