Why Procrastination is Good (Sometimes)

You probably read the title of this article and thought, “Great! Even the writing center is telling me to put off my paper until 10PM the day it’s due, so I should be good!” I want to immediately clarify that I mean nothing of the sort, and as a repeat offender of this kind of behavior I can assure you it doesn’t help – much like drinking 4 gallons of hyper sweetened tea does nothing to “cleanse your system”.

However, a cup or two is something that can actually help you, in regards to both tea and procrastination.

Many writers fall into the trap of hard scheduling, and feel pressured to do the entire paper in one sitting, or else. While keeping your thoughts connected is easier without splitting it up, staring at a screen for hours on end without typing a single word doesn’t help your case at all, and can actually grievously wound both your sanity and your ego.

So, when you know you can’t come up with anything, get up from the screen and try to do something else!

Do a short exercise, cook something, or watch an episode of that show you’ve been binging ever since the quarantine started. Just make sure not to try to stress yourself even more by trying to go do other work while you’re already mentally taxed. Spending some time away from words and remembering what the real world looks like is important for any writing process, creative or not.

After all, just like any physical activity writing can be taxing, and you may run out of energy to write the paper or just not be in the right mindset to write something down. Of course, to prevent procrastination from getting out of control like it usually does, setting a hard stop around 30 minutes to an hour will do a lot of good in preventing it from getting too out of hand. You still need to finish that paper!

After the grace period is over, sit back down at your computer and get comfortable; writing is easier when you’re relaxed. Often, you’ll find yourself connecting sentences in ways you couldn’t see just a few minutes earlier, and you’ll have more energy and motivation to get that paper done. So remember, while procrastination as a whole is a bad habit to form, sometimes little doses of it can be immensely helpful in sparking that light bulb.

Just get control of it, and the monster of procrastination can be tamed to do your bidding.

 

 

Contributed by: James Ghimire, Writing Center intern