To procrastinate, from latin procrastinatus: pro- (forward, before) and crastinus (of tomorrow). The only thing we don't leave for tomorrow is the habit to procrastinate. It refers to the deferment of tasks to a later time. Psychologists attribute this behavior to stress and anxiety. For a behavior to be classified as procrastination, it must be counterproductive, needless and delaying. I've been perfecting my procrastination skills throughout my whole academic life. I am queen of procrastination: here I am, 2am with an exam tomorrow morning, and I'm writing a post on procrastination.
Napoleon Hill said procrastination is the man's biggest enemy. I will respectfully disagree. Procrastination is the mother of ócio criativo. Really. My most creative self is my very overworked and overstressed self. I have all these incredible ideas for parallel projects and always get a lot done during my procrastination-breaks - just not what I was supposed to be doing.
Don't get me wrong: deadlines are friends of chronic procrastinators - we only get things on the move with the approaching of the due date. But the time we "waste" wasn't wasted at all. We may read silly things online, or watch a movie, or maybe write something interestingly out of context. It doesn't matter really what you do, but you should always channel your "idleness activity" into the creation of something new. Creativity is the key: Da Vinci is one famous procrastinator - and I guess nobody would mind being a little more like him. As long as you use your procrastination to do better and greater things, you are doing okay. When you stop fighting your nature and embrace it, work with it instead of against it, you will have better results in less time - if you know you will only do the studying on the last week before the exams, or write that paper on the very last day, you can schedule your life accordingly. I think it's high time we stop deluding and torturing ourselves and start working with what we have - we might be happily surprised.
Are you saying that there's no such thing as self-discipline? Of course I'm not. Self-discipline of the mind and body is the hardest and most rewarding path to get things done. I've had self-discipline and it was fabulous: I slept little and ate right and my grades were perfect. It lasted 6 months. Do I want it back? Merlin, yes. But for now, I'm scheduling procrastination-breaks before and during my last week of exams. To know oneself. And I know myself pretty darn well.
Further reading:
Slate Magazine - Procrastination series
Não Posso Evitar - Rodolfo Araújo
Good and Bad Procrastination
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