Productive Procrastination (NJ4)


A few nights ago, I returned to my room after a day of class, lab, and meetings. As I sat down at my desk, I reached over to turn on the little lamp in the corner. Hesitating, I instead stood, crawled across my bed, and opened the blinds allowing light to pour into the sleepy room. Sitting back down in my desk, I slipped my laptop out of my bag and placed it in front of me. I experienced the typical mental wrestling match between procrastination and productivity. Turning to peer through the blinds, the sky hinted hues of red and yellow. Clouds popped from the fading background color provided by the sun. After a few minutes, I justified to myself that a walk would serve myself better than hunching over my laptop in an attempt to cram information into my head.

Something about walking is refreshing. It allows me to reconnect with the world and engage with the environment without falling into thought patterns that come to control my thinking. Walking is not procrastination, but rather productive.  Edward Abbey says, “A man on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles.”  Thinking about this, I do not disagree but feel the answer to why this is is left ambiguous. Maybe these feelings come from exposure to outdoor elements. For me, I believe the ability to “see more, feel more, enjoy more” comes from the effort exerted and the subsequent shift in perception caused from this. Walking, bicycling, even horseback riding requires a focus and can be difficult and even uncomfortable at times. I think this effort allows us to realize that we feel fulfilled only through our own efforts and effortless travels in a car cause us to bypass the life surrounding us.

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