Why Procrastinating Is Good for You
Never put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after that
Every student, teacher, worker, or anyone who has ever had to meet or make deadlines for any sort of project knows about procrastination, the act of putting things off to do later. Although many look on procrastination as a negative process that prevents clarity in work, could putting work off until later help some do their work better?
Some people have shown to work better in a stressful, high tension environment where they have to get their work done as soon as possible or they will not make deadline. Jobs like news, design, and office work are high tension fast paced workplaces that accept no slacking off when it comes to productivity. A school environment may not have the same traits of work as a news office, a difference in workload, information density, and stress amounts make the difference in school and a job. Could procrastinating provide the stress that some students thrive in? I believe so. Although many students avoid their work through procrastination, a few, like me, put off assignments to give myself a more high tension work area, and more clarity in my work.
I furthermore believe, that not only does procrastinating work give you a more comfortable area to work in for high stress people who blossom under pressure, but procrastinating inspires the person putting off their work to think divergently.
As written by Adam Grant for the NYT Sunday Review, Jan. 16, 2016, “When you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns. Nearly a century ago, the psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik found that people had a better memory for incomplete tasks than for complete ones. When we finish a project, we file it away. But when it’s in limbo, it stays active in our minds.”
Procrastination teaches outside of the box thinking to a generation being taught inside of a box. Some of the biggest most innovative minds put off their work for the last minute rather than getting it done and over with. Steve Jobs was known for procrastinating because the high stress suited him and made him and his company what they are now.
So, just because some people may work better under stress, like to have time to think about their work, or find trouble revising without lengthy periods in between, we are supposed to uplift procrastination from being a bad habit to a strategy for success? Well, kind of; the people who put off their work have been doing so under deadlines and the stress of school already. Putting work off for the other people would probably cause a large stutter in their workflow and cause problems within their own personal patterns for getting work done. I think that the big thing to take away from the idea of procrastination is to think about your work, before worrying about the deadline or hacking away at the project. Revising is something every journalist, writer, or student should be skilled in, and one shouldn’t just revise a written piece just after they write it. I believe that re-looking on a paper, written days ago with new projects and work on our minds will give us a fresh perspective on our own writing and may even cause some to look at what they wrote and say “What the heck?!?” In confusing of their own piece. It all makes sense in our head but sometimes doesn’t work on paper.
Putting work off to deal with at a later date can be a highly effective strategy for combating the monotonous common core style of thinking and writing we use when we shove a few paragraphs into a box on Microsoft Word. The stress of seeing that paper due the day after tomorrow can also get you to start putting your very heart and soul into that one essay, even if it isn’t that important. When used right, just like every other strategy, procrastination can benefit people in ways other strategies cannot.