Structural procrastination

So, I have to read a lot of books this year to achieve my goal of becoming a writer. I need to learn, and abstain knowledge to better back up my clams and ideas with tangible evidence. Yet, I'm procrastinating from reading by writing this blog post. I know avoiding one productive thing for another is a conundrum, or is it a juxtaposition? No, that's not the right word… structural procrastination. That's the word.

Structural procrastination is deliberately choosing another productive activity over the higher-priority task that needs doing. This is a way of avoiding doing the task but still making yourself feel like you are being productive or accomplishing something. It's a wonderful way our brain tricks us into thinking we are amazing and so efficient. But I would argue that structural procrastination is a superpower that not many of us lean into.

When we have a massive list or a bunch of goals we want to accomplish, what is wrong with tackling the easy tasks first or the fun tasks first? In doing so, we are making our to-do list much smaller and freeing up mental space to do the harder tasks later. This is all good in theory but at the same time, it makes your journey an uphill battle, and we are not Sisyphus.

In theory, it makes sense to do the easy tasks first to get them out of the way. Think about paying off debts; paying off the smaller amounts owed creates a snowball effect that compounds your achievements to help pay off the larger debts more easily and achievable because we know we can do it through the success of paying off the smaller debts. Known as the debt snowball method [^1]. In truth, you end up paying more interest and losing more money doing this. The same goes for tasks and even pain management. The better thing to do is actually doing the hard things first.

Now, again, devil's advocate here, this only works if you are motivated and are neurotypical. Some of us just can't concentrate long enough, or we need some kind of reward or light at the end of the tunnel. Me writing this blog post is technically a waste of my energy levels. But I am being productive in making and producing content, structured procrastination. I'm just snowballing my debts, or shortening the tunnel so I can see that light a little quicker. All in all, if you're getting the work done, who cares how you achieve it? The most important words here are 'achieve it.' So go ahead and procrastinate structurally all you want because at the end of the day, we are still getting the work done right?

Footnotes

[^1:] Dave Ramsey - Debt snowball method. The "snowball method" involves paying off your smallest loan quickly, then using that freed-up money to tackle the next-smallest debt until all your debts are cleared.