The Case for Procrastination

For several years now, I have been working on an essay titled “The Case for Procrastination.” It takes issue with our over planned and goal oriented society. It examines the deleterious effects of the crazy-busy lives of people – especially those who are working at a career and raising families – who never have time to “Stop and smell the roses”.

I have a few paragraphs completed, but I doubt that I’ll get to it in the foreseeable future. Lots of other stuff to do that seems more interesting right now.

The unfinished essay examines procrastination as a personal style rather than a chronic illness that some people seem to inherit.  (I have no scientific evidence that procrastination is inherited. I just believe it to be so after years of observing my siblings and myself. We are inveterate and practiced procrastinators.)

Successful procrastinators tend to work exceedingly well under the pressure of an imminent deadline.
They may put things off until the last minute but they tend to work quite efficiently during that last minute.  This is why I can start working on my tax returns on April 14 and finish under the deadline.  I'm sure there are other positive things to say about procrastinators, and when I think of them I will finish the essay, I promise....

There are certain luxuries appertaining to being a retired, life-long procrastinator. One can choose to adopt an un-hurried approach to goals. (Some people who know me may be saying to themselves Hey Mr. No-sense-of-urgency, what’s new?   What’s new is that now I don’t hurry on my own time. I don’t feel the same pressure as I would if I had to report my activities to a boss. )
 
I believe that the ability to remain calm in the face of zipping time is actually a sign of wisdom. Who needs to rush around getting-things-done when there will always be more things to be done? Young people do not have the acquired wisdom to recognize this fact of life. They imagine that if they rush and get stuff done, they will have earned the chill-time to take an afternoon off to play golf or sit on the deck with a trashy novel.

But seldom do working people actually realize those imagined rewards because work will not let up on you. Getting things done begets more things, The boss – seeing that you have a capacity for getting lots of things done, sends more things to your inbox. In a business there is no respite. Sure there are rewards. You get more pay, and you inevitably get promoted to a position of increased responsibility – which results in even more demands on your available time.  If you do get to the golf course or weekend getaway, you must be Blackberried-up and always "on-call."

There is always a price tag on anything you get in an organization: usually, the price of perks and rewards is the increasing trade-off of your personal time. Successful people recognize this trade-off as a Faustian deal with the devil, and they assure themselves that they will repair the damaged relationships and health if they can survive long enough to get that well-earned retirement. Sadly for them, this strategy does not work. The halls of retirement are filled with once successful executives who are perplexed to find themselves estranged from the home and family they always believed they were working to support.

Looking back, I am not sorry that I took the less stressful road - not that I had a choice, mind you.  When I was born, three weeks past the forecasted due date, weighing-in at nearly 11 pounds, the doctor gravely pointed-out to my mother,  "He was born without a sense of urgency."