Procrastination is Sometimes a Good Thing
- James Trigg
- Apr 10, 2021
- 3 min read
Last week, I had to take a trip out of town to Texas for several days. When I came back home to my daily college life, I took a look at all the work and assignments I had on my plate and started figuring out which ones I should procrastinate on.
But procrastination is a bad thing, right? It only makes these worse for you in the long run, right?
Well, not exactly.
Many things in life can be either good or bad for you depending on how much of it you're using. Sometimes, too little of a certain thing and too much of a certain thing can be equally as bad for you.
Take exercise for example. Too little exercise puts your body in a poor physical condition and leaves you more vulnerable to health risk. Too much exercise, however, puts a strain on your body and also leaves you vulnerable to health risks.
You'll only benefit from exercise when you do it in moderation. The same thing applies with procrastination.
Too much of it and you are guaranteed to set yourself up for failure. But in moderation, it can actually benefit you. Here's how.
Controlling the Pressure
If you start on an assignment early, and the deadline is pretty far away, or at least far enough away that you don't have to worry about it this soon, you're not going to be feeling a lot of pressure. For many people, they do their best work when the pressure's on.
However, if the deadline is tomorrow, and you haven't even started yet, you'll likely be feeling too much pressure and your work will likely be very sloppy.
What you want to do is wait until the period of time when the pressure is about right for your best work to be accomplished. That period may differ for everyone. For me, the perfect pressure period is about two weeks before the due date. It's close enough to the due date to put pressure on me, but not so much pressure that it'll make me panic and do sloppy work. This is the period of time when I can get my best work out.
As I said, though, it differs for everyone. Some may work better when they start more than two weeks away. Sometimes, it has to be sooner.
2. More Creativity
The sooner you get started on something, the less time you have to think about the best way to get it done. Just because you put off doing the project doesn't mean you have to put off thinking about it.
While you're procrastinating, do things that help stimulate your thoughts and imagination. You'll find that the more time you spend thinking on something, the more creative you'll be than if you just started the project immediately.
3. Prioritization Skills
The third benefit of procrastination is the prioritization skills it brings. Instead of working on every assignment at the same time, you put more of a focus on the assignments that are due sooner or are worth more to your grade.
If other assignments are worth as much for your grade or they aren't worth as many points, you can afford to put it off for later and put your focus on the bigger assignment first. That way, even if you should fail to do the lesser assignments, at least you'll have the bigger assignments out of the way, which is what you want.
Procrastination, when done this way, can provide many benefits. On the other side of the coin, when your procrastination gets out of control, it will become a problem. Procrastinating on purpose does not mean you should not also have discipline. Here are some good pages to check out if time management and procrastination are a problem for you.
Kommentare