If you haven’t figured it out by now, I believe that procrastination is a neutral term that defines a situation in which you want to challenge yourself to take an action. In fact, sometimes procrasti­nation can be a good thing. What you want to do is procrastinate strategically, that is, consciously delay taking action when it bene­fits youto doso. Here is a list of pros and the cons toget you think­ing about when procrastination makes sense.

The Pros Of Procrastination

By all means procrastinate ifit will help you

• Create time for something else that is more important
• Put a trivial issue into perspective
• Cool down your anger
• Get more useful information
• See if an issue will go away on its own
• Survive an “off day” when you are mentally frazzled
• Realize that your issue is a “should” and not anything you want and!or need to finish
• Maintain the status quo, which is good enough
• Lower the stress on you and others
• Pause before snapping at a friend
• Reduce the odds that you will have to redo, start over, fix, cor­rect, or rewrite
• Give you more time to convince your boss or coworkers of your position
• (Add your own benefits here)

The Cons Of Procrastination

Do not procrastinate If doing so will cause you to:

• Be perceived as lazy, incompetent, or indecisive
• Drain your mental energy
• Miss an opportunity
• Bore your friends with your repetitive excuses
• Bore yourself with your endless moaning and self-loathing
• Not get credit for a good idea
• Make a situation worse (especially one involving money or people)
• Lose preparation time by getting a late start
• Delay your coworkers or cause them problems
• Reduce the amount of time available for a correction or rework
• Lose your competitive edge in the marketplace
• Cause you to be perceived as part of the problem rather than part of the solution
• (Add your own risks here)

Review both of these lists and compare them to your situation. Ask yourself whether procrastinating is doing you more good or harm.