Procrastination IS Good!! Game Changer!!

[r0ckyreed]

This idea is based off of my other post titled Discipline is Ratshit - The Art of Blissipline.  

I often hear people talking about procrastination and how it is "bad" or must be avoided and dealt with.  But rarely, do I hear people talking about how procrastination is actually a good thing.  I mean think about it.  What is procrastination really and what is its function?  Here is what I am come to as a result to my contemplations on the matter.  I may be wrong, so please feel free to contribute or disagree or whatever.

What is Procrastination? (My personal answers from my Contemplations)

Procrastination is avoiding emotional labor is the thought the first crossed my mind.  But I realized that procrastination as a concept is much more broad than that.  I came up with the definition that procrastination is the "process of delaying, postponing, or avoiding something."  This means that if you have any thought of something and you either delay, postpone, or avoid doing it at the moment, you are procrastinating.  

This makes it seem silly to "eliminate procrastination."  If we eliminated procrastination, then every thought you have of doing something, you would have to act on it right at the given moment.  If I have a thought that I want to call my parents, then me not calling them would be procrastination.  But I guess it really depends on how it is framed.
 

For instance, you may be studying or you may have been procrastinating on your work, school, or life purpose.  You then take action to do your life purpose, work, and school studies when a thought to call your parents or go out with your friends seeps into your mind.  The thought to hang out with others may appear to be a distraction, or it could be viewed as a way to procrastinate, or your current attempts to grind to get your work done and stay busy doing schoolwork that you don't wanna do could be viewed as the distraction or the procrastination from facing your fears in calling your parents, etc.  You see?  

Distraction and procrastination are relative to what your current highest love, bliss, and inspiration you have at the given moment.  That is why being Blissiplined is important as opposed to being disciplined.  Blissipline is simply being a disciple or student of what your highest bliss, love, and inspiration.  It is being an employee of your higher-self.  Whereas discipline is traditionally thought of as grinding through work to get it done.  

The discipline mindset views procrastination as the enemy, as something to "eliminate."  But you are not really eliminating procrastination through your disciplined mindset approach.  What you are really doing is procrastinating on your highest bliss, inspirations, and love for life.  

The disciplined mindset may view thoughts of inspiration to hang out with friends and call family as a distraction that will lead you to procrastinate, but actually, the real distraction is your not following your inspirations and love.  You may think that grinding through your work or your 9-5 grind is your inspiration, which it actually may be your initial inspiration at first.  I may have an initial inspiration to write a book.  I may be flowing through it, but I may get to a point where that flow begins to turn into a grind.  

When it becomes a grind, I may not have that initial joy as I once did, and that is okay.  The mind needs to procrastinate in order to critically analyze our choices and plans, as well as to keep us in alignment with our highest values, joys, and inspirations in life.  If you are having fun and are in alignment with your higher self, procrastination is not such a bad thing as long as it is expanding you towards your higher-self and not as an escape to go into your lower-self.  "Sometimes doing nothing very often leads to the very best of something." -- Pooh.  

Conscious Procrastination Vs. Unconscious Procrastination

Conscious procrastination is "the process of actively delaying, avoiding, and postponing areas of your life that are no longer serving you, so that you can embody more love, inspiration, insight, and wisdom into your life, to better help you be in flow with your mission and highest bliss." This is what I was discussing above in that conscious procrastination is deliberately delaying our tasks so that way we can tune into where things in life are already figured out for us. 

On the contrary, unconscious procrastination can lead to negative results for our lives.  I define unconscious procrastination as "the process of delaying, avoiding, or postponing something despite knowing that it will have negative consequences for you."  I think unconscious procrastination is what people often talk about when they are wanting to "eliminate procrastination."  They really want to eliminate unconscious procrastination but not conscious procrastination.  

Without conscious procrastination, we cannot be in alignment with our highest blisses in life.  Society, as well as our mind, is always designed to keep us busy with problems, but our soul or spirit is always designed to keep us attuned to our intuition, passions, fun, cheer, excitement, joys, etc.  

Our soul/spirit is the child to our adult selves.  Our minds are the rational adult and our spirit is the emotional child.  None is "better" than the other.  Both parts of our psyche are important.  We need the child-like part to connect back with spirit, magic, and wonder, while also keeping the adult-like part to have the rationality to help us survive.  

The key is balance and how our relationships are with all the different parts of our minds.  It is kind of the Id and superego in Freud's psychoanalysis model.  We can't be too disciplined and neither can we be too impulsive either.  I mean, we can but a "healthy" psyche is not at discord with itself.  The ideal is for all parts of our minds to be welcomed and for all parts to be on the same mission to serve our higher-self.  
 

What I mean by higher-self is being in harmony with our intuition, heart, passions, joys, bliss, creativity, and all that makes us our best and highest versions of ourselves.  Our lower-self is fearful, disconnected from feelings (hyper-logical), depressed, uninspired, addicted, etc.  

Conscious procrastination is about being on the path towards our higher-self.  If that means to take a break and do nothing so that you can quiet your mind for an answer to come, then go do that.  Productivity is a trap, which can make people believe that procrastination is an evil to be procrastinated with (see what I did there? lol).  But in reality, the productivity mindset that unused time is wasted time has the energy of your lower-self if you can intuit that.  

How can you ever waste time if you enjoy time and are in alignment with your higher-self?  Your higher-self doesn't need to work to figure things out.  Your higher-self is always tuned into where things are already figured out for you.  Your higher-self is your intuition.  All you have to do is do nothing, connect with being, listen to your intuition, and have the courage to follow your heart.

I hope all of that helped!  I encourage anyone to contribute to these ideas here. All perspectives are welcomed!  

Edited December 12, 2021 by r0ckyreed

[Gili Trawangan]

I like it!

Solid post.

[kag101]

when i'm obsessively thinking about how i need to do something, i set a timer on my phone for like 1 hour and tell myself: "ok, i'm not going to think about X for 1 hour." this helps a lot. it's a deliberate choice, as you say. it works well to neutralize thoughts like, "you have to do it, man!!! come on, get out of this bed". because then i can say to myself: "i will think about that when my phone beeps". and when the time is over, i have better chances of actually doing what i'm supposed to do.

another example is when i'm desperately trying to figure something out. like, finding a solution to a problem or something. but thing is, sometimes the most productive thing to do is to do nothing. i might need to let the thing marinate on my subconscious. then, when i'm focused on a different thing, the answer might come.

btw - i have a suggestion on your writing: maybe it'd be better to have more paragraphs. i think it'd be smoother to read. but anyway, it's an interesting and counter-intuitive subject  

 

[Gesundheit2]

I'm not sure I fully understand the post. But I'm of the perspective that brute forcing through some stuff is sometimes a good thing, but it depends.

[r0ckyreed]

2 hours ago, kag101 said:

btw - i have a suggestion on your writing: maybe it'd be better to have more paragraphs.

Thanks for constructive feedback. Much appreciated.  

 

1 hour ago, Gesundheit2 said:

I'm not sure I fully understand the post.

Feel free to ask for clarity.

 

1 hour ago, Gesundheit2 said:

But I'm of the perspective that brute forcing through some stuff is sometimes a good thing, but it depends.

Sure. You can brute force things, no there isn’t anything wrong with that. It is just another perspective and another approach. What I am saying is to notice the energies between forcing vs. flowing. Notice which method brings you closer to your higher-self. Can you see the long-terms problems of not being in alignment with your higher-self (I.e., the energies of intuition, flow, creativity, love, passion, etc.)?

I can force myself to meditate or to workout, but notice the energy of that. Forcing implies you are still at war with yourself, which may not be a good long-term plan. What may be ideal is to learn how to flow with your tasks.

The way I find that gets me consistently in flow state is by doing conscious procrastination. In other words, I follow my intuition, and have that be my guide. I become a student of my higher-self. I find that my higher-self has the energies of flow, playfulness, love, joy, passion, effortlessness, etc. It’s all about being in an alignment with that.

What I’m talking about here is similar to the concept of Wu Wei. According to Alan Watts, Wu Wei is translated to mean effortless action or as Alan Watts said, “to not force anything.” Wu Wei is about going with the flow of the path of least resistance and by doing actions for their own sake rather than having goals in mind. As you can probably already tell, the mindset of Wu Wei is conducive to flow states more frequently.

Sometimes brute force may be needed, but ultimately, you want to get to a point where you don’t have to force and grind when you are tying your shoes or drive your car or play an instrument. Being in the flow and not doing any work at all is how you play with your activities. You don’t work your instrument, you play your instrument. Think of yourself, your body, mind, and spirit as an instrument for you to play.

Edited December 12, 2021 by r0ckyreed

[Vincent S]

@r0ckyreed Thank you so much for sharing this ✨

This was something I really needed ?????

[r0ckyreed]

3 hours ago, Vincent S said:

@r0ckyreed Thank you so much for sharing this ✨

This was something I really needed ?????

Glad this helped! What was most helpful for you from this post? Sometimes it helps to articulate and be clear on what was helpful so you and others can have some reference point to make all of this applicable in your life. Ideas are like seeds, implementation is the water, and repetition will help you blossom. The only thing you need to do in life is blossom and be more of your truest, highest, and best version of yourself. Sometimes, it takes courage to be yourself and follow our hearts.

May peace be with you. ?

Edited December 12, 2021 by r0ckyreed

[Mason Riggle]

9 hours ago, r0ckyreed said:

 

What I’m talking about here is similar to the concept of Wu Wei. According to Alan Watts, Wu Wei is translated to mean effortless action or as Alan Watts said, “to not force anything.” Wu Wei is about going with the flow of the path of least resistance and by doing actions for their own sake rather than having goals in mind. As you can probably already tell, the mindset of Wu Wei is conducive to flow states more frequently.

How would you feel if you knew that Wu Wei is always the case, even when you think it isn't? 

Effort is an illusion. How hard are you trying to be how you are being right now? The answer is always, 'its effortless'. 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Mason Riggle

[Vincent S]

17 hours ago, r0ckyreed said:

Glad this helped! What was most helpful for you from this post? Sometimes it helps to articulate and be clear on what was helpful so you and others can have some reference point to make all of this applicable in your life. Ideas are like seeds, implementation is the water, and repetition will help you blossom. The only thing you need to do in life is blossom and be more of your truest, highest, and best version of yourself. Sometimes, it takes courage to be yourself and follow our hearts.

May peace be with you. ?

Yes, of curse ??
It made me realize and to be able to make a distinction between my Conscious Procrastinations and my Unconscious Procrastinations in my life.

I haven’t been able to balance some areas in my life. Its either to much or nothing at all. Less so now, its becoming better and better. Not so black and white. More colorful and vibrant ✨?

I had never thought that it could be seen from another angle.

Also to trust my Heart. And when I feel the need to call a parent. To do so, even if im busy. Because then: when I call them, its spontaneous and felt to be in flow.

Thank you ??✨ and may peace be with you ?

[r0ckyreed]

2 hours ago, Vincent S said:

Yes, of curse ??
It made me realize and to be able to make a distinction between my Conscious Procrastinations and my Unconscious Procrastinations in my life.

I haven’t been able to balance some areas in my life. Its either to much or nothing at all. Less so now, its becoming better and better. Not so black and white. More colorful and vibrant ✨?

I had never thought that it could be seen from another angle.

Also to trust my Heart. And when I feel the need to call a parent. To do so, even if im busy. Because then: when I call them, its spontaneous and felt to be in flow.

Thank you ??✨ and may peace be with you ?

Beautiful! May peace be with you. ?❤️

[mememe]

@r0ckyreed procrastination in a sense is also creative potential. it’s also one of my long loved concepts.

although there is ofc still a dissonance between dissipline, blisscipline (you name it) and procrastination. the closest modell which explains the problematic at hand is the eisenhower model/mattix - although i‘m not completely content with the model yet.

what about the reasons for procrastination - why exactly are we able to blisscipline ourselves while not dissipline ourselves more regarding models like the eisenhower model.

procrastination is after all an avoidance strategy - blissiplination for me would entail a strategy to love what you where running from in the first place, as avoidance behavior blissipline already has a name: procrastination (the negative connotation has an emphasis on an unsolved problem which will come back at you eventually) 

Edited December 13, 2021 by mememe

[Mason Riggle]

I like to put all my procrastinating off until later. 

[r0ckyreed]

1 hour ago, mememe said:

procrastination in a sense is also creative potential. it’s also one of my long loved concepts.

Yup. That’s what I was referring to when I mentioned conscious procrastination. When we connect with our heart and inspiration, we also connect with creativity.

 

1 hour ago, mememe said:

what about the reasons for procrastination - why exactly are we able to blisscipline ourselves while not dissipline ourselves more regarding models like the eisenhower model.

I haven’t studied Eisenhower model. Not familiar with it.

 

1 hour ago, mememe said:

procrastination is after all an avoidance strategy

It can be. That would be the unconscious form of it. But the conscious form of procrastination is actively delaying something so that you can bring more energy, passion, and creativity into it later. At some point, grinding through a task for hours and hours will result in diminishing returns. I find that the best creativity and solutions come from flow and not grind.

 

1 hour ago, Mason Riggle said:

I like to put all my procrastinating off until later. 

Good. What about your highest excitements and passions in any given moment?
 

Never procrastinate on the things you love. If you always do things you don’t like doing, then that will dictate the quality of your life. Procrastinate on the things you hate to honor and act upon the things you love. Maximizing my passions and love is my top priority. When I am in touch with my higher-self, everything is in alignment. 

 

[Mason Riggle]

@r0ckyreed It is literally impossible for me to do other than what I want to do.  It's already always happening, effortlessly. I'm doing it now, without trying.  I can't 'not do it'. 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Mason Riggle

[mememe]

55 minutes ago, r0ckyreed said:

haven’t studied Eisenhower model. Not familiar with it.

in some sense it is trying to schedule priorities in variables of importance and urgency. but sometimes it’s lacking in flexibility, too. the time frame aspect in urgence, can get lost over individual importance aspects. what is important for one person might be irrelevant for urgency of individually-not-important but generally-important issues. a lot of creatives are already good in blisscipline. 

intellectual importance and emotional importance are def different types of importance on a subconscious dimension of personslity, in a non rational sense.

Edited December 13, 2021 by mememe