Robert Musser, Ph.D.

Thoughts on Procrastination

Note: the first or second week in March is national procrastination week (depending on when you get to the celebration, and someone pointed out that this celebration seems to be observed later every year).

On the one hand procrastination is bad. We who have this malady (and I am one) should not keep putting off that which needs to have been done last week. On the other hand, maybe not so bad.

On the One Hand

Dr. Pier Steel teaches at the University of Calgary and is a Professor of Procrastination (are you surprised that there is such a position?). He is also the author of The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start Getting Things Done. In an online article he notes that some recent researchers have suggested that procrastination may have benefit in that ideas are allowed to incubate, and this process leads to more creative solutions. However, the recent research may be flawed, and Dr. Steel observes, “The bleary-eyed 3:00 a.m. crowd scrambling to finish a project will usually come up with routine, unremarkable solutions. Innovative ideas are typically built on the bedrock of preparation, which includes a laborious mastery of your topic area followed by a lengthy incubation period.”[1] Incubation is indeed valuable, but it should not be confused with procrastination.

On the Other Hand

Dr. Steel wrote an earlier article in 2011 praising the whimsical activities of Les Waas whom Dr. Steel designated “The Greatest Procrastinator in History.”[2] Mr. Les Waas worked in advertising and had a long productive career. Mr. Waas also had a subversive tongue-in-cheek side. He began by getting a large Philadelphia hotel to post signs proclaiming “Procrastinator’s Club Meeting Postponed.” He became president of the PCA (Procrastinator’s Club of America), actually acting president since they never got around to electing him. Their group chartered a bus to visit the world’s fair in New York City—the year after it closed. They became known for their 100% accurate yearly predictions, released the year following the events concerned. Dr. Steel admires Les Waas’ combination of significant professional and civic achievement with a recognition that sometimes work is not the highest priority in life.

So there you have it. A friend of mine once called me the king of “on the other hand.” On the one hand don’t procrastinate. Learn to get after the tasks at hand as promptly as possible. On the other hand, lighten up, let go; some things can and should wait. Of course, the difficulty is knowing which to do when. I suspect some of us more need to hear the message of the one hand, and the others of us need to hear the message of the other hand. Happy procrastination week, and then let’s get back to work.

For what it’s worth to my credentials as a procrastinator, I finished the original draft of this blog last December.

[1]Piers Steel, “The Original Myth: Procrastination as a Source of Creativity.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-procrastination-equation/201604/the-original-myth.

[2] Piers Steel, “The Greatest Procrastinator in History: Puts Off Death.” https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-procrastination-equation/201103/the-greatest-procrastinator-in-history-still-alive-puts.

Mastery: Telling the Story

Part of mastery is telling the story.

The author of this quote worked for many years in the neonatal unit of a major hospital in the Chicago area. As she observed, many families lovingly recite the details of the births of their children. There almost gets to be a ritualized procedure in the retelling of these stories at subsequent family get-togethers. When the relatives gather for birthdays, for holidays, for weddings, and even to mourn together for funerals, how often the conversation turns to pulling back together these reveries, to remembering. The same portions of the birth stories are told in the same order by the same participants. The expectant mother tells how nervous the cabbie was when he arrived at the house and during the drive to the hospital, no matter how she reassured him that she was not going to deliver on the way. And, oh yes, she had to give him directions. Her mother chimes in to narrate how her grade school principal came to her classroom door to tell her she needed to leave immediately for the hospital a month earlier than her daughter’s baby was due (for you youngsters, there was a time, not that long ago, when there were not cell phones). As she tells of her hurried drive, she still trembles with that same anxiety she felt that day. And so it goes: the father tells his side, the other siblings pipe up, extended family add bits about where they were and how they heard. Telling the story is one way of mastering this life we live.

Tell Your Story

And here you are, conceiving all sorts of new thoughts as a student at UAMS. In due time you too are expected to deliver. What sort of story will you tell? Who are the heroes? Who are the villains, the trusty sidekicks, the crusty trainer, the comic relief, the love interest? What are the unexpected plot twists, the obstacles to be overcome? Is this a feel good tear-jerker? Is this the story of a small-town girl who becomes the family medical expert? What sort of character development have you undergone here? You are here to master your material, to become a master of your trade. Part of your mastery is telling your story. Make it a good one, and tell it well.

Susan Johnson Kline. “The Voices on Obstetrics: Participants and Partners.”

Notes on Thanksgiving and Gratitude

It’s that time again. Lest we forget the holidays, TV reminds us. Already round-the-clock Christmas movies are broadcast. So it was that I recently honored Halloween by seeing “Addams Family Values.” There is a delightful send up of all the awful, unhistorical, overly sentimental, school productions of “the first thanksgiving.” Never mind that it wasn’t nearly the first thanksgiving day by European settlers on this continent. Never mind that our current celebration has wandered away from what was originally a harvest festival with gratitude to God because it looked like enough food was stored in for the winter. Many years in agrarian societies that is not a given.

The Official Thanksgiving Holiday

When President Abraham Lincoln, in the middle of the Civil War, proclaimed November 26, 1863 a federal holiday and unified the date of the celebration, he did so largely because of Sarah Josepha Hale who argued for a unified date during a period of military and political disunity. In our day the holiday has become an occasion for food, family, and football. Recently, we’ve added an economic aspect with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. For college students and faculty it has become the last short breather before finals.

Your Thanksgiving

May your Thanksgiving honor one or more of these important themes. The rancorous presidential election will be behind us. It might be good to re-unify, even with that annoying, politically wrong, uncle. Connect with your human family be it blood relatives, extended kin and in-laws, or other families of friends and associates. Think and speak gratitude to those who have enriched you. Indulge some delicious pleasure. It’s healthful to splurge once in awhile. Enjoy shopping amid the roiling crowd or at home in some cyber-boutique. Breathe, rest, and ready yourself for the sprint to the finish of finals week. Have a great Thanksgiving holiday!