30th September, 2021

Procrastination is oftentimes dressed as a negative habit. It’s what ineffective and disorganised people do, right? It’s a habit of the overworked and the overstretched. Maybe…but it turns out not always.

Organisational psychologist Prof Adam Grant (Wharton School of Business) has written a lot about the origins and motivations behind procrastination. It turns out that a lot of it is to do with avoiding negative feelings more than it’s about avoiding tasks. More curiously, however, there is a truly positive driver for procrastination in some. It can heighten creative and divergent thinking.

I procrastinate hard. There as some occasions (writing large grants that rely on many other colleagues, for example) where the habit has had to be kicked cold turkey. For everything else, it’s a behaviour that I thought I was simply unable to shake. The more counterintuitive view of procrastination has me wondering how much of my own behaviour is to do with disorganisation…and how much might be drive more creative thoughts. I have no idea. Nonetheless, it’s worth a thought.

Maybe it’s not the case that the pre-crastinators (those obsessed with starting a task as early as possible) aren’t always best placed.

When do you procrastinate?

Consider reflecting on the outcome of that procrastination.

Consider why you do it at all…

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