About



We believe in meaningful procrastination. We are restless enthusiasts of procrastination as inspiration, as a life choice, as a rebellion act. Well-managed procrastination will allow you to make a better use of your time and energy, making every effort more efficient, while letting your mind wonder and get inspired to come up with more complex, experimental, disruptive and altogether brilliant ideas. What some people call that 'lateral thinking', we think is the logical consequence of a well-structured, meaningful and inspiring procrastination.

If, nonetheless, you are convinced that procrastination is bad -it has that bad fame, we'll give you that- you don't have to blindly believe us, but there are others interesting professionals in a variety of fields that have study time management, motivation, delay, and they agree with us. Well, we agree with them.

Pier Steels talks about 'Productive Procrastination' in this book "The Procrastination Equation". His best trick -says Steels, "is to play my projects off against each other, procrastinating on one by working on another.” You can read more in John Tierney's New York Times article.

"Dr. Steel says it’s based on sound principles of behavioral psychology: 'We are willing to pursue any vile task as long as it allows us to avoid something worse.' He gives theoretical credit to Sir Francis Bacon, the 17th-century philosopher, whose self-control strategy was to 'set affection against affection, and to master one by another; even as we use to hunt beast with beast.' " 

Another supporter of procrastination is Frank Partnoy, author of Wait: The Art and Science of Delay. Partnoy claims in his book that when faced with a decision, we should assess how long we have to make it, and then wait until the last possible moment to do so. Should we take his advice on how to “manage delay,” we will live happier lives. Read more about Partnoy, his book and a few interesting considerations about procrastination in general in the Smithsonian Mag.

More recently Fast Company published an article that affirms that it might be "that procrastinating can actually help us get more done--at least more of the important things". Beth Bell Cooper's piece is a very interesting compilation of theories, articles and studies that, contrary to the main belief, support procrastination as a creativity-enhancing escape from the chaos of the world. Not my words. Have a look at Beth's article here.

David d'Equainville, author of the book Demain, c'est bien aussi (Tomorrow is fine too), and creator of the International Procrastination Day (March 25th), sustains that procrastination far from being a problem is actually a solution and even praise procrastination as a mini-rebellion act against a society that imposes its hectic rhythm upon us. "To procrastinate is to refuse to do what the context -- be it from bosses, administrative obligations or a culture of results -- asks us to do. We must absolutely take the time to think about the tasks we accept to execute, or we will lose all control over our lives." When we procrastinate we have the chance of touching the pause button and reflect, something that we most definitely need nowadays. Read about him in Le Monde & 20 Minutes.

I hope you understand now why this project is alive. The Procrastinator (some) Times is a place to come when you want meaningful procrastination. Currently there is too much information circulating around, it's hard to read/scan/listen/play it all. Not hard, truly impossible. Curation/edition/selection (however you want to call it) is needed, and we will be doing that.

In The Procrastinator (some) Times, a monthly edition published the last Sunday of the month, you can find a nice selection of the most interesting news, articles, posts, photos, events and fun random stuff that we found during our monthly procrastination. In each article you can find the E.T.P. or Estimated Time of Procrastination, the time you will employ reading it.  Our sections (some times) are: News; Science & Technology; Design, Business & Innovation; Culture & Entertainment; Photoautomat; In Dog We Trust; Our Weekly Procrastination; ABC: Artist Book Celebrity; To Do (or not to do) List, Culturetas and our Sunday (some) Times cartoon.

There are already people getting involved in the project, but this can/should be bigger, but we need more hands to make it grow. So if you're interested, definitely please get involved! All together we can share our procrastination and make it a very meaningful experience.

Thanks for visiting and reading, if you fancy you can also follow us in Twitter: @pro_sometimes

Ana.

-


Interesting articles about procrastination:

Why procrastination doesn't need a cure -and it might even make you more productive? By Belle Beth Cooper in Fast Company.


Why procrastination is good for you. By Megan Gambino in Smithsonian Mag.

Positive procrastination, not an oxymoron. By John Tierny in The New York Times.


Why we procrastinate? By Alisa Opar in Nautilus.

-

Questions, comments, suggestions, articles, sponsorship, copyright claims, mailing list subscriptions, donations (?) --> procrastinatorsometimes@gmail.com