By: Ivan Habib

Website Manager

We all know the feeling of delaying an essay to the very last minute. It is 8:00 AM and the essay is due at 4:00 PM. Your “rough draft” barely constitutes an outline, yet the due date has loomed over you for weeks. Despite such strain, the student always prevails: limited time breeds greater productivity — the hallmark of a procrastinator. Too often does society unfairly villainize procrastination without consideration of its multitude of benefits.

Cliché quotes like Charles Dickens’s statement, “Procrastination is the thief of all time,” commonly justify the demonization of procrastination. However, they fail to consider that the lack of time from procrastination forces one to increase efficiency. One of the most prominent examples of this efficiency comes from the British Navy from 1914 to 1928. Despite ships and staff in the navy decreasing by over sixty-five percent and thirty percent respectively, administrative staff increased by over seventy-eight percent. Researchers classify this effect as Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands to fill the time available.” With more staff and less work, basic tasks simply expanded to fill the time. Conversely, starting tasks with half of the initially provided time leads to significantly increased efficiency. This efficiency stems from a variety of sources: sharper and more defined priorities based on due date, forced focus, and natural preference towards actions with the highest impact.

Of course, as with any other habit, procrastination is only truly effective in moderation. There is a fine line between intentional and productive procrastination and merely avoiding the task. Scientists Roberte Yerke and John Dodson found that mice work most efficiently when motivated by mild electric stimulation; small shocks were insufficient stimulus, whereas large shocks lead to mice focusing too much on avoiding pain rather than completing the assigned task. Procrastination works in a near-identical manner with stress functioning as a surrogate for electric-shocks. Excessive procrastination leads one to focus on avoiding stress, initiating a destructive cycle of neglection; however, typical on-time task completions lack the necessary incentive to achieve peak performance. 

Ultimately, procrastination is a delicate art not for the faint of heart. Embracing it too completely without consideration of consequences can quickly snowball into an overwhelming and interminable workload. It is a skill to know your own limits and how far you can push yourself before you break. Just as mainstream media encourages people to challenge themselves, truly embracing the procrastination mindset encourages people to test their limits and achieve maximum productivity, discovering what they are capable of. We need to stop villainizing procrastination and fairly acknowledge the benefits it can bring while also admitting that like all other habits, it demands moderation to be effective. 

(Sources: National Institute of Health, The Economist)