Unpopular Opinion: Procrastinating Is Actually Good For You

If you are the average entrepreneur, the side hustler or the person who dreams of doing something else other than what you’re currently doing for a living right now, then this is for you!

You probably have a super long list of things you hope to accomplish to advance your goals.

You end up on newsletter lists, get pitched for endless webinars and courses.

You are bombarded by claims from news articles, social media feeds, friends, ads and more that they have the solution for your problem.

You purchase, download and collect them. You start, but barely finish.

Phew!

Life come at you fast!

You might just be addicted to the hustle and bustle of “the START of something BIG”.

For a lot of us, though, the culprit is procrastination.

Another is distraction. Life. School. Work. Projects. Home tasks. Children. Family obligations.

We got a full plate, most of us.

But procrastination and distractions are not always bad for progress.

It is during the times when we procrastinate that we may realize that, “hey…we don’t really have time to dedicate to this after all.”

In which case, procrastination becomes a tool for clarity.

Or…the problem could be overwhelm.

This graphic from Austin Kleon’s NYT Bestselling book “Steal Like an Artist” encapsulates well the Life of a Project and Why we don’t advance.

When we are overwhelmed by the task, we just put it off to avoid the stress and anxiety.

I have a suggestion.

Rather than think of the entire task, the final task, train your brain to think about one action item or one tiny task towards the big goal.