Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
The Power of Procrastination
“Procrastinate?” I hear you say. “But you are always telling us to do stuff.” I know, I know, but hear me out: There is power in procrastination, if you know how to do it, and if you are choosing it, not allowing it to be your default setting.
We all know people who claim to be “the worst procrastinators” and yet they do high-quality work and always get it in on time (though never early). We also all know people, and you could be one of them, who claim to work best under pressure, and they create “pressure” by procrastinating.
Here is a problem I have: If I start something too early, Christmas shopping or planning a party, for example, I have a tendency to over complicate and overdo. Just as I warn people not to buy more storage bins because they will just create more stuff, when I have more time I don’t experience less stress, I just keep adding to my to-do list. While being aware of this has helped to mitigate it, sometimes a certain amount of procrastination can create improved focus. Maybe I’m like the Seabiscuit of homemaking: I don’t really rise to my full potential until I see the shadow of Thanksgiving rising up ahead of me.
This relationship to time was part of the discussion on a recent radio show I heard in which Krista Tippet hosted artist Ann Hamilton. Tippet said that “we perceive time as kind of a bully.” That is so true. We have a totally unhealthy, enmeshed relationship with time. Then Hamilton explained that she often procrastinates, but consciously, to give her art the “space to be what it is going to be.” I love that idea, that things need time to flower, to evolve. If we squeeze them out in a rush, we are just machines.
I am going to keep that in mind this holiday season. I don’t want to feel “bullied” by time. I want the gifts I give and the meals I cook to be thoughtful and personal.
This doesn’t mean I’m going to wait until December 20th to start shopping. To the contrary, I’m going to make a list (I’ve already started) and ponder it. But I didn’t rush out on Black Friday and I didn’t go online early on Cyber Monday. I am going to hold myself back and try and come up with fewer, but better, gifts. I’m going to cook a simple but slow-cooked dinner, because there are only a few days a year that I can be home all day to cook something that takes all day. And it is pretty amazing what happens to lamb shanks when you give them time.