Careers
How a Lawyer Benefited from ‘Structured Procrastination’
Posted Sep 30, 2008, 01:03 pm CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Maryland lawyer Dana Moylan Wright felt as if she were buried under a pile of work. As her to-do list grew, her motivation waned.
"At that point, I had many deadlines and was having trouble making myself do anything," she told the Wall Street Journal. "My anxiety level would absolutely soar."
Wright found the answer to her problem when she was surfing the Web rather than tackling her work, the story says. A search for the word “procrastination” brought the answer to her problems—structured procrastination.
The idea is backed by philosophy professor John Perry, who advocates choosing an important task, then putting it aside while working on easier jobs. Productivity doesn’t suffer, and the procrastinator eventually turns to the larger task under the threat of a deadline or a better perspective.
Wright says the method works for her. "As long as I can feel like there's something I'm avoiding, then I can get myself to work," she says.
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