Productive Procrastination™

Do you ever have something important you have to do– be it schoolwork, scheduling that doctor’s appointment, writing your posts that were due almost 3 weeks ago (so sorry Prof. Dissinger)– and you lack at least 89% of the motivation required to do it? Does pushing off the Important Task for a while make you feel slightly useless and even worse? Does it ever get you to the point where you want to scream and cry or even to the point where you’re actually doing the screaming and crying while still avoiding the Important Task?

If you’ve answered an ashamed, old-fashioned, reluctant, surprised, bedazzled, half-hearted, enthusiastic, or even just simple “yes” to any of these questions, then I have just the thing for you.

I call it Productive Procrastination™. Considering the fact that the name lacks creativity, I assume I’m not the only one to have coined this term. If you happen to be one of those other people, feel free to skip this article because you already know the secret to the feeling of mediocre success*.

Now, I’m not organized enough that I make physical to-do lists, but I have a rough copy in my head at all times. Whether your list takes a more abstract shape like mine or you have post-it notes covering your walls, you’re gonna need to have your to-do list handy for this process.

Got it? Good. Now I want you to look long and hard at that list and get rid of all of the Important Tasks on there. In case I haven’t been clear about what an Important Task is, it’s any of the items on that list that make you say “ew,” “I don’t want it,” or just flat out “no.” Now that they’re gone, what is it that’s left? My bet is that you have things along the lines of dishes, laundry, grocery run, taking out the trash, etc. left on there.

In other words, Productive Procrastination™ is doing all of the mindless chores you have to accomplish while avoiding your Important Task so that you don’t feel like a complete waste. Hence, the feeling of mediocre success.

Although there is no guarantee of lasting effect, and it certainly doesn’t eliminate the inevitable fact that you have to get around to completing your Important Task at some point, we here at Productive Procrastination Inc. promise a 100% guarantee that you will feel better using Productive Procrastination™ rather than just sitting around until the very last minute.

Take it from someone who has mastered the art of procrastination. I’ve lived a majority of my high school career and now some parts of my college career utilizing the motto that “procrastination is key.” Now, only sometimes will good, old-fashioned procrastination get you where you need to be, but usually the waiting and sitting around doesn’t get you motivated when it’s actually time to accomplish an Important Task. What Productive Procrastination™ does is trigger a positive response somewhere in your brain or body or heart or wherever. It gives you the satisfaction of having completed a task, and gives you a small taste of what completing something as paramount as an Important Task will feel like.

So, if you’re looking to finesse the system the way a USC student does, give Productive Procrastination™ a try (to-do lists and chore ideas not included).

*Yes, I said “mediocre success.” I never promised you’d be feeling like Oprah after this.