The more productive side of 鈥榩rocrastination鈥�
I聽had an etymological insight when I was playing solitaire on my phone, after getting sucked into pet videos on Instagram and seeing what friends were up to on Facebook. I realized that the Latin word for 鈥渢omorrow鈥濃�� cras 鈥� is in the middle of procrastination. That鈥檚 what procrastination is 鈥� putting something off until tomorrow.聽
Writers from Cicero onward have warned that putting things off is imprudent. The poet Edward Young declared in 1742 that 鈥減rocrastination is the thief of time.鈥� Ben Franklin, who also devised an ambitious 13-week plan to achieve 鈥渕oral perfection,鈥� supposedly advised against it: 鈥淣ever put off until tomorrow what you can do today.鈥� I have been told by German friends and relatives, 鈥�Morgen, morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alle faulen Leute鈥� (鈥淎ll the lazy people say, 鈥楾omorrow, tomorrow, just not today鈥欌��).
Procrastination is often associated with laziness, but it falls somewhere between idleness and the frantic busyness that is often seen as a virtue in American society. Procrastinators are doing something 鈥� just not what they had planned or are supposed to be doing. Putting something off can even result in what psychologists call 鈥減roductive procrastination.鈥� In your efforts to avoid one difficult task, you end up accomplishing another, as when Sir Isaac Newton procrastinated during his alchemy research and discovered calculus.
The word, if not the habit, of procrastination came into English in 1548, but our language is full of words that disparage a state of not working. Being idle was stigmatized in Old English, and today the word has a variety of negative senses: 鈥渉aving no employment,鈥� 鈥渘ot turned to ... appropriate use,鈥� 鈥渓azy.鈥� Sloth, 鈥渄isinclination to ... labor,鈥� was traditionally one of the seven deadly sins. 聽
The ancient Romans, though they valued busyness and constant activity as much as any modern productivity guru, also had a (mostly) positive word for a time spent not working: otium. This was a period for philosophical discussion, music, art, gardening 鈥� things that enrich one鈥檚 life but don鈥檛 further one鈥檚 career. Otium is like procrastination in that it involves doing something that is not work, but differs in that it acknowledges that these things are also worth doing. 聽
English, though, turned otium into otiose, 鈥減roducing no useful result鈥� or 鈥渓acking use or effect鈥�: 鈥淗er dramatic monologue was otiose and left the spectators unmoved.鈥�
Does English have a word that captures the positive connotations of otium? Leisure isn鈥檛 quite right 鈥� it is 鈥渇ree time,鈥� but doesn鈥檛 carry the same sense that this time is important.聽
I鈥檒l think more about this ... tomorrow.聽
