Productive procrastination

Here it is, the last day of winter break, and I’ve yet to get started on the major projects I’d promised myself I’d tackle over the eight days I’ve been off work: getting our Kiwanis club’s new website whipped into shape, learning all the in’s and out’s of Moodle, rearranging my workbench in the garage to accommodate the gi-normous set of screwdrivers I got for Christmas, making an action plan for revising my book, etc…

Yes, I am a world-class procrastinator.

It was heartening to read that there is such a thing as good procrastination. Author Paul Graham writes in “Good and Bad Procrastination”  (Heads up on this article from Virginia Postrel’s Dynamist blog)

The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
…
There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination.
…
That's the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They're type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.

What's "small stuff?" Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary.

So, how did I spend my time over the holidays instead of working on the “big projects?” Was the time spent obituary-worthy, as Elaine from Seinfeld might put it?

1. Cleaning, cooking and shopping for a weeklong visit from daughter and family. Driving my mom to and from Iowa.
   
2. Playing with the grandsons including an afternoon sledding and a day at the zoo. Reconnecting with my daughter, son-in-law, and son. Hanging out with the LWW.
   
3. Watching movies with the family (Shaun of the Dead, Pirates of the Caribbean, the new musical version of The Producers, The Cat Returns (anime), Disney’s Tarzan, and all the Wallace and Grommet short features).
4. Reading a mystery story of no redeeming value.
5. Nursing some horrible sensitivity in a cracked tooth. (Doesn’t pay to a mouth breather when the air is cold.)
6. Revising job descriptions.
7. Answering e-rate questions for the wonderful people at SLD.

The first three I hope will get me a mention in my obit for being a good father, grandfather and husband. Numbers 5, 6, and 7 will not. I’m not sure how to place number 4. Maybe it will keep my obituary from reading, “Unfortunately Doug went postal from stress when in his mid-50s and needed to be institutionalized.”

While work prioritization has long been a topic of interest of mine (How We Spend Our Days) and I'm a devotee of Covey's time management quadrants, I’ve rarely given much thought to how to best spend my leisure time. Maybe it is time to do that.

For those of you who didn’t get to your “big projects” over the break, you have my sympathies. But perhaps your obituary will be better for it.

Comments

[Graham Wegner]

Doug, I've never even seen snow - looks like fun. I'm meant to be thinking about painting before I return to work at the end of the month. Again in the evenings I am spending way too much time blogging and reading blogs. To contrast you, we had century temps last weekend so we took the boys to the beach on the last day of 2005! And then they splashed around in their new wading pool in the afternoon. Have a great year.