Positive Procrastination – Finding Gifts From The Universe

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Firstly, an apology. I’ve been on a break for a couple of weeks and having a little time away made me think about the good that comes from taking a break. And that, in turn, made me dwell on procrastination, which gets a dreadful rap in the writing world.

Type the words ‘procrastination’ and ‘creativity’ into a search engine and the screen turns black and misshapen creatures of doom appear from the void, dragging the ghostly figure of Charles Dickens who shouts, over and over again, his famous quote: “Procrastination is the thief of time; collar him!” 

Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit. But once you start down the rabbit hole of looking into procrastination (oh the irony!), you realise it’s quite a complex thing. There’s acute and chronic forms, there’s mild, average and severe forms. There’s forms which are driven by anxiety or hedonism. And the consensus is simple - procrastination is negative, evil, the enemy of creativity.

But I don’t think that has to be the case. I think its possible, desirable even, to reframe procrastination as a necessary change of focus. A chance to let the creative part of our brain do its stuff unhindered by the conscious part, which gets stuck in a self-destructive, self-recrimination cycle.

While it may seem surprising, there can actually be several benefits of procrastination. There is a difference between chronic procrastination, which according to DePaul psychology professor Joseph Ferrari affects 20% of adults, and what organizational psychologist Adam Grant calls a “sweet spot” of moderate procrastination. According to Grant, moderate procrastination can help give your brain time to mull over a task or problem, and create space for greater creativity and innovative ideas. This, he believes, is the primary work zone of innovators and original thinkers.
- extract from online article, Devry University

So, I’m floating the idea of Positive Procrastination - using our creativity and curiosity in a different way, in order to refresh and recharge ourselves. No more beating ourselves up about avoidance and delay, but instead making a conscious effort to lean into that desire to step away, for the higher purpose of reinvigorating our creativity, not avoiding the effort involved in it.

If you have the time and space, that could be an active option - going out for a walk, or being among people you like, or tackling some other unrelated project you’ve also been avoiding.

Or it could simply be about letting your mind and curiosity roam without self-judgement and see where you end up. Embracing randomness in this way, may actually help your writing in the long-run.

To help with this, beyond the paywall, I’m giving you some Positive Procrastination distractions or starting points which are not necessarily writing or literature-led. After that, it’s up to your imagination…