I leave Fridays open to do things like write, create, and start all the things that I thought of during the week. This also means that if creative opportunities come up I can say yes without anxiety or worry.
This morning my friend, training partner, former music account exec, and brilliant successful NYC food photographer, Heather, suggested coffee after class. She’s coming on as a guest on my podcast and pre-recording chats always help clarify the real meat of the episode.
Heather and I joke that we might be the same person, we have an eerie amount in common. She’s a parent, creative, shares an enneagram type with me, and many other things including a massive career shift during the pandemic.
I asked her about this shift from music sales to food photography. Again, a huge shift.
We’ll get into all of that on the podcast, but something I want to share here is a counterintuitive part of the process that matched my own.
I’m going to share what it is, why it works, and how you can build it into your process, any process where you’re creating something new in your life. New career, new way of relating, anything.
WHAT IS PRODUCTIVE PROCRASTINATION?
It sounds like an oxymoron to me. Procrastination is what we do when we’re avoiding being productive.
That said, productive procrastination is when you accept that you will procrastinate and then design it into your process so that it feeds your productivity.
Here’s an example. When I found myself with a blank career canvas in 2021, my wife told me to decide if I wanted to go back to what I was doing before. She went further and said that I didn’t seem that happy doing what I was doing. Yes, I was doing great on paper but it didn’t feel, to her, like I was fulfilled.
Here, I had an opportunity to make a new plan.
If you ask me what I did after that talk, I would tell you that I did two things.
First, I allowed myself to let go of going full-tilt on what I used to do. Letting go, even for a summer, isn’t easy, but I was ready for a change. I committed to the idea.
Second, I would tell you that I didn’t work on the problem directly. I let the idea of change sink in and then I finished up teaching and spent the summer with my kids. I drove them to camps, pools, swimming holes, friends’ houses, all kinds of stuff that wasn’t frantically seeking an answer. I cooked, and cooked, and cooked (I love to cook). If you’re a parent you know that these are full days and your energy at the end of the day might be in the negative numbers.
While this sounds like I was putting things off, I was actually doing what was necessary to allow my brain to do its best work.
Because I had that clarifying conversation, because I allowed myself to accept that this could be a really big shift, and because the brain takes advantage of space, I was working on the problem the whole time.
HOW IT WORKS
Science has shown that proper rest and exercise boost both mood and creativity.1 I’m guessing you might understand this already. You get your best ideas in the shower, on walks, or during jiu-jitsu training.
This works in part because the right brain is the one that comes up with new ideas and it works best when you’re not actively focused on a problem. This is the part of the brain that is good at “divergent thinking,” making connections between disparate thoughts. New creative paths open up when you’re not staring at the problem. The right brain works best as a background process.
Another benefit to this method is that you can better assess your initial ideas on a project, career shift, or relationship communication. Science again has shown that emotions play a much bigger part in rational decision-making than previously thought.2 The truth is, not every idea or project will be a success, and your initial excitement might lead you astray. If you take time away from solving the problem you’re getting space and time for your initial excitement to settle down and to make a decision with more clarity and perspective.
HOW TO PROCRASTINATE PRODUCTIVELY
I didn’t bury the lead. I told you right at the beginning how I do this every week.
I start. I wait. Then I start for real.
Fridays are when I start on things I came up with while doing other things during the week. These ideas were conceived at various other times, and put on a list for Friday.
Here’s how you can productively procrastinate every week:
Have a place to take down initial notes or reminders on things you want to do. I have an “everything journal,” and use Evernote. This is where I take notes and to-do lists and “everything” that doesn’t have a specific journal for that purpose. You should pick a thing you’ll actually look at.
When you come up with an idea for a project or task, put it on a to-do page in your journal. Even and especially if you’re not sure how to start.Then forget about it. Do the things you already had planned to do that day or week.
Friday, go down the list. Anything that still seems relevant, do.
And notice, do you have new ideas on any of them?
Do you have starting steps for any that were unclear before?
Do you have more energy for any?
Less energy?
This is productive procrastination at work.
Note these things down or use symbols/colors to track.
Over time, you’ll start to understand your own patterns and begin to see even earlier what works for you and what doesn’t.Anything that needs more thinking, take more notes and either start or come back to it next week. They might need more procrastinating!
HOW DOES THIS WORK ON YOUR MUCH BIGGER IDEAS?
This practice is exercise, training for bigger things. If you can do the practice above, you get a feel for how it works best for you. When you start small, you can learn with low risk, and then apply what you’ve learned when the stakes are higher.
A BETTER WASTE OF TIME
When I’m having a conversation with a new client the conversation often starts with a question, leads off in a direction that may seem unrelated, and then when we come back the answer comes easily.
If you’re like most of my clients, you are motivated, successful, maybe even creative.
You have a plan and you don’t need a coach to get it done.
You will, however, get it done faster with the support of a coach who truly listens, challenges, calls you on your BS, and calls forth your most aligned and inspired self.
In a discovery call, we reveal a glimpse of that potential future. Book one today.
The Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Divergent and Convergent Thinking and Its Influence by Mood (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8145661/)
Judgment and Decision Making (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9496629/)