{"id":3271,"date":"2015-04-20T08:42:20","date_gmt":"2015-04-20T12:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=3271"},"modified":"2020-10-01T14:56:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T18:56:43","slug":"the-joys-of-procrastination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2015\/04\/20\/the-joys-of-procrastination\/","title":{"rendered":"The Genuine Joys of Procrastination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.itchyfeetcomic.com\/2011\/04\/le-creatif-process.html#.VSvECJSUeso\" aria-label=\"11\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\"  alt=\"Itchy Feet: Le Creat\u00edf Pro\u00e7ess\" width=\"550\" height=\"388\" \/ src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-JjWoVXFx268\/VSvCq3HW6kI\/AAAAAAAACwU\/VPPAE-V-Iwg\/s1600\/11.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I remember reading somewhere about a study (now I can\u2019t find it, of course; where do these things disappear to?) where researchers discovered that, of the writers they queried, 100% procrastinated. The conclusion? Procrastination is just a natural part of the writing process.<\/p>\n<p>As a creative, this was the best (and possibly also the worst) possible news I could have received. I now revel in this vital phase of writing; I embrace it wholeheartedly, I celebrate it. I make a long, detailed list of important, urgent things to do, in order of how serious and pressing they are, and then I sit back, put my feet up, and I just\u2026don\u2019t do them. And I love it. As the inimitable Mark Twain advises, \u201cnever put off till tomorrow that may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But how has this procrastination-friendly attitude affected my work?<\/p>\n<p>It hasn\u2019t. I\u2019m still just as productive or unproductive as I ever was\u2014I never miss deadlines (my web comic, Itchy Feet, updates every single Sunday, come hell or high water), I\u2019m a hard worker, and if I say I\u2019m going to do something, I do it. I just probably won\u2019t do it <em>right this minute<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>All this to say that I know you, language learners, because I am one of you. You like to study, because you like to learn. It\u2019s important that you get it right, and you can be hard on yourself, especially if you don\u2019t meet your own expectations. You might be a perfectionist, or you might just be driven. You\u2019re no doubt a hard worker, because you\u2019ve seen firsthand the rewards of dedicated labor, that moment of enlightenment when you first communicate successfully in your new language, and it\u2019s intoxicating. You have a goal, and you\u2019re going to achieve it, of that much I am sure.<\/p>\n<p>Just don\u2019t forget to enjoy the part where you\u2019re <em>not<\/em> doing it, too. Don&#8217;t feel guilty. It&#8217;s part of the process!<\/p>\n<p>What about you? I know you procrastinate. Do you relish it, or do you beat yourself up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"247\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2015\/04\/11-1-350x247.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2015\/04\/11-1-350x247.png 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2015\/04\/11-1.png 702w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>I remember reading somewhere about a study (now I can\u2019t find it, of course; where do these things disappear to?) where researchers discovered that, of the writers they queried, 100% procrastinated. The conclusion? Procrastination is just a natural part of the writing process. As a creative, this was the best (and possibly also the worst)&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2015\/04\/20\/the-joys-of-procrastination\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":115,"featured_media":4454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[542801],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3271","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-posts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3275,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions\/3275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}