Last-Minute Productivity: The Pros and Cons of Procrastination - Essay Sample

Introduction

Nothing makes a man more productive than the last minute. Being an eleventh-minute worker may be a good form of procrastination because one's productivity is driven by the fear of deadline and failure. In most cases, procrastinators either wait till the last minute to do the most important things while doing the less important things. Sometimes procrastination is driven by perfectionism or is used as a strategy to come with the anxiety of starting or completing an imprint task. In writing procrastination is associated with writer's block. However, in this article "Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate" by Adam Grant, procrastination is good because it leads to productivity and creativity. By examining the use, the rhetorical appeal in the story, it is evident that the rhetoric appeals to the audience's sensibilities successfully.

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Even though it is important to finishing anything worth doing early, pre-procrastination has been considered as a productive form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Grant appeals to ethics by stating that procrastinators are many. He also noted that he could have finished the Colum a few weeks ago had he not kept putting the task off. However, he realized that he became more creative and got better ideas that he did not have initially. Using statistics, he states that:

Over 80 percent of college students are plagued by procrastination, requiring epic all-nighters to finish papers and prepare for tests. Roughly 20 percent of adults report being chronic procrastinators. We can only guess how much higher the estimate would be if more of them got around to filling out the survey.

These statistics alone are enough to teach someone that it is not a sin to procrastinate because one might be undergoing a writer's block that leads to a creative slowdown.

A case pathos where Grant appeals to emotions to convince the audience about the benefits of procrastination is that of Steve Jobs who was an expert procrastinator. Steve Jobs was a successful entrepreneur. He was also a creative product designer whose high-end products were in high demand. However, Job's case is incomparable to that of bill Clinton described as a chronic procrastinator because he used to wait till the last minute to revise his speeches. The case of successful people who are serial procrastinators is endless as Grant cites Aaron Sorkin, a screenwriter and Katie Couric who viewed procrastination as a way of driving creativity by spending time thinking.

Nevertheless, Grant also uses a personal situation to explain how procrastination helped him excel in writing. He argues that after finishing his first draft, he left his work station and came back later only to realize that his first draft was substandard. It is by staying away from the task that he later learned that staying away helped him overcome the inherent writer's block and generate some creative ideas. It is procrastination that helped him overcome the frenzy of anxiety because he managed to jump-start his mind.

Additionally, the last-minute rush gave him the adrenaline rush to start recognizing his progress. This is a good proof that procrastination is not only good for personal health but also manages to convince the audience not to wallow in the dark playground of guilt and self-hatred whenever they fail to start a task assigned. He managed to appeal to the audience that it is healthy to procrastinate because it might make them more creative. For the pre-procrastinators, the vice might be a virtue if they learned to procrastinate. The audience can identify with Grant emotionally because despite being good at procrastination, he still gets task completed successfully.

Grant has used the logos (logic) to appeal to his audience about the benefits of procrastination. He argues that the first ideas are not usually the most conventional. by using an example of his senior thesis in college, he states that by procrastination, he let his mind wander. In the process, he had better chances of stumbling into an unexpected pattern. Grant also cited the case of a psychologist Blumer Zeigarnik. A renowned researcher who argued that people tend to have better memories of the risks that are incomplete as compared to the compelled ones. A project can stay in limbo in one's mind longer if it is incomplete. Grant states:

When you procrastinate, you're more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns. When we finish a project, we file it away. But when it's in limbo, it stays active in our minds (Grant n.p).

His appeal to scientific proof is also excellent. For example, he also argues that a psychologist named Robert Boice who helped a graduate to overcome a writer block by procrastinating for 15 minutes each day. It is based on these logical arguments that Grant has successfully managed to convince the audience.

Conclusion

Grant has applied the three rhetorical devices to achieve his aims which were to convince students that it is healthy to procrastinate. However, he had warned the stints that there is good procrastination and bad procrastination. His central argument is that good procrastination leads to creativity. Procrastination gives the procrastinator the time needed to generate creative ideas and in most cases brainstorm and rethink some ideas. While most writers write the first draft, revise, review then complete the final draft, a procrastinator is most likely to develop the final draft at one sitting without revising because every piece of work is a result of well-thought-out ideas. After all, there is no better way to convince people to procrastinate because even though is often noted as a vice for productivity, it helps in driving creativity.

Work Cited

Grant, Adam. "Opinion | Why I Taught Myself to Procrastinate." Nytimes.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 8 Feb. 2020.