Leverage Procrastination strategically to be More Creative
Procrastinating, we're told, is your productivity's arch-nemesis; but is this really the case?
Leaving stuff to the last minute makes us more creative by forcing us to improvise.
Would you have guessed that https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1c6a54879e93a41194fc9a7750ef20ec.jpeg 's most famous line was the result of procrastination?
King was set to give a speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but didn't even start writing the speech until the night before.
King's iconic “I have a dream” line was partially improvised – gospel singer Mahalia Jackson cried out during King's speech, imploring him, “Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!”
King abandoned his script and began to speak freely about his inspiring vision of the American future.
King's speech is a fantastic example of the Zeigarnik effect.
The phenomenon, named after Russian psychologist @BlumaZeigarnik , describes the way that our mind stays open to new ideas and insights, even after we attempt to finish a task and give up.
Essentially, King's unfinished speech left room for his brain to come up with brilliant lines.
For great originals, procrastination is a key strategy.
It allows them to make gradual progress while remaining open to a range of possibilities.
https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e677e7bfb53ed839a7c65731147d43b5.jpg is another example of history's prolific procrastinators. He began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, then abandoned the project before returning to the painting some years later. The Mona Lisa was finally completed in 1519, 16 years later!
Historian @WilliamPannapacker believes that this allowed da Vinci to procrastinate in a calculated way, experimenting with optical illusions and new painting techniques.
Without this experimentation, and the procrastination that created the space for it, we may never have had the Mona Lisa or other brilliant works by original thinkers.
Leverage Procrastination strategically to be More Creative
Procrastinating, we're told, is your productivity's arch-nemesis; but is this really the case?
Leaving stuff to the last minute makes us more creative by forcing us to improvise.
Would you have guessed that https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1c6a54879e93a41194fc9a7750ef20ec.jpeg 's most famous line was the result of procrastination?
King was set to give a speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but didn't even start writing the speech until the night before.
King's iconic “I have a dream” line was partially improvised – gospel singer Mahalia Jackson cried out during King's speech, imploring him, “Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!”
King abandoned his script and began to speak freely about his inspiring vision of the American future.
King's speech is a fantastic example of the Zeigarnik effect.
The phenomenon, named after Russian psychologist @BlumaZeigarnik , describes the way that our mind stays open to new ideas and insights, even after we attempt to finish a task and give up.
Essentially, King's unfinished speech left room for his brain to come up with brilliant lines.
For great originals, procrastination is a key strategy.
It allows them to make gradual progress while remaining open to a range of possibilities.
https://s3foundation.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/e677e7bfb53ed839a7c65731147d43b5.jpg is another example of history's prolific procrastinators. He began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, then abandoned the project before returning to the painting some years later. The Mona Lisa was finally completed in 1519, 16 years later!
Historian @WilliamPannapacker believes that this allowed da Vinci to procrastinate in a calculated way, experimenting with optical illusions and new painting techniques.
Without this experimentation, and the procrastination that created the space for it, we may never have had the Mona Lisa or other brilliant works by original thinkers.
#LeverageProcrastination