Who doesn't know procrastination? We prefer to put off work that is not much fun and that we are thus reluctant to tackle, and we do it only at the last minute. Science, of course, is also familiar with this coping strategy, has elevated it to the status of a research subject - and has published a discovery that will make all "procrastinators" among us happy: A study at the University of Pennsylvania has found that putting off tasks does have its good sides and that procrastination is closely related to creativity.
The researchers found that staff in companies are more creative when they don't tackle tasks immediately, but put them on the back burner for the time being. The reason: By putting it off, we don't immediately pursue the first idea, but we still think about the task subconsciously, of course. And when we finally do get our act together, we ideally already have the first approaches to a solution ready. The problem with "getting our act together" still remains though. First of all, it shouldn't happen too late. Research has also found out that creativity drops drastically if we wait too long with the task. Secondly, we need motivation to do it.
Science has solutions for this, too: They range from the detailed scenario of spectacular failure to "pre-commitment", which involves setting your own deadline for the start of the task and rewarding yourself if you meet it (or, alternatively, threatening yourself with a self-imposed punishment if you don't), to the "Pomodoro Technique". This is a structured time management technique for dividing tasks into easy 20-minute bites, always interrupted by five-minute breaks. Another motivator might be to look at successful procrastinators. History is full of them. Steve Jobs is one of them, Bill Clinton or Thomas Mann and Woody Allen. As is Aaron Sorkin, author of scripts for movies and series like "The West Wing," who summed up the benefits of "procrastination": "They call it 'procrastination'. I call it 'thinking about it'."
Getting out of the thinking and into the doing in time is key!
