Tuesday, January 11, 2011
When Procrastination is a Good Thing
Productivity501: "Most of us think of procrastination as a bad thing–something we should avoid, but that isn’t always the case. People focus too much on the task or job that is not getting completed, but you can’t tell if procrastination is good or bad by looking at what isn’t getting done–you have to look at what is getting done instead.
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This reminds me of an article I read over winter break about the office setup of Google Labs in Switzerland (I believe that's what country it was). The environment looks nothing like an office, there are SLIDES to get around the building, and employees are required to devote 20% of their time per week to an independent project. In fact, the article said some of Google's most innovative features have started out as 20% time projects! I take that to mean that procrastination isn't necessarily a good thing, but that one can set up an environment that allows for breaks and alleviates stress without substituting it with useless time-wasters.
Procrastinating is certainly a topic near and dear to most college students. Though ironically this very post is an example to the contrary. Nevertheless, I find it refreshing to find an article that vindicates my tendencies to procrastinate.
This article does reinforce the idea that what we're working on, often school work, is perhaps not the most immediately relevant. Certainly we can all agree that things like meals, showers, laundry and the like take precedence, but it also reminds us all that there are other important things, like taking time for yourself to kick back and realx.
I think this article is interesting because it reminds us that not everything we do has a critical importance. Sure being in college it's also nice to hear that procrastination can be "alright" at times.
But I agree with the sentiment here. I mean, we all know that there are important things that will always trump: taking a shower, doing laundry, eating meals. All of these things are part of our basic survival. But there are other things too. Sometimes taking a chance to relax with some friends, or catch a movie, can be just as important.
@Charles - Excellent point. I wonder how much less stressful life would be if we always asked ourself, "what would happen if I skipped this" before doing anything. We do a lot of stuff just because we've done it before--not because it is truly important to us.
I like to think of activities rated, like this article says, by personal value. Meaning that something that really matters to you is important even if other people might not agree. Plus this makes it ok to take some time for you when you judge it to be a "non-junk-food" activity. When you are focused on work all the time and view leisure activities as procrastination a person can start to go a little crazy.
Although I agree with the author's stance on "productive procrastination," I believe, from both observation and personal experience, that procrastination is a habit that, like many other common habits, can be justified or excused. So even if the outcome is a positive activity in place of your initial task, you've begun to train your mind to not commit to a single, initial activity.
Especially in in today's technologically multi-tasking world, gearing ourselves to one task at hand is a stretch, so why train our minds to think that it's justified to put off one activity for another?
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