"The Work you do while you procrastinate..."

We found this sign on French by Design last week and have been mulling it ever since. It’s a quote by graphic designer Jessica Hische, whose work if full of inventive and often very generous ideas (Check out the site, Mom, This is How Twitter Works. Also, click the heart at the top right of her website to switch modes-of-viewing. Our favorite: Teen Girl Mode.)

Hische’s quote has been making us look at the work we do when we don’t feel like writing, processing photos, taking care of paperwork, dealing with the massive amounts of ‘to-do’s on our work table…

Is the stuff we retreat into REALLY what we should be doing? It is a statement that resonates, pushing us to look farther into the idea of work and right livelihood, a question a lot of folks are dealing with these days. We’re tracking the ways we procrastinate to see if there’s a message to be heard.

Truer for us perhaps: the things we want to do when we procastinate is probably the work we should be doing…

What’s your take?

Related posts: the ten principles of burning man (and life in general?)
the ten principles of burning man (and life in general?)
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‘leap and the net will appear’…

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7 replies on “‘the work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life’

  1. Hmmm.Provoking thought.
    Things I do while procrastinating are usually things that I have to do but don’t want to do. They just have a way of imposing a hierarchy on my time because getting them done nags and distracts. I am talking about bills and housework and that sort of thing. The things that if I don’t do will cause me to end up living in squalor with endless trouble. I think my day job is procrastinating. I should really be painting and doing something useful.

  2. maybe sometimes, when we try to avoid something or do not feel ready for it, we take all that energy to some other place . so one might start cleaning up & sorting out while avoiding to write that story; or one might paint a picture while putting dreaded paperwork aside.
    maybe through these ‘cleansing ‘ actions we feel empowered to finally take on what is wating for us . ( if not, we are probably not ready or simply need some help & inspiration ).
    summing it up, it is all about energy . and whatever it is that blocks it , it needs to be dealt with . and that is what we could do in our lives, concentrating on how we approach life & deal with situations, rather than just checking ‘ to-do-s ‘ off our lists .

    good vibes ~
    sahana

  3. I don’t normally procrastinate much, I just do what I need to do. But if I find myself procrastinating about something in particular, especially for a long time, I know there is a reason I’m not doing something and it’s usually because I shouldn’t be doing it at all.

  4. I absolutely disagree! It would be a complete disaster! The stuff I do while I procrastinate is all but what I really *want* to do! I absolutely do *not* want to spend the rest of my life browsing internet, solving irrelevant details, reading old comics books which I have read 100 times, reading news, … NONE of it!

  5. Ha. Thank you. I agree mostly. I find kernels of truth in it but mostly NOT. Another productivity idea that should be deeply questioned.

  6. This quote did help me, and probably many other people. It helped me look at procrastination as doing SOMEthing (even if just reading/browsing the internet/writing in my journal) rather than assume everyone does the same as me. Not everyone uses journaling as a way to cope with feeling overwhelmed, not everyone reads psychology blogs for fun.

    So , while I don’t agree with the “should” part (skeptical of anything telling me what I should do!) I think considering this quote can help someone know themselves better and make a better informed decision about what to do for the rest of their lives.

  7. I agree about the SHOULD. Perhaps it should read: “…the work you might consider doing…”

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