Procrastinating vs Freezing

Yesterday, I wrote about procrastination vs marination. How we sometimes need to use the artificial lengthening of time in a negative way (procrastination) and sometimes in a positive way (marination). This is with a huge caveat: sometimes we need the negative to give us perspective. My procrastination is a who’s-who of what I care about, and what I don’t care about.

But there’s another, ahem, layer. Beyond procrastination, there’s freezing. If marination is using the lengthening of time for good, and procrastination is using time to delve into the negative, freezing stops time. There’s no learning, moving forward, valuable information, gaining insight. There’s just … stopping.

So as long as you’re gaining valuable information while you procrastinate, go for it. But when procrastination leads to freezing, it’s time to look at what’s not working.