Self Improvement and Productive Procrastination

From all the things that I’ve wanted to improve about myself over the years, I’ve learned that the things I’ve continued to do consistently have a few things in common with each other. Regardless of what your new habit is, you have to want it for the right reasons. Otherwise, you’ll flake on it super-fast. For me, all those reasons have come from a similar place.

You have to really want it for yourself. Not in a selfish way, though there is selfish sacrifice at times. I mean you have to want to be a better version of yourself. You have to believe the things you’re doing will get you there. It requires you to step outside of the present moment and think about your future self. It doesn’t have to be far, it could be tomorrow, or next week, or in a few months. You just have to think of the type of person you truly want to be. With that, you’ll be able to feel if you’re doing the right thing or the wrong thing in the present moment.

For me, it’s kind of a vague feeling. Sometimes I’m doing something and it’s very obvious that I’m procrastinating. Things like going to grab a snack every 10 minutes, checking social media or doodling. Those three things are all huge red flags for me personally, yours might be different. But sometimes, you get in a cycle of productive procrastination. Yes, productive procrastination, it’s a real thing.

If you’re not familiar the concept, I’m sure you know exactly what it is by just hearing the name. Productive procrastination is when you do things that need to be done, but you use them as an excuse to avoid doing what you know you need to do. Typically, these things are small chores that are easy to do but are somewhat time consuming. Things like washing the dishes, doing laundry, cleaning up; even exercise can fall into this category. It’s easy to use these things as an excuse because you’re not doing your work, but you’re still doing something that has to be done. It’s dangerous because you still get that same rewarding feeling that you would be getting from doing your actual work. The problem is your work still isn’t done.

Now that I think of it, I might be using this blog for that exact reason. So at the very least, I hope you find it helpful. That would make it worth it for me.