Procrastination can often come off as a bad word when there is work that needs to be done. Instead of being thought of as lazy and unproductive, many of us organize our lives for increasing productivity through multitasking. Yet, some of us concentrate too much on multitasking work and home to the point that we’re actually working against ourselves and losing efficiency. With that said, let me explain why procrastination may help productivity more than previously thought.
Forcing yourself into a rigid schedule by juggling many tasks at once often can lead to less than perfect results. After all, a tight schedule is demanding with how much time we allow each task. As a result, each completed task may not be a reflection of our best work since we are rushed. This is an important reason why procrastination may help productivity.
In order to get more from multitasking efforts, you might want to change the order of some of the tasks on your schedule before just plowing through. For instance, start your day taking care of the simplest tasks first. Doing so, frees up more of your schedule and allows more room for concentrating on harder projects that may require more serious thought or energy to complete. What I’m saying is if you roughly map out your day’s activities beginning with solving the easy chores at the top of your list, speeding up those tasks and procrastinating a bit gives you more ambition because of what you already accomplished.
When under last minute pressure, it is always a good idea to go over the work when procrastinating to see if anything was missed or done incorrectly.
All our time is valuable. Still, there are some people that try to use every minute multitasking. The problem with this is that those people can lose their focus and not remember details as quickly than others. If you want to stick with this route of doing several things at the same time, try to eliminate as many needless distractions while you work as you can. For example, if you’re trying to write an important email or document, playing music or hearing a television in the background does not help. You want to be able to concentrate fully on what you are doing and not partially. Email alerts appearing in your inbox are also distracting ones to stop when you’re set on composing an email, if you intend to finish the task sooner and better.
How many of us are under the impression that if something doesn’t come to us, then staring at it for how long it takes is necessary until we figure it out? The only thing wrong with that theory is nothing productive ever gets accomplished when you’re frustrated. Procrastination can be your salvation just by walking away for a short break. Take a walk, have a cup of coffee or watch a bit of television can help take your mind off of the problem. By giving your brain a breather from the task at hand often can give you new clarity to the solution.
Usually, I get the most inspired when I am having trouble thinking when I’m about to sleep. What I do is to jot down my thoughts in a small notebook on my night stand so I won’t forget the answer to my confusion in the morning.
My advice is to remember that we are people and not machines. We work hard and need breaks in between tasks for us to best function. Procrastination through a small break we allow ourselves in the pursuit of fun can pay off with fresher ideas once we return to our tasks. Procrastination in this way gives you something to look forward to that will help you feel better overall instead of exhausted and burned out struggling like a machine at those tasks all day.
Hopefully, what I shared will give you more respect for the advantages of why procrastination may help productivity.
This is so true in so many ways. Since I retired I have learned to walk away and do something else or maybe take a little nap, It is surprising what a different outlook you come back with