Why Should You Develop a “Procrastination Habit”?
By: Ahmad Aloun
Tags: Productivity, Habits, Time Management, Life Hacking, Procrastination

It seems odd to say that at first. But, developing a procrastinating habit is better than being captive in a procrastinating bubble. Let me explain.

The more you try to limit your urges to procrastinate, the more productive you become — this is obvious. Well, you can limit your procrastination, but don’t try to eliminate it. We all are human beings. The more we put limits on ourselves, the more we feel locked down. By developing a habit of doing whatever you want to do and limiting it with time constrain, you will have more time doing what you enjoy and more guilt-free to achieve your work.

There are certain rules you should follow to develop your own procrastinating habit:

#1 Time it

We all agree that procrastination and bad and a waste of time — at least, it is what productivity gurus believe to my knowledge. But, no, procrastination can be a productivity hack that, if applied correctly, can help to increase your productivity and work. The first step is important, and it is the building block for the next 4 points.

Time is the key here; you have to set a time for your procrastination. Don’t ever leave it open otherwise; you will look down on your time and see that you wasted 2 hours browsing random Instagram posts, looking at a cat rapping, for instance. What I think will make your day go wrong after the wake-up of your — un-planned for — procrastinating session is the guilt that will get to you — regardless of it was a time spent scrolling through your Twitter timeline or looking at a random educational video on Youtube.

Set a time where you believe that you are less productive during that time. For me, it's the afternoon time — usually between 2:00 and 5:00 pm — and choose one thing that you want to do for the next hour — Don’t overdo it; point #2 will explain why.

#2 Limit it

After setting the time for your “time-wasting activity,” set a time limit. You should apply a time block for this activity; otherwise, it will get out of hand. In the previous point, I urged you not to overdo it. The reason behind this is that you don’t want to turn this into an unbreakable habit. The more time you spend doing it, the more you will get attached to at — that you are setting a time block especially for the activity.

Our brains work backward when we want to waste time. So we tend to say this “it's 7:00 am; I’ll just take 10 minutes to break before writing.” Wrong! Without limiting your “break” you can not guaranty that you will not get drowned in your “break,” and your 10 minutes is now 50 minutes.

Use a timer on your phone, or maybe use an activity/habit tracker — to make it fancy. You can use Forest, which is an app I wrote about in my post: Productivity tools every writer should try

#3 Enjoy it

If you are forcing yourself to get a break, then forget about it. If you are a productivity god and don’t believe in taking time out of your 24 hours day to do what you — as a human being — enjoy doing, then don’t. This is a tactic for those who want to enjoy the small things they eliminated from their lives to have time to work. Believe it or not, many highly productive people still have time to practice their Rubik’s cube, play the piano, and go golfing or fishing. Time is an asset, and wise people manage it to enjoy their lives fully. Working all day and trying to be productive all day won’t do you good. Having mini-breaks now and then is healthy not only for your productivity but also for your physiological and mental wellbeing.

#4 Stop it

After the time’s up, please stop it. I don’t care if you are in the middle of a handstand world record. Please stop it. The more you are disciplined to your time and respect your decision to make time for the little things, the more you are enforcing your time management skills and, therefore, increasing your productivity.

#5 Measure it (optional)

This is an optional part, but it is useful to measure your habit. Use a simple habit tracking app to add the habit times and write down how you feel, and this is worth your time or not. You can also use journaling and write about it to review at the end of the week. The tracking and measuring part is useful to get a hint on what you are getting out of your 1 hour per day extra habit — in other words, procrastination.