If You Think You ‘Thrive on Pressure,’ You’re Probably Wrong
Procrastination is often about insecurity
Dear Laura: I seem to thrive on time pressure. Whenever I have a big project, I find myself putting it off until the last possible minute. Then I race to get it done. I worry this isn’t healthy long-term. What should I do?
Everyone puts things off from time to time. Sometimes it’s just smart time management: Not everything needs to be done right this minute. Procrastination, on the other hand, has a specific and negative definition: It means delaying a task even though you know doing so will make you worse off.
This is almost always what is happening when we put off big projects to the last minute, even if you’re someone who “thrives on pressure” — because that’s probably an illusion. Contrary to popular perception, time pressure generally doesn’t produce better work. Indeed, some fascinating research by psychology and creativity expert Teresa Amabile and others finds that people actually produce fewer creative ideas when under pressure, even when they believe they’re being more creative.
“When creativity is under the gun, it usually ends up getting killed,” Amabile and her colleagues wrote in Harvard Business Review in 2002. “Although time pressure may drive people to work more and get more done…
