I have a Love /Hate relationship with procrastination. This seems to be a common malady. You can get all kinds of books and articles on how to stop being a procrastinator. It seems no one applauds the upside of procrastination. Just for the sake of this article, we are looking at the bright side and acknowledging the positive aspects of Procrastination.
Procrastination is always looking out for your future. As a procrastinator you will always something to look forward to because the things you are putting off today will be waiting for you tomorrow….or the next day….or next month even. You don’t have to worry about what you will be doing because you can rest comfortably in the knowledge that it will be familiar stuff you’ve been looking at and saving for that proverbial rainy day.
Procrastination opens the door for variety in your life. Some procrastination is not chosen but dictated to us, rather like the prolonged kitchen remodel we’ve had going on. Circumstances have required that this be a slow…er, thoughtful process. Decisions made have plenty of time for change when you’re not getting around to implementing them quickly. Since we’re looking at the up side of procrastination we will focus on the…oh, let’s call it ‘opportunity’ to reconsider options. A fine example would be the wall color choice(s) I’ve made for the kitchen area. The initial plan did not call for a change in wall color. Then, necessity required us to change the countertop we had selected to something a bit more economically attainable. This dictated changing the color on the painted cabinets, which now no longer went with the wall color. So, many…many wall colors samples later….see variety!
Procrastination teaches you to be flexible. I am not an impulsive person. In fact, I probably think about things too long. Add to that my tendency to plan things to the point of being ridiculous and you’ve got one non-impulsive person. Procrastination would seem to be a fine companion for the impulse challenged such as myself. I do not enjoy shopping unless it is for my house (or grandkids). I have put things in my shopping cart, wheeling them around the store, only to put things back on the shelf and walk out having not purchased one single thing. I prefer to think of this as a good thing. I had a friend tell me once that I would shop myself right out of everything I ever wanted. She may have been on to something because I can not tell you how many times I have returned to said store to finally purchase the items I wanted only to discover they no longer were available. So, I’d have to start the whole process all over again and find something else. See…teaches you to be flexible.
Procrastination encourages patience. With the aid of procrastination, you develop fine tuned waiting skills. Always putting off getting started on what ever; lack of action builds tolerance for status quo and patience by not having things change quickly. In what may seem like conflicting traits, I love change yet have a high tolerance (in some areas) and patience in waiting for things I want. I believe procrastination plays a big part of that. Not starting something makes it easier to wait for it to be finished.
This tongue in cheek look at procrastination shows that, although it gets a bad rap most of the time, there are positive aspects if you look hard enough and tilt your head a bit to the right.
You can’t hate the wait when you procrastinate!
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