GJ Day 8: In Praise of Procrastination

Why put off to tomorrow what you could do the day after?

Not may people think procrastination is a good thing, and 90 % of the time, I would tend to agree.  But in the other 10% of the time, I recognize procrastination for what it can be: time to reflect.

I'm a big believer in something that the founder of my company said:

"All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work." - Thomas J. Watson

That's what led to my company's motto: Think.

And for me, procrastination - the delay in engaging on a topic, or doing a chore, or reaching out to someone, is frequently a way for me to turn over an issue in my head, to let the 'batch processing' of my brain work on it while I do other things.  

The idea of an obligation lurks in my head for a while when I'm putting it off, and often enough, when I finally sit down to do it, the issue turns out to be easy.  It's not necessarily that it was always easy, but rather that my brain figured out how to do it when I wasn't looking.

Last weekend, I finally decided to install new lights in my basement.  It's been on my list for a while now (weeks, actually), in part because there was one section that I didn't know what I was going to do.  I was likely going to have to move one power box to another area to get the light I wanted, but that was in a cramped spot, and I wasn't going to able to move something in the way.

I would see that spot every time I used my basement, stare at it for a while, and walk away, shaking my head.  Finally, last weekend, I'd had enough, bought the parts, and decided to tackle the job.

As soon as I went downstairs and looked at the receptacle I had to move, *bang* , I knew exactly what had to be done, how to move the receptacle to a more open spot and get the light I needed.  I didn't suddenly become a genius, but all that time, I had the issue working in the background, so that when I needed it, the answer came.  

Had I started on the project earlier, I would have struggled, would have made different (and in retrospect, very poor) decisions, and might've been disappointed in the outcome.   Putting it off (in this case) worked out.

That's not to say procrastination is always good - indeed, it more often is not.  But when the problem is tough, and the timeline is open, giving time and space to an idea, by ignoring it, can work out.