3:34 am.
The printer is humming its printer hum.
I’m exhausted.
Can’t wait to slide between my soft sheets and warm duvet. Close my eyes and sleep.
One page, two pages, four pages, nine pages, ah… the final and tenth page is ready.
I scribble a quick message on a post-it for my mother – aka my editor:
“Mom, here’s my essay. Thank you for reading it over!”
I’ve done this many times before.
This essay is due the same day I’ll finish it.
When I get up after 4 hours of sleep, my mother has thoughtfully outlined her questions and thoughts in the margins.
“Not sure what you mean here.”
“Love this. I never saw it this way.”
“Run-on sentence.”
“This is redundant.”
I go over each note she’s made and revise and rewrite as needed.
Print out the final product.
Catch my bus to campus an hour and a half away.
Slide the essay through the slot in the professor’s office door.
When I get my graded paper back, it’s got a glorious red “A” on it.
Writing most of my essays the night before they were due generally ended pretty well for me.
To this day, the lesson I take from this is:
Procrastination is not necessarily a bad thing.
What if solving for procrastination is actually trying to solve the wrong problem?
What if instead, the problem is the judgment and thoughts you have about putting something off until later?
We don’t question the assumption that procrastination is a bad thing.
But why is that?
I did a bit of digging and wasn’t surprised to find that procrastination’s bad rap has religious moralistic roots. Something to do with sinners putting off repenting or some such.
And this moralistic undertone was extended to our achievement and productivity-focused capitalist society.
So, the crappy thoughts we have about procrastination are borrowed and not indisputable.
Procrastination has a range.
There are many things to consider when it comes to putting things off.
If you perpetually put off doing things that matter to you and you end up doing nothing, that’s problematic.
But if you still get things done, it may not be an issue.
As an entrepreneur, you will always be putting something off.
There are many things you want to do – too many things – that can’t all be done at the same time, or even over months, or years.
What you choose to do can turn out pretty great when you hold off on getting started until you feel some time pressure.
And that’s the thing. We have so much choice.
The ability to do a whole slew of different things.
All our actions are not dictated by someone else.
Because of this freedom, you will always be putting something off.
And in this way, procrastination is a privilege.
Instead of feeling guilty about not doing something, you can remind yourself that this is a choice. You’re intentionally choosing one thing over another in this moment.
You don’t need to admonish yourself.
After all, procrastination can work really well if you let it.