The Power of Structured Procrastination.

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Structured procrastination.

I stumbled upon this term, coined by John Perry, and immediately fell in love.

Not only did I finally have a name for how I lived amazingly enough it included the s-word.

A word I’d never dreamed would be applied to the way I conduct my life.

Structured procrastination.

At first, applying the words to the way I approach my To Do list, the seven syllables seemed an oxymoron.

How can one possess structure (which typically ensures success) and procrastinate (which intimates nothing is ever completed)?

Now that I’d been given words to capture it, however,one glance at my daily list, provided full explanation how:

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Allow me to back up.

I create a work To-Do list each morning (my general life list is far longer).

The list includes my most important tasks and has become something I do instinctively each day.

After researching Perry’s approach to procrastination, I discovered he recommends what I’d done all along:

Create a daily To-Do list.

Place an item at the top which sounds important (but really may not be) and which appears to have a deadline (but really doesn’t).

My list is structured precisely like that.

  • I start each day’s To Do’s with a bucket list item (something important but only to me).
  • I begin each days To Do’s with an item which feels deadline’y (yet in reality only needs to be done before my demise).

Not only does this list structuring (unlike Perry I’d also say it applies to life-structuring) work—it’s made me more successful.

Here’s why:

3 Ways Structured Procrastination Works For Me:

1. No one knows (and you’re not telling, right?). People, clients, bosses think I kick ass and take names. I get a lot completed in a day, BUT rarely finish my ever-present, always looming first list item. No one else “on my list” knows this fact. 99.9% of the time my #1 item has nothing to do with them.

2. I do finish a lot. I can do more in a day filled with procrastination than many can do in…a longer period of time. I nail deadlines. I finish projects early. I’m productive with regards to many things each day—as long as we’re not focused on my ever-present first list item.

3. It sparks me to say YES! I am your go-to woman when it comes to last minute tasks and clients realize this. If a project requires quick turnaround they know to reach out to me. They aren’t aware it’s because I harness the power of structured procrastination, but as long as they aren’t my list item #1 my work is completed in a swift and thorough fashion.

It’s no understatement to say structured procrastination is how I’ve found success working for myself and from home.

For me work-day procrastination never means doing nothing.

It means I’m choosing to move doooown my task list and tackle other items when it feels as though #1 is really what I “should” be doing.

Structured procrastination motivates me to do things I’d not be inspired to start otherwise if I there weren’t the big looming scary to me #1 at the top of my list.

A #1 which I’m actively avoiding.

A #1 which has tricked my brain (for real. I didn’t realize any of this till discovering the phrase.) into not procrastinating at all.

fitness mission statements

this was written in the name of avoiding my #1

Interesting concept and approach huh?

And yet one I cannot spend too much time pondering lest I disturb the precarious (and serendipitous) structured procrastination balance works so well for me.

And you?

  • Have you heard of structured procrastination?
  • Is this something you’ve also unknowingly used to motivate yourself?

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Comments

  1. I’ve been dong this all along and had no idea I was doing it. Huh. Yay me! I make a daily to do list and usually make #1 the biggie but it’s rarely the one that is the biggest need to do ASAP. It works as I plow through the list and then sometimes I’ll go back and start on the biggie.

  2. I have to second what Angela said!! I totally do this but would never think of myself as a “procrastinator!” I mean, I get shiz DONE…but not that first one…never that first one 🙂 At least I’m in really good company!

  3. Interesting. i’ve definitely done this before. For me, it is more of a result of putting down the big ticket item that is on my mind, then the other things that I feel that I can achieve that day. And doing that without planning to. So yes, I suppose that I do this!

  4. I’ve never specifically ordered my list that way, but I definitely have 1 or 2 items on my list that need to be completed “someday”. I also have a few that will just happen in the course of the day naturally. Somehow, within those two extremes are the things I actually pull off.

    For me though, it’s the mere act of listing that gets me to get stuff done. If I don’t put it on paper, I have a hard time caring. ;o)

    • I swear about a decade ago it was CARING and now it has become if I dont write it down (these days the write it down has become VOICE DICTATE ON MY PHONE) I fear I will forget in the next 20 seconds.

  5. I’m not a list maker, but for work I use my physical files as my to-do list. When there’s a big project I don’t want to tackle I leave it front and center to taunt me for a while as I mull over strategy in the back of my mind until I’m ready to knock it out.

    • OH and I never thought of that or put it together when you post the (terrifying) photos of your TO DO stack. Which now all has me wondering what YOUR looming #1 without a timeline is? A certain race? A specific something we/I dont even know about?

  7. “Structured procrastination motivates me to do things I’d not be inspired to start otherwise if I there weren’t the big looming scary to me #1 at the top of my list.”

    Oh my gosh! You just described my work life! I’m so happy to know I’ve been doing the right thing all along.

    • and you quoting me sparks me to realize even MORE how I use this in my life life as well. THE LOOMING LIFE #1 terrifies me. I will go and arrange a pack walk for the dog instead. Procrastination which is STRUCTURED for the win!!

  9. Mind. Blown. I’ve done this so many times, but never deliberately. I just know that when I have a huge, complicated scary project looming, that’s when all the daily drek I normally put off tends to get done. I never *thought* of using this to my advantage!

    I’m so excited by the possibilities this presents! You may have just revolutionized my work-life…

    • It really was such an OHHHHH when I realized I had a method to my madness and there was someone else who did what I did and NAMED IT.

  10. I love this post. It’s inspirational and so confusing it hurts my brain! LOL A To Do List? Those things are merely suggestions in my world. I am a full on full out full bore procrastinator! (Love this post)s

  11. I am very different in this way. Usually #1-3 on my To-Do List are things that can be done very easily {“check events calendar for week,” “respond to xyz e-mail,” etc}. Seeing that I have crossed things off inspires me to get the rest of the list done.

  14. Never heard this term before. I have been using an A, B, C rating on my daily and weekly to do lists for many many years. Guess it is a similar thing… Cs tend to be things I am not rating very highly RIGHT NOW but if they are important they eventually become As or they get removed from the list.

  15. Hi Carla! It’s good you found what works for you. I write a daily list too, but I’m pretty on point with getting them done. When I start to procrastinate it typically means I don’t want to do that project. If possible, I find a way to remove myself from it permanently.

  17. Love this! It’s a fancy, scientific word for pacing yourself, right? You can’t check off everything on your to-do list in one day because then you won’t have anything to do tomorrow…

  18. Okay so I’m not a list person, but I understand how this might work . It’s sounds a lot like a book I read some years ago called – Do It Tomorrow by Mark Forster.
    PS: I must ask you if that stool is comfortable. I keep going back to your picture and wondering about it!

  19. I am crazy! When I was younger, I made to do lists like no tomorrow. Now that I forget everything, I don’t. DOH!

    I thought you might have written about this way back when. It sounds familiar in that way, not that I do it! 🙂

  20. I didn’t know my method had a name until read this posting! It seems I’ve been a structured procrastinator for a long time. I work from a home office so I need to be self-disciplined and meet deadlines. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t go AWOL in the middle of the day and watch an episode of Steve Harvey or catch up on Facebook. It just means that as long as I hit my “marks” – I allow myself room to go beneath the radar.

  21. ….and your brilliance continues. Love the way you’ve framed MY workflow so eloquently.

  23. Oh wow, I have to agree I do this too! It’s funny how we don’t know we are doing something until we are told we are. I love it! I think we get the most stuff done this way. Thanks for identifying what so many of us are doing! Love that term too!

  24. Re-run….

    I make a reward bargain with myself….at the end of my report writing, data entry, or whatever it is I hate to do. When I am done I get to DO something for me!

    The more you do…well, the more you do!

  25. It’s called motivational response…we all do it. Behavior is controlled and shaped by our reward system.
    The outcome (reward) is different for everyone tho.

  27. THIS is what I never had a name for.
    I’m the queen of making lists but accomplishing only half of what’s on them.
    I procrastinate, too, but not to the point of slacking off and getting nothing done. Like you, it’s a priority thing, and I also do well under pressure (at least I used to when I actually had deadlines).

  28. Yep! If I have a to do list with an intimidating item or two, and a bunch of things that are no problem, I’ll go gangbusters on the mundane stuff avoiding the big stuff. I’m kind of doing this with all my #projectspring to dos. 🙂

  29. Yes, i’ve heard of it, and in my work, i have appointments so it doesn’t really apply. It’s a fabulous idea when applied to housework, though!

  30. Hi Carla,

    I have never heard the term before but the meaning of it, I am pretty aware of!When I complete a task, I always do something for me as a reward. From a bubble bath to a 15 min walk. Anything to keep me refreshed so as to go back to work. Great article!

    Zaria

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