What do you tend to do when you procrastinate? Is it productive or valuable to you in some way, even if just stress relief rather than any work getting done? Do you know why you do what you do when you procrastinate? If you don’t like it when you procrastinate, and it was too hard to change, try changing how you procrastinate.
I am always getting things done, but I am also a big procrastinator. I can be both because I am what’s known as a slow motion multitasker. That’s someone who has many projects going at the same time, over long periods of time, working on one project at any given moment or time period. It’s how many of the world’s most creative people past and present work, though most never would have known it by name. The method and term had only been formally recognized in the 2010s by economist Tim Harford as a powerful way, possibly the most powerful way, to unleash your natural creativity. So with a little planning, any time I need to procrastinate on one project, I just move on to another where I have some ideas ready to try or work waiting to be done, and be productive there. In sense, procrastination is not so much procrastination as incubation time until I have a better idea on how to move forward on a given project. While that’s going on, I procrastinate productively!
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This post is one of 70 quotes I wrote, each with an accompanying essay, in my e-book and paperback Stars I Put in my Sky to Live By, on Amazon or Smashwords (choose your price including free!).