Procrastination as a catalyst for creative output

We’ll start with anyone who hasn’t been distracted by Facebook or Instagram while trying to get work done. The art of procrastination — the practice of putting off important tasks in favor of more pleasurable pursuits — has come up in several conversations.

The debate over the benefits and drawbacks of social media has divided opinion. Is procrastination, in the end, a positive force in our daily lives? Research shows that procrastination can help you think more creatively. It’s here:

Procrastination is a catalyst for innovation.

Jihae Shin, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, presented this idea to Adam Grant, a professor there. The professional presented his advisor’s hypothesis and explained how she was able to prove it in a lecture on the surprising habits of original people.

Procrastination can lead to more original, creative, and innovative ideas, according to Grant’s research. To accomplish this, she asked students at the university to come up with a plan for a new business on campus.

As a result, the group spontaneously split into two distinct groups: one focused on completing the challenge immediately, while the other was playing video games and wasting time before they were finished. Those who put off coming up with a business idea were found to be the most forward-thinking, inventive, and creative in the experiment. Since they’ve been on board since the beginning, the first group’s projects were fairly traditional.

Even though the second group only finished the project minutes before the deadline, the solutions they offered were more straightforward than those offered by the other participants in the study. Even though procrastination can be a catalyst for creativity, it only works if the person is fully committed to the task at hand and, even while engaging in other activities, is also thinking about the problem that needs to be addressed.

Stress levels are reduced by procrastination.

In the short term, procrastination can reduce stress. Researchers Roy Baumeister and Dianne Tice found that people who procrastinate have better health than those who don’t. Their findings were published in the book Self-regulation, self-control. But in the long run, they become anxious and stressed about deliveries.

Procrastination speeds up the completion of tasks.

If we consider Parkinson’s Law, which states that work grows in proportion to the amount of time we devote to it, procrastinators are more productive. Procrastinators finish tasks faster than those who start immediately after receiving them because they don’t spend as much time mulling over the same idea as those who procrastinate.

Procrastination improves your decision-making abilities.

Frank Partnoy argues in his book Wait: the art and science of delay that delaying a decision until the very last second allows us to consider various options and solutions. As a result of this reasoning, procrastinators tend to be more confident in their decisions.

Procrastination is a villain for a reason, but why?

Ultimately, procrastination can hurt an individual’s health and well-being, resulting in increased stress levels and more serious health issues. In addition, procrastination can affect the quality of work by diverting the attention of those who are doing the work.

Procrastination has its productivity limits

If you insist on a problem, it can easily be understood that you are postponing it, but it could also be the method by which you can solve that problem.

It is very important to note that postponement can be an alternative when you want to dwell on a problem to solve it as best as possible, but we must always set deadlines. How long should we wait? A deadline extended too much can harm us in solving the problem we are facing.

Consequently, we must focus on the balance between postponing and solving.