Procrasti-Writing: When Avoiding Work Actually Works

Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Sometimes procrastination might actually be a necessary pause or redirection in order to regain our strength–strength in our physical body, in our spirit, and in our purpose.

When we are challenged by something in our writing or another area of our lives, it may seem counterintuitive to rest, to walk away for a while, to wait for direction. Downtime with God in apparent procrastination might actually let us tackle a spiritual or writing challenge and approach it from a different angle or allow solutions to emerge naturally through other practices. Time with God is never wasted. 

Writing my last book was tough. I had to force myself to sit in the chair and write, even when I felt like throwing it all in the bin and giving up. I put off writing the last two chapters and the days went on. I had to write my previous ACW post, so I decided to put my efforts into that. Writing about a new year and thinking about what I wanted to keep or edit out of my life fired my enthusiasm to finish the book.   

When I read the phrase ‘Productive Procrastination’ in Mel Robbins’ The 5 Second Rule: The Fastest Way to Change Your Life, I realised I’d been engaging in productive procrastination all along through my ‘procrasti-writing’—working on different projects when stuck on my main manuscript. I have a friend who procrasti-bakes when she doesn’t want to do housework. The housework gets done eventually and there’s cake. What a benefit of procrastination! I’d never thought about the benefits of procrastination before, probably because I’ve seen it as counterproductive.

Destructive procrastination is avoiding our work and actively doing anything but what we’re meant to be doing, and ultimately there are negative consequences–missing an important deadline, letting someone else down, losing the threads of your story and not being able to dial back into it. This type of procrastination is not our friend, yet there’s another side to this familiar writer’s challenge that deserves our attention.

Productive procrastination can be a useful strategy if it’s a deliberate technique we employ to get away from our work-in-progress to refresh our creativity or think about a different approach to a knotty character or plot problem. Procrasti-writing on a less important or easier piece of writing–a blog post, a social media post, or a journal entry–can help us avoid feeling overwhelmed by our WIP. 

Feeling productive, actually doing something, can influence the brain and encourage it to click back into productive mode. 

The power of words and intention helps to train the brain. So, the act of doing something productive outside of your work-in-progress might just prompt you to unlock something in your plot or character that breaks through the narrative wall, helps you hear your character’s voice more clearly, or allows you to see the next scene. The psychology behind this approach is fascinating and explains why it can be so effective.

Non-writing productive procrastination involves important activities unrelated to writing. You might organize your workspace, catch up on emails, exercise, or pay bills–productive procrastination isn’t limited to alternative writing projects. Sometimes stepping away from writing entirely offers its own rewards–you get other jobs done and you may feel a fresh sense of purpose when you step back into it. Isn’t this so in all aspects of our lives? 

The next time you find yourself avoiding your manuscript, consider whether you’re engaging in destructive avoidance or if you’re actually giving your creative mind the space it needs. Rather than beating yourself up for procrastinating, ask yourself: ‘How can I make this procrastination productive?’