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back to listing indexStructured Procrastination: Do Less & Deceive Yourself
[web search]“. . . anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.” — Robert Benchley, in Chips off the Old Benchley, 1949
I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things.
This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish and the good use they make of time. All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you.
The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.
The most perfect situation for structured procrastination that I ever had was when my wife and I served as Resident Fellows in Soto House, a Stanford dormitory. In the evening, faced with papers to grade, lectures to prepare, committee work to be done, I would leave our cottage next to the dorm and go over to the lounge and play ping-pong with the residents, or talk over things with them in their rooms, or just sit there and read the paper. I got a reputation for being a terrific Resident Fellow, and one of the rare profs on campus who spent time with undergraduates and got to know them. What a set up: play ping pong as a way of not doing more important things, and get a reputation as Mr. Chips.
Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by definition the most important, and the only way to avoid doing them will be to do nothing. This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being.
At this point you may be asking, “How about the important tasks at the top of the list, that one never does?” Admittedly, there is a potential problem here.
The trick is to pick the right sorts of projects for the top of the list. The ideal sorts of things have two characteristics, First, they seem to have clear deadlines (but really don’t). Second, they seem awfully important (but really aren’t). Luckily, life abounds with such tasks. In universities the vast majority of tasks fall into this category, and I’m sure the same is true for most other large institutions. Take for example the item right at the top of my list right now. This is finishing an essay for a volume in the philosophy of language. It was supposed to be done eleven months ago. I have accomplished an enormous number of important things as a way of not working on it. A couple of months ago, bothered by guilt, I wrote a letter to the editor saying how sorry I was to be so late and expressing my good intentions to get to work. Writing the letter was, of course, a way of not working on the article. It turned out that I really wasn’t much further behind schedule than anyone else. And how important is this article anyway? Not so important that at some point something that seems more important won’t come along. Then I’ll get to work on it.
Another example is book order forms. I write this in June. In October, I will teach a class on Epistemology. The book order forms are already overdue at the book store. It is easy to take this as an important task with a pressing deadline (for you non-procrastinators, I will observe that deadlines really start to press a week or two after they pass.) I get almost daily reminders from the department secretary, students sometimes ask me what we will be reading, and the unfilled order form sits right in the middle of my desk, right under the wrapping from the sandwich I ate last Wednesday. This task is near the top of my list; it bothers me, and motivates me to do other useful but superficially less important things. But in fact, the book store is plenty busy with forms already filed by non-procrastinators. I can get mine in mid-Summer and things will be fine. I just need to order popular well-known books from efficient publishers. I will accept some other, apparently more important, task sometime between now and, say, August 1st. Then my psyche will feel comfortable about filling out the order forms as a way of not doing this new task.
The observant reader may feel at this point that structured procrastination requires a certain amount of self-deception, since one is in effect constantly perpetrating a pyramid scheme on oneself. Exactly. One needs to be able to recognize and commit oneself to tasks with inflated importance and unreal deadlines, while making oneself feel that they are important and urgent. This is not a problem, because virtually all procrastinators have excellent self-deceptive skills also. And what could be more noble than using one character flaw to offset the bad effects of another?
Comments
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Carsten How I ended up on this site is beyond me. I started my browser and there it was. I haven’t been thinking about procrastination for a long time.
I really need to submit a paper in order to get my PhD, the data is there, the analysis has been done, I just need to write things up. Thus I’m very productive in matters related to teaching.
However I can’t find anything else important enough to finally start writing that paper. What to do if things are starting to get really urgent and are important in itself (like the paper)? The things you mention are not applicable in my spot and in fact don’t seem important
Am I just lacking self-deceptive skills?Anyways… great post, cheers
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John Perry Probably lacking self-deceptive skills. Lacking such skills is not the worst character trait to have.
In the book THE ART OF PROCRASTINATION you’ll find some suggestions for those tasks that just don’t get done with regular structured procrastination. Plus I get a royalty, so you will accomplish something worthwhile just by buying it! Thanks for your comment, JP
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@Carsten: you are in the spot I was in a couple of years ago… I never got beyond that point and eventually didn’t finish my thesis, never got my Ph.D., but did get an interesting job that has kept me occupied for the last 10 years. Would it help you to focus on getting a job? Isn’t it more important to focus on what you will do with the rest of your life? If that doesn’t work, something that helped me finish at least two articles: work together with someone during the writing process. Get someone to listen to you and ask questions as you talk through the data, write it up as you go… Hope it works for you!
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Man, as a fellow PhD student, I know exactly what you are feeling. I have almost the same situation, except that I’m putting off finishing the last 20% of my analysis for no reason other than it’s probably the most critical part (statistics!)
The only thing I have pushing me at all is that there is a deadline for thesis submission, but that’s also reasonably far off that it’s not bothering me yet. So here’s to looking forward to panicky times
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you can always force yourself into thinking you also have to prove some Theory of Everything
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_everything -
Joel Seely Shouldn’t “Find post-doctoral fellowship” start showing up on your list? Seems like a great task to avoid by doing your dissertation.
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Here what you need to do is split the paper up into a series of tasks so that hopefully there will be a section that you just avoid writing rather than the whole paper, then once it is the only one left, you just have to go against the procrastinator nature and write that last section. It is much easier to punch through for one small section… or maybe as it is only one section a task will come up that seems more important/larger that will push it down the list.
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Karen Vaughn I enjoyed your essay on procrastination. I can see clearly now!
Karen
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The title looks great. I should be getting around to reading it soon.
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Thorsten I can’t help, after reading the article, I had to realize that what you describe is exactly the behavior that I also put to the day, more or less. It’s just that I haven’t yet come to the same words of describing it. So thanks for that. Still, I’m always not satisfied with this behavior, which probably belongs to its intrinsics, sigh. Thinking more about it, I actually had some words already for describing it, just different ones. I would describe this, quite metaphorical, as: Put tasks to the background to let them simmer (like a stew) and come back to them when they start smelling good, so good that you become hungry for them. But then, get them done!
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Well it’s good to deceive yourself with some things, but you have to realize at some point that you have to work pretty hard if you want performance. Not to stress to much, but to focus on your goal and to do small steps every day towards it… that’s how you’ll win the war.
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Simon Dell This looks useful. I’ll read it later when I should be doing some housework or finishing off some work for my client.
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Jakob Külzer I’ve been employing a similar scheme like this for a while. It works reasonably well, even though I should be working on something else right now. Which makes me wonder, what more important task did you ignore to write this fantastic essay?
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Great read! Without realizing I’ve been doing something like this. But now there’s a great recipe for it out there, I’ll do it with more intent and hopefully increase my overall productivity
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I enjoyed the essay, although the fancy pants header bar made it difficult to read on a mobile device.
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erinborron@gmail.com Hi Andrew, webmaster granddaughter here. What device are you on? It looks like the ad bar may be the culprit, but any feedback you can supply would be excellent. – Erin
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Wow, this hit the nail on the head for me. My key to a successful professional life has been to find one thing which is more unappealing to do than everything else I need to do. Once I’ve done that, all the other tasks look like a great diversion from the one task I don’t want to do.
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mekpro I had read this for 2 minutes and not finished yet because its too early in the morning. I will start reading through this again when I’m arrived office. Thanks !
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Procrastinator Written as an escape from another important task? ;D
This was really informative! …
Thanks for the read -
Harold Ramus I started to read your very interesting article that I found via one of my favorite news aggregators that I like to check between tasks, thank you! I too suffer from procrastinatory habits. Unfortunately I was unable to finish reading because a computer task I was waiting on finally completed, then I started reading another page and then
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Great article. I have found similar coping measures work well. I can fool myself that I am not doing something for quit a while. Being rather ADHD helps–I can do a lot of things, and concentrate on none! I can accomplish a lot as long as I don’t think too hard about it.
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I think good procrastination is about reducing the cognitive load. If you are overwhelmed by a task it can be because of too many unresolved small things cluttering your mind.
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This article, for years, is my guiding light in life! It explained clearly and exactly what I and alike, are, and how we work. I am a big propagator of the term and method, and whenever I see a lost soul, I send them to read this. Thank you!
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I’ve noticed this occur in my life but never took real advantage of it. Funny article. I will definitely start thinking more about how much I need to clean my attic so that I can get all my other stuff done.
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Zaraeda Dear Sir,
I just finished reading your hilarious and insightful book. Thank you for getting it written! Your ideas have helped me accept my limitations and feel better about what I do get done. Right now I’m procrastinating packing my suitcase for a trip, meanwhile I’ve actually cleaned up a pile of junk in my backyard which I’ve been putting off for months. That’s amazing to me. I don’t like the anxiety around the suitcase issue, but it’s fun discovering new ways to motivate myself. One thing you
didn’t mention is the possibility of brain chemicals playing a part in getting one moving. I think that’s the case for me sometimes.
Zaraeda -
I added my website to reply to this but there’s nothing there yet, I’ve been procrastinating. But now I know how to get my blog going.
Thanks much,
Thomas
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Yep, the header is truly magnificent! That duckpond water sure ain’t rushing anywhere, so I’ve got time to just look around, and , well, procrastinate…. ahhh look at that tiny-font “Do less. Think more” Splendid advice! But hey, the “thinking” part may cause me some distress, so I’ll ignore that bit for now, and I’ll just focus on the”do less” bit. Ahh I’m feeling better already! Now I move my eyes to the big font: “Structured Proscratination”. Hey! No worries, mate, I’m doing that! “Do Less”. No worries. “Deceive yourself”. Ummm , I’ll come back to this later. “Succeed Long term”. Absolutely great!! I’m focussing verrry long term here… amd I’m verrry relaxed about it, this lifetime or the next it’s all the same to me so let’s move on to the essay itself … Whooa gotta go now, looks like i’m being called away for a game of table tennis, I’ll read the rest tomorrow …
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James Shields This is pretty much how I live my life without realising it.
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Zafer Balkan Well, I’ve just finished your book, the Turkish translation actually. I bought it two weeks ago for my vacation and could only read it today, well, for reasons. Obviously. I have to thank you for writing a book which is so good that reading it can make me feel like talking to a close friend. At some point, I thought I was being criticized by a friend or a colleague. Because that book was so “me”. Thanks for having more important works to do than writing this book.
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Rebecca Mitchell Brilliant post and even more brilliant tool for procrastinating my current outstanding essay….
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Scott Johnston Interesting. I self procrastinate as well and find it extremely rewarding when I find out if I had of started working on something right away that I would have wasted a lot of time due to the original scope being changed or the idea being abandoned altogether. Also, there is way more satisfaction in getting something done that you have put off for a while vs. something you attack right away. The rush jobs always seem, well, rushed. Procrastinated jobs seem to have evolved into an art form by the time they are done, probably because you had time to minimize the project which makes it that much more beautiful in its simplest form vs. some random convoluted rush job.
One thing is for certain, I will never change!
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Awsome stuff. found this while trawling google to figure out what latent skill was behind my exceptional list-making ability. despite having this gift, fighting procrastination has been an uphill battle for me. i’ve tried everything. why not try procrastination itself?
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It took me a couple weeks to get around to reading this article. It had been in my tabs (among other unwitnessed tabs I felt obligated to view) for quite sometime before more tabs got piled on top. This method might just save my life (from being unsuccessful). As long as I can remember I’ve procrastinated. In school I never did an assignment when assigned, but rather when due. I have piles of projects left incomplete, just because I still feel that I ought to complete them. Today I spent an extra hour working closing shift at my job because I couldn’t manage my time properly. Even right now I am procrastinating by writing this comment when I know that I have to get to bed. In the past, I’ve tried attempting tasks way before they were due so it wouldn’t feel like an obligation and I would feel satisfied at having accomplished it, but this would only lead to more procrastination. I’ve somehow managed to get by with my strategy of waiting until the last possible moment so I feel an underwhelming sense of urgency to complete the task. However this either leads to poor workmanship, or I’m not motivated enough until it is too late. I think I am even procrastinating getting to the point of this comment. This article is brilliant, and I will have to implement it in my life.
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In reference to Dr. Perry’s insight that listening to music can give some extra motivation to start working “bird-by-bird”, my own recommendation is the Bela Fleck Pandora station. It’s very upbeat with being distracting (and boy am I easily…
Oh, sorry, forgot to finish that thought; I got caught up on something else.
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Great essay. I would like to ask for permission to publish the translation to Polish of this text on my personal website http://aedificare.smirnow.eu (on CC-BY-SA license) to make it available for my not speaking English friends (eg. my wife). Of course, I’ve just translated it as a procrastination of doing other, much more important things and now I feel shame to waste this work…
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erinborron@gmail.com Permission granted! Please send us a link when you are done and we’ll add it to our translation list.
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I was a non-procrastinator before. I got stuff done before I even knew I was supposed to do it!..just kidding, but basically it’s true. I did everything, and then I had time left, so I did some more stuff, and still had time left. So I did even more stuff, more schedules, more things to get done, and so I had too much to do suddenly. That’s when I employed this approach, and it worked for quite a while, until I got so stressed out by constantly having things that need to be done, even if I knew that I’d put them there to get other stuff done, that I ended up with a burnout.
So I’m one of those that don’t agree with this method, unless you don’t actually have THAT much to do, this just won’t work for long. Or maybe it’s just that it didn’t work for me because I wasn’t a natural procrastinator? Not sure, really.
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Great article!
Very enthusiastic.
The problem is when the procrastinating habit really affect your career.
For now I’m dealing with this.
I will refill my to do list with more tasks and observe the result. -
iCloud “under the wrapping from the sandwich I ate last Wednesday”.
I will assign this article as a reading assignment to my gen-ed students and ask them to find the most quintessential statement of the essay. Only this response will achieve a full score.
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Wizard Master Nice! You should check out Mark Forster’s productivity systems like AutoFocus, SuperFocus, and Final Version. He has many other productivity systems. They are all based on structured procrastination.
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Great essay, my only nitpick is your name is nowhere to be found at the top or bottom of the page, nor a date to attach to its publication, so I have no idea to whom and when to credit this without leaving the page,
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erinborron@gmail.com Hi Colin,
Thanks for the nitpick, I’ll make sure it’s remedied. For now you can credit it to John Perry, and it was first published in 1996 (please try to avoid the obvious “it only took him 20 years to put it online” joke…).
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Hello Colin,
The author is Dr. John Perry and he has written an amusing book – The Art of Procrastination
A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging, and PostponingHope this helps!
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What a page!! Great!! But, since I’m not a procrastinator, will this page corrupt me and I will not be able to do what’s at the top of my list without becoming a self deceiver!?
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Your task promotion technique can be viewed as an iterated version of Godel’s Theorem, namely, that every nontrivial consistent system is incomplete. One lives with a given instance of such a system for a while, and then builds a larger system that contains the old system. Points inaccessible in the old system are now accessible, and are attended to, but new inaccessible points have been added. Rinse and repeat.
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CuriousCaseOfNormalHumanBeing Dr. John Perry wrote a wonderful book as well- The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging and Postponing. That’s a must read for someone looking for a tiny book with good humorous wisdom.
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Ana Stewart This was a great article to read instead of doing my homework!
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