The Procrastination Principle

I spent a lot of time not doing my thesis. I used to call all the internet articles, posts and latterly blogs Avoiding The Thingy (the thesis that dare not speak its name). Simultaneously, as a manager, I adhered to what I called Lazy Manager Theory - the guiding principle of which was that any manager who had to micromanage their staff (I had 9 staff) was doing it wrong. I worked on what I called the Bomb Crater Theory of Desk Organisation, following a news clipping I once saw.

Any piece of paperwork that found its way to me (and I made it hard for that to happen), was placed in the center of the desk, and nothing was ever done about it. Over time, the paper migrated to the edge of the desk. If someone came and personally asked me to action it, I did it on the spot. If it fell off the desk, I trashed it. It was really amazing how little paperwork was really called for - in my guess, less than 5%.

Likewise I let my staff do what they did, and told them that if I had any problem, I'd let them know, and if they had any problem, they should let me know. After they worked out this was in fact how I operated, they actually did come and close the office door occasionally, but not often. On the other hand, if anyone fucked with my staff, I went ballistic, and in one case banned a lab head from ever coming in the door to ask for services after he abused a female staff member. Thereafter he had to send one of his assistants or postdocs to get his art done (it was a graphics department in a medical research institute).

He threatened to go to the Director and complain. I told him to; and I would make a formal complaint about sexual harassment. Nothing was ever heard again. Anyway, on procrastination, I am pleased to find that someone beat me to it: Structured Procrastination is a technique invented by John Perry back in 1995, after years of putting off research. It works like this:

Do nothing that is urgent, but do something else less important. You get a lot done, and when something that is more important comes up, do the previously urgent thing. Nothing seems to go badly because of this, and you live a more relaxed life.

Corollary: it pays to invent deadlines for urgent things, or invent the urgent things themselves, so that you always have something comparatively more important.

And you get out of paperwork...