The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing.
Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. All procrastinators put off things they have to do. This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish and the good use they make of time. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have been intending to write this essay for months.
Robert Benchley, in Chips off the Old Benchley, 1949
anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.' Author practices jumping rope with seaweed while work awaits.
