3 Ways to Productively Procrastinate
By Ravelle Worthington
It’s inevitable that we all procrastinate. Got a huge deadline for EOD — that means there’s definitely time for a YouTube cat video or two between now and 5:30 pm. Right?? While cutting procrastination cold turkey most likely won’t happen, there is a way to productively waste time.
According to Piers Steel, psychologist and author of The Procrastination Equation, our brains contain two different decision-making systems. The limbic system, linked mainly with our emotional lives, and the prefrontal cortex, which is our executive function that’s associated with planning, decision-making, and long-term thinking.
"Every time you decide to work, the payoff gets evaluated twice: once by the limbic system and a second time by the prefrontal cortex," says Steel. Translation, it’s a tug-of-war between impulse and rationality.
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Clearly the struggle is real when it comes to buckling down for a long stretch of time. The good news: you can make your breaks that much more productive. Here are 3 ways to effectively clear your mind and restore focus, so your 10-minute breather doesn’t lead you down a social media rabbit hole that turns into hours of Instagramming and Facebooking.
Get rid of the clutter. A messy workspace makes it hard to focus in the best of circumstances, let alone during those instances when you’d rather be doing anything else but the assignment in front of you.
Take a walk. Twenty minutes of physical activity can be very effective when it comes to your body’s executive function and cognitive performance.
Have a structured approach to procrastination. Stanford philosopher and author of The Art of Procrastination encourages “structured procrastination” or tackling tasks farther down your to-do list, which is a more effective way to avoid the bigger ticket projects. Hey, at least you’re still accomplishing something instead of not doing you know, nothing at all.
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photo: Deborah Jaffe
