What I've always found astonishing about my procrastination is the dedication I show to the task NOT at hand--the one I'm using to avoid doing what I'm supposed to be doing. Sure, I haven't started the paper, but I've nearly finished writing a short story! Supposed to actually be working on the short stories now? Look how clean my desk is!

I totally agree that embracing the lazy you is the way to go. You just need to plan for it. In college, I found that I worked much better if I could just sit down and focus all my energy on the paper for eight or ten hours in one night instead of trying to work an hour here, an hour there over a week. So, after the first few times, I just planned to spend the night before deadline staying up all night with chips and soda; then I could spend the preceding week doing whatever I wanted, guilt-free. But without that deadline...

After a series of all-nighters at the end of my senior year in college, I still had one paper to go. I heard through the grapevine that the professor was offering incompletes for students who needed to take just a little more time, and I seized it gladly, telling myself I would finish it up in the next week or so. I had a year to do that paper before the incomplete would turn into an F, and darned if I didn't put it off until the final few days--which also happened to be the week before my wedding.

Damn, that was a good paper, though. Got me into grad school later and everything.

Anyhow, in closing, a little something I wrote at 3 a.m. the night before a paper was due:

This is the poem

of a procrastinator.

I'm starting it now;

I'll finish it later.

LOVE the poem. Hilarious.

I work best under deadlines, and artificial, self-imposed ones won't do. My house only gets cleaned if people are coming over - sometimes I invite people over just because I can't stand the mess anymore. Most of my work gets done in the half-hour between my boss asking me for an update and me getting back to him.

Every once in a while in my academic career I would do a paper "right" - outlining, planning, researching, drafting, revising over weeks instead of one night. The papers turned out ok but the brilliant ones were always all-nighters. And I felt like I was missing something... the thrill of meeting a deadline just barely, I suppose, or the self-esteem boost of knowing I can pull off a passable or even brilliant major paper or project in far less time than the profs allotted for it.

kaiso, I know what you mean about that self-esteem boost from procrastinating and yet pulling off good work while spending hardly any time on it. I know I get that feeling whenever I get a good performance review even though I spend the majority of my days not working. It feels like a little victory over "the man" who wants you to work all the time.

But I find I start to feel guilty about it (at least at work, as opposed to school). I wonder if there are people somewhere picking up the slack for things that I would be doing if I just finished my projects quickly. I wonder about the things I could accomplish if I didn't procrastinate.

I can't decide whether that guilt is based in reality or not. Maybe if I got started early and worked steadily, I'd just end up with the same product. Maybe even worse. Who knows?

Jonesy:

But I find I start to feel guilty about it (at least at work, as opposed to school). I wonder if there are people somewhere picking up the slack for things that I would be doing if I just finished my projects quickly. I wonder about the things I could accomplish if I didn't procrastinate.

I

This got me thinking, Jonesy. But I don't procrastinate on everything, Just things I don't want to do. So hopefully you're doing something that's at all worthwhile, while you're not doing the project you "need" to be doing. I mean, Sure I could spit out more paper here at the office so someone could work less...but then who would clean up the breakroom?

After having taught the "Procrastination, Writers Block, and Creativity"
course (California State University) several times it occurred to me that this is a curable dis-ease, and that the students who signed up for this class were brave souls, indeed. Procrastination is fodder for humor, but a genre of "sick" humor at best. Russell Travis (www.wrtiersblockltd.com)