The Structured Procrastination Strategy

John Perry introduces a concept called Structured Procrastination. In the article, he shows it may not be a bad thing at all to procrastinate in certain situations. It is an interesting concept:

… Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done…

He goes on and talks about some examples – tasks that on the top of the todo list may not be too urgent or important at all. Procrastinator can still get worthwhile things done without lagging behind.

Structured Procrastination