The Redemption of Procrastination: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Kafka, Victor Hugo, Margaret Atwood, Leonardo da Vinci. What do you think is common between these personalities? They are all geniuses, did you say? Of course, they are. But there is something else that connects them. They are some of the most famous procrastinators in history.

In a world enamoured with increasing productivity at all costs, not many words invite as much scorn as the word procrastination does. And if you are one of those people whose primary mode of operation is to procrastinate, the list above might make you feel better. After all, you are in good company. If you need further reassurance, it might be heartening to know that procrastination is natural. (More about that a little later.) As the saying goes - "Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator."

With our modern societies continuously conditioning us to keep up the pace or else (I have always wondered, or else what!), turning us all into the proverbial hamsters on wheels, we are led to believe that there isn’t a moment to waste. Everything that must be done, must be done now. You are made to feel guilty if you cannot work according to a plan in which even the tiniest microtasks come with a deadline. And did I mention that there is an expectation that everything that must be done, must be done now?

Before we go any further, there is something that needs to be clarified. While I might not be a fan of deadlines, I do not believe that they are unnecessary; especially for the ones who work as part of teams and deal with multiple stakeholders. More often than not, not having deadlines would be nothing short of the apocalyptic anarchy. (Having said that, how can I not bring up this glorious quote by Douglas Adams, the author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? - “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make when they go by.”)

Oh, we digress. We were supposed to be talking about procrastination. Did we just procrastinate a little?

We have to understand the psychology behind procrastination before we dive into whether procrastination is good or bad (hint: it is neither; unless we are talking about chronic procrastinators, in which case it is bad, causing stress and irregular sleep patterns among other things.) Why do people procrastinate? Short answer – It feels good.

Now, for the longer answer. Research has shown that procrastination is very often a way to respond to perceived stressors. It is much more complex than it sounds. Procrastination has been linked with psychological vulnerability and at times even lower self-esteem. And just when you thought it is all psychological, there are physiological factors at play too. Turns out, the human brain is programmed to procrastinate. When the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex battle it out, and when the former wins, you tend off things that need to be done now. What now, did you say? Let’s dig a little deeper. The limbic system is the portion of the brain that directs you to avoid unpleasant experiences. It is also one of the oldest portions of the brain, and more dominant. The prefrontal cortex, on the other hand, is relatively newer and weaker. It helps you to integrate information, make decisions and get things done. However, it doesn’t operate automatically unlike the good old limbic system. You have to get it running. And therefore, when you are not consciously engaged in a task, the limbic system takes over and drives you away from the unpleasant experience of having to complete the task. And at the moment, it feels good.

While the motivation to stay away from unpleasant experiences is at the core of procrastination, this battle between the limbic system and prefrontal cortex would happen in varying contexts for different individuals. For some, it stems from self-doubt about their ability to perform the task, whereas for some others it could be a bias against a particular type of task. Some individuals might be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the tasks, whereas some others might tend to easily get distracted. There might be instances where it is a case of struggling to see the benefits of delayed gratification that might come only at the very end of the task and there are instances where procrastination might be a symptom of something serious like depression or anxiety. (Remember - if you are struggling with your mental health, do seek help as early as possible.)

At this point, if you are starting to feel that it is all doom and gloom in the world of procrastination, let me invite you to the fun side. Some studies have shown that procrastination can be beneficial in different ways. To understand those benefits, it is important to first distinguish between two types of procrastinators:

Passive procrastinators:
They don’t intend to but end up delaying their tasks because they are unable to finish them for a variety of reasons, like some mentioned above.
Active procrastinators:
These are the individuals who delay tasks on purpose, to cater to their individual preference of working under pressure.

The active variety is said to have a psychological profile closer to non-procrastinators. It might not look like it, but they tend to be organized in their ways. They also have greater flexibility when it comes to dealing with changes or newer demands, something that even non-procrastinators might struggle with. According to the researchers, “active procrastinators may have more flexibly structured time and are more sensitive to changing demands in their environment. For this reason, they will act more spontaneously, resulting in more frequent temporal changes than with the other two groups”.

If you are still reading on with the hope that there is going to be a list of steps to beat procrastination, sorry to disappoint you, there isn’t any. Since procrastination by itself isn’t good or bad. It comes down to the context. What are the tasks that you are procrastinating on? If it affects efficiency and productivity you might need to snap out of it and get things going. But if it requires you to be creative, maybe it is a good thing that you are procrastinating. And in fact, you aren’t really procrastinating. You are just incubating ideas. Finding it a little hard to believe? Let’s talk about Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian polymath, and an absolute genius. He took 16 years to complete Mona Lisa, and he finished The Last Supper only after being threatened to have his funds being cut off. And the Virgin on the Rocks? When it was commissioned, he was given a deadline of 7 months, and yet he took a whopping 25 years to finish it. He was not alone. Charles Darwin, one of the most influential figures in history, delayed finishing his seminal work, On the Origin of Species by 20 years. He kept pursuing other interests before finally writing his book.

These might be extreme examples. However, there is evidence that when it comes to creative pursuits, moderate procrastination can be effective. Adam Grant, a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Originals: How Non-conformists Change the World, argues that “procrastination is a vice when it comes to productivity, but it can be a virtue when it comes to creativity”. In his book, he talks about how procrastination helps us avoid early optimizations to our ideas and steers us away from committing to an idea too soon.

Yet, if being a procrastinator does bother you, maybe do not start by looking at ways to get out of it. It might be better to start with the why. Mindfulness and self-awareness might help you find the reasons for your procrastination. Check if you are overwhelmed or have a bias against the task. Maybe it is just plain discomfort avoidance. Once you can pinpoint that, you might be able to work around it.

In the meantime, do not be hard on yourself for procrastinating. As we have seen, it is neither good nor bad. And if you are a non-procrastinator, here is an appeal to be more tolerant of the ones who do. If possible, try to understand why they do so, and you might be able to embrace the whole concept much better.