The topic of the day is AI and structured procrastination. So, what is structured procrastination? Maybe the best example for structured procrastination is to make up a to-do list that lists the first item as “Make up a to-do list” and then mark it off. The idea of structured procrastination is that we have a lot of things to do in life. Many of them take a really long time and when things are ambiguous and take a really long time, we don’t feel progress. Think about a very difficult task of designing a new book, let’s say. Thinking about the structure. I could be thinking and thinking and thinking. Somehow it may be productive, but it’s very hard to measure. On the other hand, if I have emails and I move from having 1,124 to 1,118 emails, I know I made progress. So, we do all kinds of things that give us a sense of progress, even though it’s not ideal progress. And structured procrastination is the general term for this. We answer email, we check things off a to-do list, we make a to-do list. We do all these things that give us a sense that we are making progress. That’s structured procrastination.
Now, why do I want to talk about this and AI? There are lots of things that AI can do to make people very productive and get more out there. But one of the things that I find about myself is that I don’t use AI for any of my core tasks. I don’t use it to write. I don’t use it to think. I don’t use it much to plan. But instead, I use it to do all kinds of things that I’m just not good at.
So, for example, I created an app for smart electricity in my apartment. I created a decision aid to help think about finances. I’m now thinking about another decision aid to think about whether we should stay in the same job or not. But I’m doing all of this and it’s not my top skill. I’m taking AI to use for something I’m not that good at, And I’m using it to do something that I could never achieve without it. And I’m unbelievably grateful.
But why do I connect this to structured procrastination? Because what I find is that I do lots of little things that don’t matter that much, but it gives me a sense of progress. I change the icons. I change the size of the font. When I say I change, I mean, I look at the output and I give Claude Code my instructions on how to do things differently. And I’m creating all of those things, or I’m giving instructions to create all of those things, and there’s lots of extra effort and extra time that goes into things that are not real progress. Eventually those things are just for me to look at. Nobody else sees them. Why is it that important? It is important.
And I do want to say one other thing that is more positive. It sounds like I’m blaming AI for giving me more structured procrastination. And I’m doing that a little bit. But I also think that it’s giving me an artistic outlet. You know, I think that people in general have a desire for an artistic outlet. And I think it’s not easy to generate one. But with AI, we can create more artistic outlets. Now, is it an artistic outlet at the level of real artists? No. Would it be a shame if all artistic outlets are satisfied with what AI can provide? Absolutely yes. But for me, it gives me a few more hours of structured procrastination and a few more hours of something that I feel is an artistic outlet.
So, let’s not fall too much into structured procrastination—but a little bit of it, especially if it comes together with an artistic output, I think it’s certainly worthwhile.
