Procrastination, Good Thing?

To my luck, there are now people who say procrastination may be advantageous. Procrastinating on tasks may cause us to "experience a manageable amount of anxiety and stress, our brains produce dopamine that stimulates both innovation and higher performance on assigned tasks," this was said by Claire McLaughlin in her article, Procrastination Nation. Anxiety and stress may not be feelings I wish to experience, but it is nice to know that some of my finest work could come out of late night attempts to meet a deadline or complete an assignment.

Procrastination is a problem that I face very often. It is normal for me to spend a Sunday night working on assignments that I have known about for days or even weeks. No matter how hard I try to push myself to get ahead, somehow I always seem to slip behind.

Recently NASA did some very complex research, and Dr. Ellen Weber who founded the Mita Brain Center simplified it to "while frustration or fear can flood the brain with cortisol, if anxiety is managed properly, anticipation can produce that feel-good dopamine that primes the pump of progress, or innovation." The general consensus among scientists seems to be that procrastinating, to some degree, can cause you to work harder and more efficiently. They also all agree that putting something off too long will only be detrimental. If you are forced into deprivation of sleep or last minute anxious scrambling then your work will be poor and your health may also be at risk.

Learning this has made me less judgmental of my late nights and last minute work, but if possible I still think working ahead would be the best course of action. I have felt the stress and anxiety caused by procrastinating all too often. Even with the benefits of high quality last minute work, being on top of all my assignments would be preferable.