Advice that ``procrastinating'' writing is not a bad thing

Many of us have put off writing because we couldn't come up with a good idea or didn't have the energy to go to our desks. We may berate ourselves for thinking that procrastination is a bad habit, but psychotherapist and author Anna Hogeland says that putting off writing isn't just a bad thing; it can also have great benefits. I'm talking.

Anna Hogeland on the Rewards of Procrastination ‹ Literary Hub

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The habit of procrastinating by checking social media or doing other things when there is a task to be done cannot simply be dismissed as laziness or personality, but is due to cognitive psychology. It is a psychological theme that has been frequently studied in recent years. A paper published in JAMA Network Open, an open-access medical journal, found that people with procrastination habits were more likely to experience shoulder and arm pain, poorer sleep quality, and loneliness than those with low procrastination tendencies. A high proportion of respondents reported financial hardship, suggesting that procrastination may not only cause damage to the task itself, but also mental and physical damage.

It turns out that people who tend to procrastinate are more likely to become unhealthy later on - GIGAZINE

On the other hand, Rachel Cook, founder of business consulting firm Lead Above Noise, argues that there are cases where procrastination can actually be beneficial. Cook cited the results of an experiment conducted by Professor Adam Grant of the Wharton School of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, saying, ``Procrastination may be effective in tasks that require creativity.'' For those who tend to progress quickly, I recommend that they try to postpone it for a while.

What are the benefits of 'procrastinating' by putting off unpleasant things? -GIGAZINE

The ``benefits of procrastination'' that Mr. Cook points out are mainly in the business scene, but Mr. Hogeland says that there are great benefits of procrastination even when writing a novel.

Mr. Hogeland was writing a novel in the summer of 2023, but he had many household tasks such as childcare, or even when those tasks were done, he would go for a walk with a friend in search of inspiration or look up artists on Instagram. Apparently, there was a time when he was procrastinating and didn't move forward with writing at all, even though he was looking at the posts. However, the next time Mr. Hogeland went to his work desk, he was able to naturally proceed with writing the scene where the woman was talking with an old friend, using the art museum that he saw in the artist's post as the setting.

When Mr. Hogeland was aspiring to become a writer, various writers told him, ``You should focus on one thing at a time until it's finished,'' ``Turn off your cell phone, don't chat, email, or use social media.'' I took on the challenge of writing by following advice such as ``Write every day. And whether you want to write or not, you have to write.'' ``Start first, then always write.'' Hogeland said that while all of this advice was valid, it didn't work for him. ``The problem wasn't the rules themselves, it was that I misjudged what I trusted. 'It's a creative process, and what's truly creative and valuable is, above all, loyalty to one's own intuition.'

At least for Mr. Hogeland, the approach of ``outputting a set amount of text for a set amount of time per day, even if the text is unsatisfactory,'' was a pressure that lowered performance. Therefore, he decided to go to his desk as much as possible whenever he wanted, and go elsewhere if he felt like doing something else. As a result, when he sat down at his desk, Hogeland said his experience of procrastinating filled him with inspiration, and he was able to write more imaginatively than before.

Hogeland says there is a crucial difference between ``procrastinating writing for inspiration'' and ``avoiding writing because you hate it.'' When you step away from writing in search of inspiration, you are filled with desire, energy, interest, and libido. On the other hand, when I just want to avoid writing, I'm in a state of mind where I just want to be somewhere else, with no particular destination in mind.

However, this state of 'avoidance' is not necessarily bad, and even if you force yourself to go to your desk, it will bring about great stress. From his own experience, Mr. Hogeland says that it is important to do the hard work of reconsidering what you want to do and what you need to do.