Accessing the Genius of Procrastination
Procrastination brings us essential aspects of creativity and motivation.
Updated June 1, 2026 | Reviewed by Davia Sills
In my series of posts about the motivational emotion of anxiety , I’ve focused on a valid and purposeful approach to motivation (following Mary Lamia’s seminal work ) that is focused on deadlines but is unfortunately called procrastination — as opposed to motivation that is focused on tasks, which is mistakenly considered by many to be the only correct way to get things done. (If you’d like to know whether deadline-oriented procrastination is your preferred motivational style, see the short checklists in this post .)
We’re usually told that procrastination is a character flaw that we must wrestle with, while endless books and coaches sell us plans for how to stop procrastinating, knuckle down, and complete our tasks in the allegedly right way.
But what if procrastination is a perfectly valid way for many of us to do our best work? What if deadline-oriented procrastination is equal to—and sometimes more useful than—task orientation?
The pathology paradigm blocks our view of procrastination’s genius
Procrastination is viewed by most people (and sadly, by most procrastinators themselves) as a form of pathology that needs to be fixed. Usually, natural procrastinators are trained (or shamed and pushed) to become task-oriented, which interferes with their natural ways of working and their innate motivational capacities.
In my work, I’ve found that I can often identify natural procrastinators by their continual sense of shame , of being “wrong,” and of not measuring up. And I’ve learned that, in most cases, there’s nothing wrong with them, except that their natural way of working has been devalued by the pathology paradigm .
In his groundbreaking work in autism studies, my colleague, Dr. Nick Walker, has contrasted the pathology paradigm with the neurodiversity paradigm , which helps us view autism and other forms of neurodivergence in functional and humane ways.
In the pathology paradigm, we are trained to see nearly every manifestation of difference in autistic brains as wrong and in need of fixing. But through the neurodiversity paradigm, which views all types of brains as aspects of natural human diversity, we become able to see the meaning and value in autistic ways of functioning. We can treat autistic brains as undiscovered countries instead of trying to erase their distinctiveness.
I see procrastination as a form of neurodivergence that is currently branded as pathological, so it’s important to bring an empathic and neurodiversity-focused lens to what is actually happening during procrastination.
Procrastination helps us access creative internal processing
As I’ve studied task- and deadline-focused approaches to motivation, I’ve expanded the boundaries of my natural task-focused state so that I can explore procrastination. Something that has become clear to me is that a main difference between these two approaches is related to conscious and exterior processing versus unconscious and interior processing.
When I’m busily tasking away, crossing jobs off my list, and getting things done, I’m primarily in a conscious, on-task, and aware state. I’m working in an obvious way (and likely receiving praise for my work ethic).
But when I’m procrastinating and letting my tasks and plans percolate beneath my consciousness, I appear to be resting. Nothing I do looks like work; however, as we understand from research into the functions of the brain’s default mode network ( DMN ), the brain is very active.
The surprising work ethic of a resting brain
As Mary Immordino-Yang and her colleagues discovered in their 2012 research , a mind at rest is anything but lazy. During rest, daydreaming, and “do-nothing” periods, the DMN is actively pruning away unimportant data, connecting memories with information in new ways, accessing emotions and social awareness, and developing novel ideas from our experiences.
During these procrastination periods, we’re not lazy; we’re planning beneath consciousness, focusing on the deadline we know is coming, and preparing our game plan in creative, internal ways. Immordino-Yang and her colleagues call this “constructive internal reflection,” during which we’re not working away like machines or completing never-ending tasks as if we’re on a conveyor belt. In these procrastination periods, we’re allowing our brains to work in the depths in surprising ways that may make our final projects remarkably original.
Rest is crucial for our brains and our mental health, and procrastination is a form of rest.
But because deadline-oriented procrastination is mistakenly viewed from within the pathology paradigm, our procrastination-supported projects may look like magic to people who only see conscious and external task-orientation as valid.
Luckily, though, there’s a way to access that internal magic.
Accessing the genius of procrastination
This may seem too easy, but the trick to procrastination is to simply rest . Put down the lists, the timers, the productivity aids, and the external prompts. Get up from the computer and go do nothing. Listen to birds. Stare at the sky. Go for a walk and let your mind wander. Daydream. Meditate if that works for you.
Get off the task-completing treadmill and let your brain rest . Trust that you have an internal sense of timing and that your innate abilities will flourish without you having to push yourself constantly.
If you’re a natural deadline-oriented procrastinator, this transition will be pretty simple, neurologically speaking, because it’s your natural way of working. Procrastination may feel easy for you, like falling off a log. However, it may not feel easy socially or emotionally because you may have spent decades in the dungeon of the pathology paradigm—and you may need to reconsider and reframe the ways you have been taught to view yourself as flawed. If you’re a naturally task-oriented person like me, this transition may be more difficult. You will not only be working in an unaccustomed way but also stepping away from a lifetime of praise (because you do things “right”), into the endlessly degraded and pathologized state of procrastination.
But try it anyway. Your DMN will thank you, and you may discover, like I did , that there’s creative magic in seemingly doing nothing while your brain works away beneath your consciousness.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., Christodoulou, J. A., & Singh, V. (2012). Rest is not idleness: Implications of the brain’s default mode for human development and education. Perspectives on psychological science , 7 (4), 352-364.
Lamia, M. (2017). What Motivates Getting Things Done: Procrastination, Emotions, and Success . Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
McLaren, K. (2020). Embracing Anxiety: How to Access the Genius in this Vital Emotion . New York, NY: St. Martin's.
McLaren, K. (2023, revised edition). The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings are Trying to Tell You . New York, NY: St. Martin's.
Walker, N. (2016). Autism & the Pathology Paradigm . Neuroqueer.com. https://neuroqueer.com/autism-and-the-pathology-paradigm/
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Karla McLaren, M.Ed., is an author, educator, workplace consultant, social science researcher, and emotions and empathy innovator.
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