Henneke, author of How to Cherish Your Shitty First Drafts (And Get More Writing Done), writes about how she gets through her rough draft process. She draws on the ideas of Lamotte in the sense that the first draft doesn’t have to be good. She even goes as far as to stating that quantity may be better than quality when writing a first draft. She also goes through the same type of writer’s block Lamott goes through.
When talking about bad first drafts, Henneke describes a common tactic to avoid writing: “Perhaps you find excuses and do your household chores first. The kitchen still needs cleaning. The Christmas shopping list is waiting. And weren’t you going to call your friend” (Henneke 7). In this quote, Henneke talks about procrastinating because she doesn’t want to start writing. However, her procrastination is still productive as she spends the time cleaning and doing other chores
People probably tend to fall into “productive procrastination” because they feel like their time isn’t being wasted. Instead of being on social media, you are doing work (not the important work but work nonetheless). I feel like there’s something in your brain that makes you justify this type of procrastination over the “lazy procrastination” because you still feel like you are being useful.
In my own experiences, I have also found to be the victim of “productive procrastination”. Sometimes, I find myself working on easier homework that is due in a few weeks rather than working on homework that may be due in a few days. In addition, I find myself sometimes doing some homework that I could be spending less effort in while still getting good results instead of studying for a midterm that is happening within the week. I usually work on whatever bit of work I need to do that’s quick and easy because it makes me feel like I have done more than I actually have. Unfortunately this leaves me with the hard homework until the very end.
I think that this type of procrastination is fairly common among other people and I would like to know why it is such a common practice that people default to.