I want to pose some similarities between what people consider time well spent and time wasted and to look at the idea that maybe there is less difference than thought and thus the solution may not be as far off as thought to either overworking or underworking. I personally am not a very complex man so I am certain I will be missing something but for what it is worth I don't think I've heard a lot of discussion on the nature of activity choice so much as the declarations of how to choose the right activities.
1. Both Procrastination and Productivity Begin on Whim
In my time I have noticed that once you begin any activity, for good or ill, you have a great chance of being consumed by it and often completing it or at least achieving a large portion of it's end-state. To me this is indicative of the fact that when you make the smallest choice to do or not to do something, for good or ill, you've somewhat "sealed the fate" so in turn the common adage of timing and scheduling and such doesn't seem to hold water so long as you're truthfully engaged without something to bring you out of that mental fugue.
2. Both Procrastination and Productivity Require Absolutely no Willpower
This is one of the more fascinating elements to me of the whole problem. In my time and experience, I have found that once I start something it is not difficult to keep going and there is no call to personal discipline or will or anything else for that matter. It is not a matter of trudging any steps of the way whatsoever so much as it is just taking the first step and the fact that the first step is really a whimsical choice, a very short-lived deliberation in most cases, shows a propensity to success in any given activity without great effort in relation to continuation.
3. Both Procrastination and Productivity Cause Mental Deadlock
"Should I or should I not?", the common question regarding seeing anything through and in truth actions that are considered to be wasteful seem to endure the same treatment as actions that are considered gainful. Why this happens is beyond me but ultimately the lack of a decision or mental deadlock seems to take up more time than actually deciding. In the case of procrastination, I would like to make clear that mental deadlock is not a form of procrastination in my opinion and is instead separate and a form of rationalization which is closer to expressing ideals versus activity. I have found in my experience that you will spend more time wondering if you should watch a show all day throughout the day versus do some task or household necessity than it would have taken for you to both combined!
This is interesting because it also means that the spark, the whim itself, isn't the poison; it's is the planning that goes into whether or not one simply acts that causes the loss of time and in fact the aspect of bothering to think about it often takes up more energy than simply doing it. This is important because of the solution, at least in part, for people who end up in mental deadlock very often is to simply not consider both tasks as separate and to be chosen between but instead simply do both A and B with whichever has highest priority to be done first.
4. Both Procrastination and Productivity are not Objectively Measurable
This piece of writing could be and will be by some, considered a waste of time. The internet and its forums and many channels of communication can also be considered a waste of time but to whom and how is this measured? Now I am not saying that it is merely a matter of opinion because it is not but it is almost impossible to quantify because we have individuals who do better when they have interactivity with others constantly and individuals who do worse for the same reason. In my professional life I have seen brilliant workers who I swear look at their phones more than any amount of paperwork and I have seen the opposite which are individuals who never have their phones out but take significantly longer to do the same thing.
As I've overseen some of these individuals I don't really think productivity could be boosted by taking away the Facebookers phone or giving the intensely focused person a distraction. Instead of I believe that it is simply inherent to those workers and their skills levels. So this poses an interesting issue because I can't say that the results are tied to focus or work ethic because honestly there is significantly more at play. I see the same in students as well where some are always bored and others are always with their nose in a book and there doesn't seem to be a direct correlation that can achieve who is the best or the worst based solely on who is and is not looking at Facebook.
Then you have the problem of rest; once again looking at my professional life I've had people who worked 50 hours a week and practically never took a vacation and people who could barely make 40, because they always off doing this or that. I cannot say that the first person was more productive due to them not resting and therefore wearing down their own performance which honestly could never be properly assessed as we never saw them fully refreshed! Obviously, the converse is true and we could not tell if the person who was never too intense would have done more if they were or if we would have been throwing our money at them for no reason. In short sometimes "binge watching" all of those shows in one day isn't a bad idea even if you have other items to do and vice versa of course.
5. Both Procrastination and Productivity Sell Well
This is by far the saddest portion in my opinion. So many get caught in self-help programs and there are thousands of books produced on increasing productivity and decreasing procrastination but in truth they aren't different so action choice really isn't about fixing one and killing the other at all.
This is a very good question if you think about it. Since people are always looking to make their time matter more without realizing that all of their actions have the same weight on their decision matrices they are always blaming some inherent flaw when in fact they just refuse to work with themselves!
To be clear, if you know yourself and know you can only stand to do something intensive for half an hour before you give up then don't try to force yourself to do something intensive for two hours or four hours or eight in the name of productivity. Of course on the same coin if you know that you can do something enjoyable for hours on end don't start until you know you have hours on end to enjoy it; if you know full well you're going to get sucked into that show or book do not purposefully tell yourself that you'll stop at some arbitrary time mark and get to work. First, you know, you're already mentally distracted so even if you are facing a new project you're not really there and second you're now multi-tasking mentally because you're wondering what's next in your show and trying to focus on something you likely aren't as interested in at all.
Furthermore, one thing that I have come to find is that your interest level does shift! Now you may be unimpressed but what I mean is that if you really want to know what happened in that episode, watch it, when you are satiated you may do better in your own studies or work than you would have distracted by curiosity. You are not a procrastinating fool for allowing yourself to get rid of a distraction but you are a fool if you, in the name of productivity, deny yourself something that would help you focus. You can love both your work and your play and it is often, as many times in modern society with the advent of bilateral thinking being so popular, pitted as a competition between the two when in fact it is a harmony.
Watching the TV show in this case is more productive than just working through it and watching it as a reward. Making the best decisions should not be something you read in a book. All the variables of time, interest, energy and the like need to be intelligently considered without being overthought. In close much of the reason people are found scrambling at the last minute is not because they did everything but what they needed to do but that they spent so much time in so much agony arguing with themselves about how to do it all.
P.S. I wish there was a business section on this website.
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