Procrastination is the most popular problem of this age. I want you to think about the hardest task you need to work on right now. You probably ignored to start working on it for a long time. Now, think about what other little tasks you completed when you procrastinate the big one.
The Art of Procrastination ,written by Dr. John Perry who is a professor of philosophy at Stanford University, explains this method which is kind of positive procrastination:
Structured Procrastination
In the book, Dr. Perry suggests you to make a to-do list. For the first task, pick one which is intimidating, questionably important and has a deadline but also expandible. As you go down on the list tasks should be achievable but also essential. He calls it “Structured Procrastination”.
“All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this negative trait work for you.” Dr. Perry writes.
You are already doing it!
Chronic procrastinators do this all the time without realizing. They are shopping, cleaning their desk, making coffee, planning to how to start work on the important stuff. They do them because these things are a way of not working on that important and also scary task.
Use it for your own benefit!
It is a matter of enlightenment. Once you learn how structured procrastination works, it will change your life completely. You will accomplish more things and stop worrying about the task you procrastinate on because you know you will do it eventually, but not right now.
Chip it off!
I can hear you say “But how are we going to complete the important task?”. This is a fair question to ask but don’t worry. Dr. Perry also has an answer for it. His idea is, dividing that big, scary task into million little pieces of tasks which takes a minute or two to complete.
This way, people can throw them into the to-do list and complete them scratch by scratch. In a way, structured procrastinators will work on the big task by ignoring it. Sounds great isn’t it?
10 Minutes a day
Let’s say you are writing a thesis and you have 3 months to do it. Starting to work on it can require massive amount of willpower. But if you just research and take notes 10 minutes for a day, you don’t have to write all of it on the last week from its deadline.
For example, when I ignore preparing this blog, did my laundries, cleaned the house, did some push-ups, cooked my meal and when I do them, whenever something comes to my mind about including something to this blog, I wrote the idea down.
Think Positive
The method also encourages you to think positive on a subject (procrastination) which is widely known as negative. According to the article at Mayo Clinic , positive thinking may provide:
- Increased life span
- Lower rates of depression
- Lower levels of distress
- Greater resistance to the common cold
- Better psychological and physical well-being
- Increased cardiovascular health and reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
- Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress
Stop being a procrastinator right now. Instead of worrying about the things you didn’t do, be happy about what you have done so far and keep scratching!