Most times when people come across the term procrastination, it’s usually from an article or a video giving tips on how to stop it and become the best versions of ourselves by making use of our time optimally.
Well, this one’s no different. This post is also going to talk about how you can make optimal use of your time but it comes with a twist.
Rather than giving tips on how to avoid procrastination, I’d like to show you a way to make the best use of your time by procrastinating.
Welcome to the art of...
✨CREATIVE PROCRASTINATION!✨
“Creative Procrastination” is a concept I came across while reading the book “Eat that Frog” by Brian Tracy. The book is basically a practical guide that teaches people how to avoid procrastination using 21 different strategies. Out of those 21 strategies, I particularly found the idea of “creative procrastination” to be the most interesting because of its approach towards tackling procrastination.
Creative Procrastination
Let’s face it. We’ve all been trying to beat procrastination even before we knew the meaning of the word. Some have read several books, attended seminars on how to stop procrastinating, and even used up multiple 3am motivation with little to no result to show for it. If you’re in that category, I want you to know that you’re not alone.
Yes, there are people who handle procrastination pretty well, but no matter how hard anyone tries, one thing is for sure – there’s no way to totally avoid procrastinating. It’s practically impossible. The sooner we make peace with that fact, the better.
The simple reason why procrastination is inevitable is because we’re humans, not Perpetual Motion Machines (PPMs). For the uninitiated, a PPM is a machine that will run forever at optimal capacity without an energy source.
Don’t worry, a PPM doesn’t exist and will never exist. It’s just a figment of imagination of some engineer who thought it’d be best to include it in my already bulky coursework. I had a “D” in that course by the way. Or rather, as we say in this part of the world, they gave me a “D” in that course
Now, away from PPMs and my brief episode of ranting, what is Creative Procrastination?
It is basically the act of procrastinating on the right sets of tasks; the menial tasks, the bottom of the crop tasks, the ???... No need to go on, you get the drill.
Procrastinating the Right Way
So how does one procrastinate creatively? I’m glad you asked.
You just do it. Yea, It’s that simple.
If I end this post with this, I believe I would’ve done justice to the topic. But a post isn’t complete until I add a list and I very much enjoy creating lists, so I have made a list titled 7 steps to start procrastinating creatively.
So, here we go:
Create a Scale of Preference of your tasks.
Identify the tasks that are most important to your development (the tasks on top of your list).
Channel your resources towards the completing those tasks.
Identify low-value tasks that do not make much of a contribution to your development.
If you will procrastinate at all, procrastinate on completing those low-value tasks you've just identified. Control what you procrastinate on.
Learn to say “No” to any activity that is not a high-value use of your time.
Continually review your tasks to find low-value activities that you can afford to procrastinate on or abandon totally.
So as not to bore you than necessary, let's stop here. In the future, I’ll make a more comprehensive list on how to better procrastinate creatively, and I hope I do not procrastinate about it. That’ll be embarrassing.
So now that you know about Creative Procrastination, what are your thoughts about it? Do you have better ways one can use to handle procrastination? Do well to share them in the comment section.
Thanks for making it to the end. ❤️