Procrastination to Success!

It was a warm April days 4:30pm. I was still in university and I was looking at my thesis paper assignment. The deadline was approaching faster than a speeding train, but yet I didn’t feel like writing anything more today, lets be honest I didn’t write anything that day!

Have you ever procrastinated in your life? I am sure you had! There seems to be tasks that we never get the energy to do, unless we go closer to the deadline.

A friend of mine has the same feeling when he is ironing his shirts or cleaning his apartment. He even called that activity “a slave work”. Sounds drastic, but you know what sometimes I have the feeling I am doing slave work as well.

Every book about productivity states that we must be overachievers and in every activity,  we must do 110%.

Is this really possible?

In this article you will learn what is my perspective on the topic of the benefits of being a procrastinator.

Procrastination will make us more creative!

Reading the above sentence could trigger a lot of raised eyebrows. How is that possible that procrastination would make us more creative?

According to Harvard Extension School, this is possible.

In the article, it is described why: The Perks of Procrastination

Apparently, by having creative task and starting to work immediately on it, without taking some time to think on it can really hurt our creativity. The reason of that is, because when we take the first idea in our head, that is usually the most obvious solution, which everyone would think of. The more time we spend thinking about different options, the more creative ideas will come to our mind.

Automobile executive named Clarence Bleicher, who worked in Chrysler Corporation in 1947 said: “if you get a tough job, one that is hard, and you haven’t got a way to make it easy, put a lazy man on it, and after 10 days he will have an easy way to do it, and you perfect that way and you will have it in pretty good shape”.

Note many people in internet state that this is a quote from Bill Gates which is incorrect.

Lack of time gives us creative solutions to solve our problems.

Postponing a task for later time could save us more time.

We all have 24 hours a day and yet there are many people who fight for our attention. The issue with that is, the things we consider urgent are important are different than the things other people consider urgent and important.

Based on my experience as a Certified Project Manager, many people will reach me out for advice and questions each and every day and 20% of those people after 30 minutes will find the answers by themselves without relying on my input. This means that if I don’t react to every possible request and just by prioritizing what I need to focus on, I am 20% more productive already. Would you like to be 20% more productive too? Don’t react, be lazy and focus on the plan.

It kills the perfectionism

Do you have friends who always work on something and which they never finish?

I know I have such friends! And what strikes me as a surprise is how the need to be perfect, stops them from achieving their goals. By allowing ourselves to take some time and relax and re-think what we want to do, give us the perfect opportunity to not only finish the task we work on but also to enjoy the process.

Instead of being stresses about the small details, looking at the big picture is the key to any activity in personal and professional life.

Summary

All the productivity Gurus made us feel bad if we procrastinate, but the procrastination has its place in our life.

Many people waste far too much time in being a perfectionist, responding to any urgent and important thing other people ask them to do or do things in a boring way, rather than using their creativity.

And this is where the procrastination will surely help us!

By applying procrastination to some activities in our life we can actually become more creative, 20% more productive and unstuck ourselves from the perfectionism trap.