Purposeful Procrastination

During my rush for assignments, I realized that my pattern of procrastination revolved around things that are 'fun'. I said 'fun' because I enjoyed doing these things but I wouldn't take time out to do them on purpose. For example, I don't find Bubble Island extremely fun after my exams and assignments are over but when I am procrastinating a task, Bubble Island is one of the top distractions. (It is a Facebook game, in case you didn't know.)

This leads me to conclude that we do need a motivation to procrastinate and the motivator is none other than our task-on-hand which we perceive as difficult. The things that we do while procrastinating are not necessarily the things we enjoy doing but a whole list of 'I would rather...'s. It is a form of avoidance/ running away from the actual task-on-hand. This creates a cycle of this own:

Task - Avoidance - Procrastination - Realization

This is assuming that the task is perceived as difficult.

During procrastination, we would (at some point) reach a realization that we need to complete our task NOW to avoid an undesired outcome. This is when the alarms in your head goes off and you feel a need to start the task. However, this usually does not last until the end of the task. You might finish the first paragraph of your research paper and decide that it is sufficient to avoid the undesired outcome (the alarms in your head have stopped). And that's where procrastination comes in again.

Procrastination is important. Although it is usually referred to as an obstacle that we need to avoid, I believe procrastination serves some kind of purpose. It's like our brain's own way of 'going out for some fresh air' before continuing your work (you could do it literally as well) and without this mechanism, we might end up overworking ourselves. During procrastination, we might also come up with new ideas for our task because we are relaxed. That's why 'therapeutic' (or stress relieving) activities such as taking a bath, going for a cycle/run, or stoning aids creativity. The best ideas come from the shower!

So next time when you procrastinate, try to make your procrastination fruitful. Sometimes it is easier to see the big picture (and what's wrong with it) when you take a step back.