I had intended to put up a “10 Predictions for 2006” post today.
However, two things intruded: (a) a fun New Year’s weekend; and (b) a college football mega-dose yesterday. So in honor of not always getting things done, here’s something that caught my eye about a favorite nemesis: procrastination.
Essayist, entrepreneur and ace programmer Paul Graham hit the mark recently with an excellent think-piece entitled “Good and Bad Procrastination.” Here’s the explanation:
There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or (c) something more important. That last type, I’d argue, is good procrastination.
I’m trying to do more of (a) and (c) in 2006.
Another sample that covers that bane of many living that office life–the interruption:
I’ve wondered a lot about why startups are most productive at the very beginning, when they’re just a couple guys in an apartment. The main reason may be that there’s no one to interrupt them yet. In theory it’s good when the founders finally get enough money to hire people to do some of the work for them. But it may be better to be overworked than interrupted. Once you dilute a startup with ordinary office workers– with type-B procrastinators– the whole company starts to resonate at their frequency. They’re interrupt-driven, and soon you are too.
While I don’t think that all office workers can be categorized thusly, we have probably met more than a few that fit the bill.
We are all challenged with more to do than we possibly can on a daily basis.
I’m 80% sure I could say more, but there’s a 20% chance it would be a waste of your time.