Notes on Procrastination

You can ask anyone why procrastination is a good thing, and they’ll most likely say “I work better under pressure”… yeah, that’s a load of bull. And then you’ll run into the upstanding, straight A, valedictorian student who says, “Procrastination isn’t a good thing”… also a load of bull. To be honest, I don’t know what is up with today’s society that is so obsessed with deadlines. Deadlines are important sure, but they are dead, so what are they going to do to you? Exactly, they can’t do anything. They may postpone that promotion a bit, but worse things have happened. Procrastination never sounds like a good idea. Missing a deadline is a horrible feeling. It’s the stomach churning, gut wrenching feeling that everybody just loves. But think about it. Would you rather miss the deadline or your daughter’s fourth birthday party? At first the answer is obvious: the birthday party. After all, there’s only one deadline, and she’ll have other birthdays. However, she’ll only ever have one fourth birthday (which cannot be pushed back with a simple request written oh so eloquently and e-mailed off to your boss) and, as much as I hate to say this, there is no guarantee that she will have another birthday. The odds are low, yes, but they are still there.

The biggest waste of time is not procrastinating. No, I don’t mean that the biggest waste of time is a single something other than procrastination. Read the sentence again, put an emphasis on “not,” and you’ll see what I mean.

Procrastination is living. Think about it. If you finished everything right away, what would you do with all of the extra time? Don’t know? That’s funny, because I don’t either. The thing about procrastination is that it inspires you to do things you wouldn’t normally do in the attempt to avoid working. Maybe that’s what sucks so much about college. Even with 17 credits, there’s only so much studying you can do before your brain explodes, and if you don’t procrastinate, I can guarantee that while everybody else is studying in a rush at the last moment, you will be sitting in your dorm room, flipping a coin 300 times to see if heads or tails will win (it’s tails, by the way). Or maybe you’ll play solitaire on your computer, switching every third time to real cards for the excitement of the sudden change. Or, as I have found myself doing when immersed in total and complete boredom, 467 games of minesweeper at the highest level (none of which will be won, of course). Life is boring without procrastination. There are no desperate attempts at avoiding work and there are no desperate attempts to finish work in time. Procrastination is what makes life worth living.

I don’t mean to condone procrastination. There is little doubt that it can cause major problems—especially related to school. In any do-or-die situation it is generally a better idea to finish something ahead of time and give yourself a good day or so to review and make any alterations. However, that math homework can wait until 10:00 at night. Think of all the things that can be discovered when trying to avoid doing something. People try things that they never before would have thought to try when they’re trying to not do something else. Ideas for stories arise from the fabrics; a to-be-favorite TV show is brought to attention; the perfect plot for world domination is formed and about to be carried out when suddenly foiled (by someone else procrastinating who thought it would be cool to try and be a super hero for one night). Sometimes it is in those moments when we are desperately searching for some form of occupation that we find our future careers. We may discover our one true passion that would have flown well under the radar had we actually done whatever it was we were supposed to do exactly when we were supposed to do it. Any of the arts are like this, I think. Very few people discover their love of art by doing a homework assignment. The same goes for musicians. If it doesn’t, I think it should. I don’t think any musician should decide to be a music major because they just loved playing scales.

Procrastination is a good thing, despite its ugly reputation, and I think if people spent less time worrying about when things are due, maybe they could live a bit more. More time would be spent with families, eating proper meals, resulting in a healthier country. People, I think, could be so much happier if they just came to realize that the work day has come to an end, and now it’s time to relax… until 11:00 when you remember that one thing.