How to procrastinate the RIGHT way
By: Tim Schröder
Tags: Self Improvement, Productivity, Improvement, Lessons Learned, Procrastination

Admit it! You love procrastinating. You love it, like I do. It’s so easy to procrastinate. It feels so good. Leaving something stressful or exhausting behind, just to get some instant gratification. I mean how couldn’t we love this?

Watching TV instead of doing the homework. Browsing Instagram instead of doing the laundry. Binging some Netflix series instead of working on a scientific paper for university.

Oh yes, we’re great procrastinators! And more often than not we catch ourselves doing something easy instead of doing what we actually should do. One more time we’ve procrastinated instead of getting done what we have to do.

We missed to do the homework because we watched TV. Our laundry is still dirty because we browsed Instagram. And we missed the deadline for the scientific paper because we loved this new Netflix series.

Waking up

Damn. Afterwards we feel terrible. No matter how awesome the feeling of instant gratification was. Afterwards we feel like losers, because we didn’t manage to get done what we should get done.

We feel bad. Unable to achieve anything we have to do. We criticize ourselves only because we fell for instant gratification one more time. We know our mistakes, but we feel bad because we can’t overcome them.

But what if I tell you that you can procrastinate while still getting something done? That you can avoid doing these mistakes although you’re procrastinating. That you can avoid doing something you should to get something done that you should do? This sounds too good to be true, right? Wrong!

How to procrastinate the RIGHT way

Almost incredible but there’s a RIGHT way to procrastinate! Yes, you read right. You can lean back and get something done, while you do nothing.

Okay not quite, but you can almost lean back. Let’s take a look at how you can procrastinate while you still achieve something you want.

While we’re avoiding doing something we should do, we’re doing something else we should do

That’s the principle behind procrastinating the RIGHT way. We all have a list of things we want to do in a day. And the longer this list is, the more overwhelmed we are.

But instead of doing literally nothing or simply browsing a social network, we use the time to do something else instead.

Let’s say your list looks like that

· Do the laundry

· Clean up

· Write a post

· Do some work on the bachelor thesis

Now, you don’t feel like working on the bachelor thesis. You feel tired and have no idea, how you can start to work on it right now.

It feels like a giant task, you can’t do right now. You’re about to start procrastinating. You’re about to start doing something else. Browsing Netflix and YouTube for the latest videos, checking out some pics on Instagram or doing nothing at all.

Wait! Start procrastinating the RIGHT way

Instead of typical procrastination you get something else on your list done! You avoid achieving nothing by doing something else you need to do! Let’s take a look at an example:

You don’t feel like writing on your bachelor thesis right now? You have no will to work on it? No idea where to start and what to write? But instead of doing nothing or simply browsing around several social networks you turn up the music and get your laundry done!

With doing your laundry you’re successfully procrastinating. You avoid doing some work on your bachelor thesis. But the time isn’t “wasted” because you do something else you need to do. Laundry.

There’s no way around doing your laundry. So, why shouldn’t you use your time to do it, while you’re avoiding working on your bachelor thesis?

What a great principle, isn’t it?

It isn’t this hard. Try it on your own and remind yourself that you still get something done, you definitely need to do! You’ll see, the more you get done, the more motivation you get. At some point you even get motivation to tick the last thing, writing on your bachelor thesis, off the list!

Why should we always waste our time doing something useless, when we can do something useful (especially for ourselves) instead?

I procrastinate the RIGHT way right now, too! First, I wanted to write a post about 3 tips to tackle your shyness but I didn’t feel like doing it. So, what I did instead is using my time effectively to tell you how to procrastinate the RIGHT way, while you avoid doing what you don’t want to do!