Concrete Pencil: Putting things off has its own rewards

The word "procrastinate" was coined in the late 16th century, from the Latin, "pro" meaning forward, "crastinus" meaning "belonging to the morning".

Its synonyms include to be dilatory, to temporise and to drag one's feet or heels.

And it is, to me, the defining paradox of life. Why is it that by nature of being something you have to do, a task becomes immediately unappealing?

And by nature of being not the thing you have to do, another task becomes beguilingly attractive, irresistible almost?

So at university I never read more books than when I should have been writing an essay. Now there's a book I should really finish, but suddenly The Sopranos series three looks much better 

(I know, I know. I'm so far behind the rest of the world it's embarrassing. But I felt I had to watch The Sopranos - everyone had seen it; it's important drama - so I found myself craving to read all those back copies of The Economist that I never normally get round to.)

Procrastination is always there. It is a human universal, hardwired into us in the evolutionary environment. 

I have to do this and I don't want to. I'd rather be doing that. Let's do that for a bit. But not so much it ever feels like we're actually doing that. Which makes that seem really pleasurable.

So I have a plan. The Crawford/ Martin Plan.

There's a book out: The Case For Working With Your Hands Or Why Office Work Is Bad For Us And Fixing Things Is Good.

An excellent title. Its title in America is Shop Class As Soulcraft. We got the better deal.

It is by Matthew Crawford, a motorbike repairman and professional philosopher. The book is about how you should combine complex carbohydrates with protein and fibre in each meal.

No, the book is about what it says its about. And if you combine its message with How To Get Things Really Flat, Andrew Martin's excellent treatise on the restorative joys of housework, then you have the crux of my plan.

Need to search for a better mortgage? Then fix a plug instead. Need to look over some work emails at home? Do the hoovering.

If you have tedious mental work to do, exploit the fact that you will spend some time performing displacement activities.  

So be creative with your procrastination. Make the displacement manual (Crawford) and useful (Martin).

Get ironing. And if the ironing becomes tiresome and you want to procast its inaters, then take advantage of the fact you're not supposed to be mowing the lawn, and go and enjoy that.