Procrastinate This, Not That
“How to Build a Life” is a weekly column by Arthur Brooks, tackling questions of meaning and happiness. Click here to listen to his new podcast series on all things happiness, How to Build a Happy Life.
Are you putting something off by reading this article? Maybe it’s finishing your Christmas shopping. Or making a confrontational phone call. Or writing your fall term papers.
Social scientists define procrastination as “delaying a task for a maladaptively long time,” and it bedevils almost all of us. One study found that more than 70 percent of university students procrastinate on their schoolwork. More than 20 percent of adults in a 2005 survey were found to be “chronic procrastinators.”
Procrastination gets a bad rap. And indeed, putting off necessary, routine responsibilities will make your work pile up and is almost always detrimental to your well-being. But deployed strategically with certain creative tasks, a little procrastination can
