Productive Procrastination?

I, Travis Duda, am a procrastinator. There. I said it. It feels good to be honest with you. But I’m more productive that way. I know, bold statement, stay with me.  

No one likes dealing with a crappy procrastinator. One who agrees to do something, waits around to the very last second and ends up messing up the deliverable or missing it entirely. Let’s be clear. I’m not that kind of procrastinator.

I like to think of myself as a productive procrastinator. Ideas need time to brew. Forcing myself to be creative at the desk hour after hour ends up bringing more struggle than creativity, and the design always suffers. I also tend to want to jump from thing to thing, in a constant need to do something different. Understanding this about my brain was crucial in solving my work flow problems. To combat my poor habits, I researched and have been practicing productive procrastination by keeping a list of everything I need to accomplish. Everything. From the monotonous tasks I need to accomplish to keep both my house and wife happy, to the separate tasks I need to achieve to complete a project. I use an app called Any.Do They aren’t paying me to tell you that, I just really like their app, and it’s become how I manage my daily work flow. I especially like that I can add things via my phone or on my laptop. I love the list because it is very satisfying every time I get to check off a task as complete, but I digress

Why does the list work? Simply, it allows me to pick my next task, and feel like I’m in control. Say, for example, I just finished a logo submission. Sure there’s more to do deliver for that client, but after a quick check of the list, I see that I really need to write a blog post for this week. I can take fifteen minutes to jot my ideas down, change up what I’m looking at, and feel like I’m working out a different part of my brain. This also allows for thought incubation time on the first projec. Every design is a puzzle waiting to be solved, some are just more challenging than others. By practicing productive procrastination, I can buy myself the extra time needed but still feel like I’m being proactive. And when I go back to the project, it doesn’t feel like a chore or laborious. I typically attack the problem with a jolt of creativity. However, if for some reason I’m still not feeling it, I can always just go back and check the list for something else to accomplish.

Bam, blog post done. Another checked item for Travis. Commence the jigglin.