WHAT IS STRUCTURED PROCRASTINATION?

 

John Perry is an award -winning American writer and academician. He is well known for his philosophical writing. He is also the author of over 100  articles and many books. Let's read few points from his work : STRUCTURED PROCRASTINATION.

The extract "structured procrastination" (Written as an essay in 1995), from the book, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK NOW is written in a light- hearted and humorous vein. It is intended to make procrastinators feel better about themselves. The essay begins with the author stating that working on the essay ""structured Procrastination", was his way of not doing something more important and urgent. This strategy, according to the author, is one way of motivating procrastinators to do timely, difficult tasks as long as they are a way of not doing something more important.

He refers to this as ''structured procrastination'' and observes that it is the best way  to become productive in spite of procrastinating. Most often it can be observed that procrastinators distract themselves by indulging in insignificant activities or "Marginally useful things" such as gardening or sharpening pencils.

Instead if one puts down all the tasks to be done- the most daunting like "learn French" or "renovate Kitchen" first and easier ones like clean the room or write an assignment last -one feels more inclined to do the less challenging and time -consuming tasks. By this way, a lot of pending work can be done quickly and easily.

The author puts forth the idea that procrastination is not about "doing absolutely nothing", but it is all about doing something less important  or useful or planning in order to do the work perfectly. This task structure, the author maintains, can help one accomplish an enormous number of things and in fact acquire a reputation of getting a lot done. He quotes from his own personal experience on how he earned the reputation of being "a rare prof" on the campus who spent time with undergrads and got to know them. This was possible because , faced with difficult task of grading papers and preparing for lectures, he opted to play ping pong with the residents.

"The Art of procrastination" proposes an ingenious programme for getting things done by putting them off. Structured procrastinating or doing one thing as a way of not doing something else is sometimes extremely effective.

(I'M taking my blog to next level with Blog Chatter's #My Friend Alexa2021, Please use hyper link: https://www.theblogchatter.com/)

(This blog post is a part of blog chatter's #MY friend Alexa2021, #Anusowmyanwrites)