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We all know about productivity and we all want to be more and more productive in our life. And for being productive, we shall be focused, consistent and hard working too. There are so may factors which hamper our productivity and Procrastination is one of them. But have you ever thought that Procrastination is a tool for being effective and creating something valuable. Yes this may sound wired but Procrastination can do wonders if you use it in a very special way. History holds some great examples where the creators were helped by their Procrastination to create something phenomenal. We all consider procrastination as a negative thing and at some parts of our life we procrastinate something or the other. We are well informed by the fact that this procrastinating may lead to loss or mess and stress or panic still we go for procrastination. But don't worry ! Because not all the procrastination are bad, some procrastination can grant you with amazing results which you never thought.

Here are the five benefits of procrastination:

  1. Efficacy
  2. Creativity
  3. Energy Booster
  4. Prioritisation
  5. Enjoyment


​EFFICACY: 

The world is changing rapidly and so do our office assignments too. If you jump immediately on the task and start getting done is good but most of the time when we are half way done to the assign work we are told that it's not that important to be done or something more important comes to you and you are told to do that thing and leave the former. By procrastination you tend to do the really important work and it makes you more productive.

CREATIVITY:

Procrastination increases creativity. Yes when you procrastinate your subconscious mind still tends to work on that incomplete work and this helps find more creative results and outcomes. When your subconscious mind works on a incomplete task by time it brings remarkable and creative results.

This can be understood by an example of Martin Luther King. In year 1963, he had to deliver his life's most important speech and till 3 am before the speech day he wrote and wrote his speech. He wrote and destroyed and again he wrote and destroyed his speech. In this process, his subconscious mind actually worked and a Great Speech was prepared there in the subconscious mind and not on the paper. While he was sitting among the audience, he was still writing his speech and making improvements here and there. When he delivered his speech, he haven't followed his writing he delivered it through his heart through the stuff his subconscious mind was filled and it was a mind blowing speech remembered till date ! By procrastination he was not settled with the final draft of the speech and this helped his inner world get programmed for a more real and effective speech.

ENERGY BOOSTER:

By procrastination we are left with little time to get things done and we are hit by urgency and when there is an urgency, we focus all our energy at one point so that the task gets completed. This way procrastination tends to increase energy and focus it on one thing.

PRIORITISATION:

Prioritisation is key for effective time management. Actually we don't manage time but we manage our priorities. People who don't know how to manage priorities are those who are always short of time and tense. By procrastination,  people are left with less time and so they only do the necessary work and leave the unimportant work and automatically they become their time manager.

ENJOY:

People wear their work exhaustion as a badge of honour ! This is a misconception. Hard Work is important but investing no time for yourself and for your near and dear ones is a complete no no.

While procrastinating you get some time for yourself and for your hobbies which tend you to grow in a holistic way.

There is a famous saying of 3 Bs said by ​Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein that ,“All great ideas come in the bus, bed, and bath.”​

The eureka moment by the Greek mathematician Archimedes is still remembered as a " The moment " . It was not all of a sudden revelation about the Archimedes Principle . Actually his subconscious mind was working on this for a long time and the core result of his experiment was reflected at a time when he was having a leisure moment . Yes the Archimedes Principle was invented when Archimedes was entering his bathtub to take a hot bath.

The discovery of benzene structure too is very interesting and had the element of procrastination in it. The German chemist August Kekulé saw a snake eating its own tail in his dream and that hinted him about his ongoing research of benzene structure. The structure of benzene has a loop of six carbon atoms and is similar to the snake eating its own tail in the dream of chemist August Kekulé.

Air conditioner story too holds the procrastination element in it. When a 25 year old engineer William Carrier was exhausted with his conscious efforts for cooling the Printing Company office. He later decided to take a break and go on vaccination. For his vaccination, he was waiting at Pittsburg Railway station to catch a train on a foggy day in 1902. He was gazing at the fog mindlessly and suddenly his mind was blown away by a sparking idea. The idea was air conditioning, the combination of electricity and refrigeration ! ​His idea was to blow air through electricity through a fine mist generated through refrigeration, and that would act like a condenser drying out the humid air.

Carrier chose to procrastinate and this helped him to cultivate the incubation period and let the solutions come.

​Your subconscious mind which remains silent can bring magic if used smartly. When we tend to work hard on a problem our conscious brain is engaged in it while in the initial phase the subconscious is not programmed for the solutions for which you are working. But after all your conscious efforts the subconscious mind gets programmed too and then when you take a break there are huge chances of getting the solution through the help of the subconscious mind. The above examples of William Carrier, August Kekulé and Archimedes are about procrastination only. Actually they took a break and results came out when they were not even expecting and they were not at work, they were doing something else.

While physically they were not at work, their subconscious brains were making efforts which were not seen and that subconscious created the end result. The above stories of air conditioner and archimedes principle we get to know about the incubation period too which is carried away while the person is in a procrastination mode.

"Incubation time" is most important and it generally ends in producing the end result.

Now I will give a step by step process to get the end results through procrastination.

Identify

Identifying the problem is the first thing to get all the details about the problem.

Prepare

Preparation is the second step, it's the most taxing one. Try all your knowledge and resources and research to get the solution.

Instruction

Now deliberately prepare your subconscious mind and activate it so that it helps you achieve your goal. In this process, visualise and think how you will feel after you achieve the goal and think about how the end result will look like .

Incubate

Now after following the above process take a break or follow procrastination ! Go for vacation or indulge into your hobbies and leisure time.

Eureka Moment

During the incubation time, there will be a sudden revelation and a spark which will provide the base of the end result.

--Dr Priyanka Gupta.        

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