On Procrastination

Commonplace Newsletter #86

One of the primary purposes of these essays- beyond entertainment of course¹- is to demonstrate and to possibly provoke a little lateral thinking. To take an everyday observation and hold it up to the light- and examine it from different angles- and hopefully by doing so, be able to see it in a new way. The result of this questioning can often come across as mere contrarianism, but I would like to think that it’s a little more than that. Simply going in knee jerk opposition to conventional thought, simply defaulting to this, means that you are of course still completely tied to what convention dictates.

Being told that a choice is between ‘this’ or ‘that’ is a trap when ‘both’ or ‘neither’ are also viable responses. This is what I mean by thinking laterally. You have to be able to question the question. To be able to question the premise.

Which brings us to today’s topic of procrastination². Procrastination as defined in this current culture of ours³, interprets it as being an unfortunate malady, as being a curse that can be broken with the rituals of morning routines and the incantation of certain affirmations. But is this the only way of interpreting it? Which is to ask… Is procrastination really a problem?  Can it be fixed?  And if so, is it even desirable to fix it?

I think there are discussions to be had around all of this. I do not think it’s as cut and dried as much of the discourse on the topic would have you believe. And so- if only as a means of putting off other chores and obligations at this time- let’s take a little while to ponder it.

Maybe later… Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

We can begin by pointing out the obvious, because in a world where only baffling complexity or oversimplification are profitable, the obvious can remain elusive. So the obvious is this- in the vast majority of cases you procrastinate on tasks you do not want to do.

When I think of my own long history of procrastination and work avoidance, I see the constant bypassing of things I did not, for some reason, want to do. Like Bartleby, the Scrivener I preferred not to, especially when it came to homework, exam revision, and things of that nature. Yet, I’m never late to meet someone, and I’ve published thousands and thousands of words of prose and fiction, so these delay tactics were not a question of poor time management skills, and not a question of being lazy as such. They are questions of desire, and a large part of desiring to do a task is being able to see some sort of purpose or meaning to it.

The vast majority of school and university work did not meet this criteria for me. Sure, you get the certificate at the end of it all but that particular carrot seemed a little off to me, and the alternate stick too thin and reedy to hurt me all that much.

So we procrastinate on tasks we don’t want to do- so what? In life there are simply things you have to do no matter how much you don’t want to do them, right? Isn’t this what being an adult is all about? Isn’t this just being a professional?

Well, first of all is this assertion true as an axiom? And second of all, even if this is the case why is it especially virtuous to do the things you don’t want to do promptly and efficiently, and perhaps even with a fake smile on your face? So long as the undertaking gets done (and again does it really need to be done anyway?) who cares if you don’t meet the deadline with ample time to spare and don’t start on the task in a prompt and timely fashion?

What difference does is make and who does it benefit to have this period of procrastination minimised or removed? Isn’t it just the results that matter? Say I’m stuck in a tedious and absurd office job⁴ doing tasks that make little sense to me, as long as I get those tasks done by the deadline who cares if I’m demonstrably happy about it, and start on it immediately?

The self-development industry and its pyramid of self-appointed experts strikes me as undermining personal autonomy. You can’t just oblige the standard of work the company demands, you can’t just comply with your contract of employment, no, you have to use your free time doing the actual work of consuming (or heaven help you) creating content on how to be more organised and professional and enthusiastic. It strikes me as a cruel trap disguised as a skeleton key. It strikes me as homework rearing its ugly head again, even though the exams I procrastinated on studying for are supposed to be half a lifetime away by now.

But I’m speaking in hypotheticals here. I work for myself at this time⁵, and I have never worked an office based, corporate or bureaucratic type job in my life. My whole working life has been in the kind of hospitality and care gigs where you are left alone as long as the list of duties are done by the end of the shift. The wages were meagre and sick pay was non-existent but at least I didn’t have to play make-believe on LinkedIn in my off hours. But corporate culture permeates internet culture and internet culture increasingly diffuses into the real world creating something of an osmotic relationship.

Procrastination- delaying something you don’t want to do until the last minute by doing something more enjoyable instead- is anathema to that culture. In this funfair hall of mirrors, pretending to be perpetually busy while doing little of any actual value⁶ is preferable to doing low key and unannounced things that are actually valuable and meaningful to you and your loved ones.

I suspect this is tied in with our collectively diminishing attention spans. Is procrastination in part a reaction to an inability to focus deeply on a task? Attention needs to be paid to the activity being chosen in favour of the task that’s being postponed. So we need to ask ourselves if we have just chosen an easier path that offers immediate reward? Or if we are actually researching a topic via the activity of scrolling?

Needing to use the internet to undertake research can be quite the procrastination bind. So it’s no wonder that many people burn out- and maybe burnout is what happens when you are caught in a trap such as this. This becomes a double bind when any and all procrastination is also seen as bordering on pathological behaviour.

So what I’m saying is this; procrastination is a signal, a sign to be considered. For the artist it might be a sign that you haven’t yet sufficiently thought your idea or your story through enough. It might be a sign that you are afraid of the self-revelation that the work will entail. For the employee it may mean that the task at hand is pointless or not worthwhile or the problem would be better off tackled some other way. Those are the two commonalities, as far as I can tell- either more preparation is needed before you begin or more commonly that you are afraid of failure or rejection that may come from completing the task. And this is a question of not believing yourself worthy or capable. Another possibility is that procrastination is a part of the creative process itself.

So the solution to procrastination in these instances is self-reflection, in gaining greater self-knowledge and self-acceptance. And this- when not taking the guise of ‘let’s get this over with’ sudden action- takes the form of thought. And thought, to the culture of busyness, and motivational platitudes and hustle, looks a lot like doing nothing. It looks a lot like procrastination.

Thinking and visualising can look a lot like loafing about and messing around to the observer. If you’re lucky, this stage might look like housework or gardening. Being bored and restless and slightly irked can be manifestations of different states of mind, including that of the creative process.

So, can the observer know who is really working and who is just wasting time and deferring on living the life they truly want to?

Until next time,

Live well

Tom.

1. The phenomenon of the guilty pleasure is a strange one, and it feels to me like it is a relatively recent phenomena. Rather than being the ostensible or ironic ‘guilt’ over a certain bad taste pleasure, it often strikes me as an ironically cloaked actual guilt over feeling pleasure in general. Such thinking feels as if it ties into today’s topic somehow.

2. The topic of procrastination is almost certainly not one I would have chosen to write about off my own back. It was chosen collectively by the Soaring Twenties Social Club as a part of our monthly Symposium. But this has meant that I have procrastinated on writing on the topic of procrastination, which has given me insight on it. Things work out in the end.

3. At least this is the case in the parts of the Western world that have been profoundly influenced by a corporate North American distorted interpretation of a Protestant work ethic.

4. And I’m using the word ‘absurd’ carefully here, in the trench coat and Gauloise philosophical sense.

5. And yes, you can put work in inverted commas for a good proportion of the time. When I work- when an idea really grabs me- I work obsessively, but otherwise I relax fully. Sprint and rest. This wild oscillating rhythm is what I believe people are actually looking for when they say they crave ‘balance’.

6. The best way to troll an influencer is to politely but repeatedly inquire as to what they actually do. After all we are what we are, not what we say we are.