Why Procrastination Might Actually Be Good For You

Writer: Mariam Ramzy
Editor: Abdulelah Ba Tarfi

We as humans are imperfect. We keep on delaying tasks and decisions. Some of us have abstract and vague goals. For example, You can’t just go like “I am going to start a diet”. This way you’ll never do. You could set a more attainable goal such as, “I’ll cut off carbohydrates”. Our Anxiety forces us to avoid tasks sometimes.All of this ends up resulting in one phenomenon -procrastination. Some people are aware of the cons and are trying to stop this obviously “bad habit”, but thing is – procrastination may not be as bad as you think it is. 

 However, the good news is procrastination is actually good if used in the right way. There are two types of procrastination, passive and active. Passive is delaying tasks out of laziness. On the other side, active procrastination is someone who does other things while he/she procrastinates, which could also be called structured procrastination. Jihae, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, designed an experiment and concluded that active procrastinators’ ideas were 28 percent more creative. Here’s why :

1. Get more things done 

 Active procrastinators always get other things done in the meantime. If they start with the task they’re delaying, they might call it a day and not accomplish anything else. 

2. Reevaluate unnecessary tasks

 Delaying tasks might make you realize and notice the important and unimportant things. Later, you might even wonder why you wanted to do it. 

3. Make better decisions 

During the delay, the procrastinator is collecting and gathering information about the task. You might not notice this but indeed you are educating yourself. This helps you become more prepared when making a decision. 


If you are an active procrastinator, you should be proud. Accept it. You are more productive and innovative than many out there. Although it’s not entirely easy structuring your procrastination, once you master it, you’re good to go.