Good and Bad Procrastination

What is the difference between good and bad procrastination? This is a question that has been running through my mind as 2005 comes to an end. I have had so many changes in my life in the last year that I have been forced to procrastinate on some things that are important and I can tell you that I have felt a large amount of guilt on the matter. At the same time it has been one of the most exciting periods in my home and business life and I can only hope that 2006 is as good. I am now going through my semi-annual re-evaluation period (I recommend this to everyone, it does a lot to keep you on track) and I see that some of the things I didn't consider as important are trending to a more important position in my life. I have been very surprised that some situations where I procrastinated have actually improved and I am now in a better position then before. I guess I should procrastinate even more with these positive results. All kidding aside, procrastinating can be a serious vice and this includes procrastinating too much or too little. Think about your procrastinating as you would everything else and make sure that if you have a choice you procrastinate on the things that will have the least impact on your life (notice I did not say to procrastinate on the easiest (or hardest) things in your life). If you procrastinate in this manner you will go far. Good and Bad Procrastination "The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad? Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well. There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I'd argue, is good procrastination. That's the "absent-minded professor," who forgets to shave, or eat, or even perhaps look where he's going while he's thinking about some interesting question. His mind is absent from the everyday world because it's hard at work in another."