Well, I’ve been in a quite oximoronic mood lately. I had a lot of work to do, and I managed to do it far better and faster than usual. I even worked more than initial planned. The job was programming related, and it was a project that I have for several months. It had a quite hectic path so far, and only in the last few weeks it started to shape as I wanted it to. And, after the last few days, I realized that what I planned was in fact easier than I thought. It happens for everybody, I agree, but this time, was something more obvious than other times.

Maybe I have a bigger work capacity? Maybe I was underworked all this time and I just start to realise that? Maybe. But that means that, until now, I constantly had a false perspective about my own work capacities.

This whole situation made me think about my procrastionation habits. Do I have them? Of course, like everybody else. Do I cultivate them? Well, that’s another question. I think I stopped cultivating my procrastinating habits, but, like in a delayed “sync”, the results are not quite ready to be shown.

So, knowing that, and being in my oximoronic state, I just come up with this strange idea about how to better support your procrastination habits by using productivity techniques. I know it sounds twisted, and, to some extent, it is. But I think it’s more funny than twisted, and you’ll see what I mean.

So, here are my 7 tips for maximizing procrastination output by using a more productive approach:

1. Chose the things you have to do carefully
   • chose only things that you know are undoubtely over your competence level
   • chose things that are likely to be done by somebody else pretty soon, so you won’t have to do them, actually
2. Always start doing a thing by postponing it. And, when postponing, pay special attention to the date, chose it to be:
   • when you know you’ll be in a meeting
   • when you know you’ll be doing something else (sleeping for instance)
   • at a random, but somehow interesting date, such as: the third Friday from the October month of the year 2013
3. Talk as much as you can about what you have to do
   • talking about something actually prevents you from doing it, so you are on the safe side
   • brag about it as much as you can. people will soon be bored and eventually leave you alone.
4. Forget stuff
   • constantly. make a habit out of it
   • train to forget at least one thing per day
   • exercise your forgetting techniques, if necessary hire somone to help you forget stuff completely and honestly
5. Avoid interaction at all cost
   • keep a low profile, like this, you won’t be assigned anything, not the smallest responsability
   • if you need to interact for asking something from somebody, do it fast: hit and run, so the other guy doesn’t have time to react
6. Keep (and grow) a huge tasklist
   • if you intent to do more than you actually can perceive as being doable, then you’re set
   • constantly add stuff to your schedule, so you won’t be caught in a situation with no escape, like being forced to actually do something
7. Pretend to be tired
   • start from the dawn, so you’ll get really exhausted by noon
   • in a very short period of time you won’t have to pretend anymore

And, for those of you already used to my mind mapping habits, here is the mind map screenshot:

As usual, you can freely download from here: The Procrastinator Mind Map (3116).

(The mind map is in MindManager format. If you don’t have it you can buy it here – and that would be an affiliate link, meaning I’ll get paid if you make the purchase. Alternatively, you can go directly to their site and see for yourself.)

Until then: procrastinate productively !

[tags]procrastination, productivity, fun[/tags]