Procrastination vs marination

Writing is easy. You just sit down at at typewriter and open a vein. — Red Smith

A decade ago, I read an article that changed my life. (Which article or by whom, I wish I remembered.) It introduced to me the concept of ‘marination.’ I’d always thought of myself as a procrastinator (because it was upon occasion true), but I realized that far, far more often, I wasn’t procrastinating. I was marinating. Lemme explain.

Procrastinating and marinating can look the same, but the intention is the exact opposite. Procrastinating is usually driven by an inner critic, avoidance, imposter syndrome, or one of their many troublemaker cousins.

Marination is driven by a completely different family of intentions, both positive — the need to mull over something before taking the next step, thinking in layers, plain ol’ chronological time — and negative — a mismatch or bad fit, needing to make a change but being unwilling to do so yet.

I’m actually not much of a procrastinator, except on one thing: writing. Writing can always, always be better and if you give me 1000 hours to write an article, I will spend 50% of that time ruminating over this one fact. So I give myself the exact time my brain knows it needs, minus 15%, and that time-rush adrenaline is the only thing that can stop the rumination and procrastination. It’s not terribly elegant — and I’d suggest you keep all small animals and bodily appendages away from me when I’m in that mode — but it works.

Marination

When I discovered marination vs procrastination, it changed everything. Look at it this way: Marination’s actual definition means to soak or steep, over a set length of time, usually in liquid, in order for an object to absorb flavor.

For example: When I have an idea or a thought for the first time, it would be bonkers to expect me to act on it immediately. Same thing with eating un-marinated meat. Just as I need to store my thoughts in a sort of cerebral file cabinet … Ooh! Hold on. Since we’re talking marination, maybe more like a cerebral Instant Pot.

The thought or idea literally needs to marinate in my brain (the liquid) in order to gain flavor (depth, layers, richness). I need to add herbs (um, … past experiences, maybe?) and spices (okay, I’ve committed fully, so … advice from others, perhaps, or researching or reading?). This can happen with an idea, but also a future insight, a writing project, or anything that needs time before action.

The marination thought process looks kinda like this:

1) Ooh! A thing I’d like to do!

2) That would be interesting.

3) Maybe I wouldn’t like doing it. Maybe I would. Maybe I really am an imposter this time. Maybe I’m the exact right person to do this.

4) Imma do a little research. Talk to some people. Go a layer or two deeper. Think some more.

5) Okay, got it. The answer is a) no, I actually don’t want to move forward; awesome to know; I’ll move onto the next idea. Or, b) yes, and I will now take the first step …

Procrastination

Procrastination looks more like:

1) Ooh! An action I’m supposed to take.

2) Uuuuugh, I don’t wannnna. Waaah, Life sucks. Everything sucks.

3) I really don’t want to do that action because my inner critic tells me I’ll suck at it, I really despise being stuck having to do it, or my brain reminds me I like playing Fortnite way better.

4a) Let me mull all the ways I would look stupid if I did this action … god, those are all really, really awful! or 4b) Fortnite is great! I could play this professionally. I wonder if anyone plays Fortnite for a living? I should probably look that up, since that question isn’t going to answer itself, you know.

5) Crap! That action is still there! How did that happen?? I’ve been working so hard this whole time!

And the difference between the two is …

First: The commonality to procrastination and marination is …?

Time.

The common denominator is time. Like Pema Chödrön says:

“Since death is certain and the time of death is uncertain, what is the most important thing?”

So the difference is: How are you using time? Is time helping you (marination), or are you abusing or misusing time (procrastination)?

Don’t get me wrong, I still love procrastination for the fabulous information it can give us. In fact, I’m marinating on some procrastination right now. I absolutely recognize I’m procrastinating because I just don’t wanna do this other project I’m supposed to do. But why? Why don’t I want to do it? Even procrastination can be remarkably valuable, since there’s often information in negative actions. (And I wouldn’t have written such a long and involved post without procrastination, so, um, yay?)

I just need to marinate on all of this for a while.

Procrastination vs marination homework

Want an exercise to do? Draw a line down a piece of paper. On one side, write ‘Procrastination’ and on the other, ‘Marination.’ Start to think about when you see yourself more in procrastination mode or more in marination mode.

For example, do you watch TV or drink more when you procrastinate, but write in your journal or talk to friends when you need to marinate? Do you think, ‘Is anyone going to find me out as an imposter?’ when you’re procrastinating, but ‘Do I know enough about this field to earn a decent income?’ when you’re marinating?

Write down words, phrases, ideas, actions, thoughts, complete sentences, feelings, emotions, your sense of self, instances, anything that comes to mind. (And, one fun thing about this work: No one ever has to see your homework, and you will never, ever be graded. This is for you and you alone.)

At the end, write down at least one insight — about either procrastinating vs marinating in general, or about one specific instance. We’ll talk about what to do with these insights another day.

(And thanks to a conversation with NW for inspiring this post!)