RE: Do the right thing

For very perfectionist people -and I am one of them- procrastinating can even be productive. By not starting a job until the last minute, they can't devote all the time in the world to getting the perfect result. They have to settle for a “good enough” result. And before starting, they have been able to do many other things that they probably would not have done if they had started with the most important task.

Natural procrastinators are actually great workers. They are capable of doing a great deal of work, as long as it is not the work they are supposed to be doing at the moment.

However, reading some literature on the subject I have noticed that this concept is always approached from a negative perspective; as if it were the “cancer” of the productive or something like that, when, in truth, it seems more like a necessary phase in the process of achieving a goal. A phase capable of giving us back the humanity that we sometimes force ourselves to lose in favour of our goals and that reminds us, on the other hand, that we are not just machines running at 100%.

Procrastinating means admitting that you can't do it now, but that you will be able to, it means meditating on an idea that may not have been fully matured and above all it allows us to know if our objective is worthwhile or not, as sometimes we embark on a project that after three or four days no longer motivates us. On the other hand, procrastinating allows us to set priorities and create a “podium” with our goals: “if I am stopping doing this to do this, another one means that this is more important to me”. So from the first day I read the term, the following motto popped into my mind: “Zonder, procrastinating, is not quitting, it's replacing”.

I used to feel horribly guilty when I left relevant things for later. Now I have gradually found the balance, and I am doing more and more fundamental tasks in between the less urgent ones. **Resting feels better when it's time to rest, and work is definitely more productive every day.

All this is learned with age, with experiences and experiences. When we were young, we felt like superheroes, we could do anything. Time leaves its lessons in us.