I’m the guy who tends to hoard his nice things to save them for the perfect occasion. I’ve been trying to “use my good China” so that my life is filled with more enjoyable moments (and less seeking perfection). The New York Times dives into the psychology of procrastination of what can be enjoyed now. The best advice comes in the last paragraph.

Remember the advice offered in the movie “Sideways” to Miles, who has been holding on to a ’61 Cheval Blanc so long that it is in danger of going bad. When Miles says he is waiting for a special occasion, his friend Maya puts matters in perspective: “The day you open a ’61 Cheval Blanc, that’s the special occasion.”

I’ve mentioned how procrastination done right can be a productive thing. Most people believe procrastinating is a bad thing. Most of the tips in this article on how to reduce procrastination are what you’d expect, but I love the first one on getting started and planning. It sums up my feelings on planning: planning is another word for procrastination.

Don’t waste time planning and thinking about it. This is simply another way to avoid actually doing tasks. If you intend to plan, most of what you need is in your mind anyway, so get started and things will tend to fall into place.

A (more) clearly put definition of structured procrastination.

procrastination actually CREATES motivation and time: when you’re procrastinating, you’re highly motivated to avoid a certain activity for as long as possible. Channel that time and energy into something worthwhile and procrastinate productively.

I need to keep thoughts like this in the forefront of my mind. This article about not working hard and focusing on doing things the way they should be done was the kick in the pants I needed this week. I don’t always like what Jason Fried has to say, but most of the time he’s on point.

Who knew that if you practiced “structured procrastination” you could be more productive? I won’t do the definition justice by trying to explain exactly what it means to structure procrastination, but the nugget I got from the article deals with how we think about procrastination.

Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by definition the most important, and the only way to avoid doing them will be to do nothing. This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being.