I spent an hour staring at my screen wondering what I was going to write for this article, until I decided to look up why I was procrastinating. I will now do my article on procrastination because it is the only thing I have looked up.

In some ways, procrastinators are just biologically more creative than other people.

Neurologically, procrastination is a battle between the limbic system and the prefrontal cortex of the brain. The prefrontal cortex being the side of the brain that tells you to get your work done, and the limbic system being the part of the brain that tells you that you can do it later, and in the mean time to look up Kindergarten Cop 2 starring Dolph Lundgren. The limbic system lies on both sides of the Thalamus, just under the cerebrum (center-ish), and has many parts including the hypothalamus. (The limbic system also has the part that forms memory, but that is another story). The hypothalamus is responsible for recognizing things as uncomfortable/unpleasurable and telling the brain not to do it. So if we are cold, the hypothalamus tells us we should turn up the temperature; the same principle applies to being bored. The prefrontal cortex is located in the frontal lobe (behind the forehead) and is in charge of planning, basically the part that sets us apart from the rest of the animals. These two parts of the brain are in constant battle, a fight between the primal instinct of not doing things we do not want to do and the need to get things done. Do this essay, or click on the link that says twenty reasons why Miley Cyrus is actually a transvestite Vladimir Putin from the future. That is a decision we have all had to make (possibly not that exact one).

Some good news is that procrastination might not always be horrible according to a recent article in the NY Times which highlighted a number of recent studies. Jihae Shin, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, has done some research to prove that procrastination may increase creativity. Shin asked people to come up with new business ideas. Some of them were assigned to start right away. Others were given five minutes to first play Minesweeper or Solitaire. All the ideas were submitted and then rated by an independent party on how original they were. The procrastinators’ ideas were twenty-eight percent more creative. Psychologist, Bluma Zeigarnik found that people were better at remembering incomplete tasks than complete ones. When a job is finished, our brains puts it away; when a job is still incomplete, it stays active in our minds. Historically it has also been proven that procrastination can help. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Aaron Sorkin (screenwriter on The West Wing) were all notorious procrastinators. Frank Lloyd Wright put off drawing Fallingwater for a year, and then drew it on the spot. In the end, people’s best work requires creativity. Writing or making anything exactly following the generic formula will never be as good as the formula or work that has creativity.

Of course, there are cases where someone’s procrastination can go too far. In Shin’s experiment there was a third test group that had to wait until the last minute to get the project done, and that group did not go to well. Also, many of us know from personal experience that procrastinating does not always go well. The trick is to find the balance between letting the mind wander/giving yourself time to think, and screwing yourself over.

In the meantime however if you want to start on that path to the right amount of procrastination, I think I can help with that. There are plenty of articles that can teach you how to master your mind or pull yourself together in time to get a project done, but I think where my expertise would shine brightest is giving you ways to let your mind wander. So here is a link to the theme song from Lazy Town member this show!?).

Here is a link to a website that shows you the world’s top ten largest fruits.

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And here is the link to the trailer for Kindergarten Cop 2

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I hope this article helped you procrastinators realize that it just means you are biologically more creative than other people. Good luck out there (odds are you might need it).