Procrastinate on Purpose

Procrastinate on Purpose Plot Summary

Introduction

In our high-speed world, time management has become a myth that keeps us frantically running on a hamster wheel. Despite our best efforts to squeeze more into each day, we often end up feeling overwhelmed, behind, and unfulfilled. What if the solution isn't about managing time better, but about multiplying it? The truth is that traditional approaches to productivity fail because they only offer two solutions: doing things faster (running) or perpetually reprioritizing tasks (juggling). But ultra-performers—those who achieve extraordinary results—operate on an entirely different plane. They've discovered how to transcend the limitations of time by making decisions through a unique lens of significance. They understand that the key isn't working harder or smarter, but rather investing time on things today that create more time tomorrow. This revolutionary approach not only transforms productivity but also brings peace, purpose, and remarkable results into both your professional and personal life.

Chapter 1: Redefining Time: Beyond Management to Multiplication

The way we traditionally think about time management is fundamentally flawed. For decades, we've been taught that efficiency is the goal—working faster to fit more tasks into our day. But this approach has a fatal flaw: there will always be more to do than you can ever possibly accomplish. The jar of your day will inevitably overflow. Consider farmer James, who discovered this truth the hard way. After inheriting his family farm, he prided himself on his efficiency—working fourteen-hour days, multitasking constantly, and moving at breakneck speed. Yet despite his frenetic pace, he constantly felt behind, watching deadlines pass and opportunities slip away. During a particularly stressful harvest season, his neighbor Troy noticed his struggle and shared a perspective that changed everything. "You're managing your time well," Troy observed, "but what if instead of just managing it, you could multiply it?" He explained that while most people operate on two dimensions—urgency (how soon something matters) and importance (how much it matters)—true multipliers add a third dimension: significance (how long something will matter). James began applying this perspective to his farm operations. Instead of just working faster on urgent daily tasks, he invested time in creating systems and training his workers. He spent three full days implementing an irrigation system that initially felt like time he couldn't spare—but that ultimately saved him twenty hours every month thereafter. He trained his farmhands thoroughly rather than doing everything himself, temporarily sacrificing productivity but gaining tremendous capacity long-term. To multiply your own time, start by recognizing the difference between one-dimensional thinking (efficiency), two-dimensional thinking (prioritization), and three-dimensional thinking (multiplication). Then follow this core principle: spend time on things today that create more time tomorrow. This might mean eliminating unnecessary tasks entirely, automating repetitive processes, delegating effectively, strategically postponing certain tasks, or deeply concentrating on what matters most. Remember that time multiplication isn't just logical—it's emotional. Many of us struggle with giving ourselves permission to say no, to invest in systems that take time upfront, to delegate imperfectly, or to leave things incomplete. The journey to multiplication requires both strategic thinking and emotional courage. The results speak for themselves. When James embraced this approach, his farm's productivity doubled within a year while his working hours decreased. More importantly, he finally experienced peace and control over his schedule rather than being controlled by it. Your journey to time multiplication begins with this fundamental shift in perspective.

Chapter 2: Eliminate: Give Yourself Permission to Ignore

Elimination is the first and most powerful strategy to multiply your time. It's about giving yourself permission to completely ignore certain tasks, requests, and obligations—those things that simply don't deserve your attention or energy. This approach echoes the wisdom of French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Ron Lamb, president of a billion-dollar software company with over four thousand team members, exemplifies this principle through his approach to meetings. "All the time I'm getting invited to meetings that I don't need to be a part of!" he explains. His solution was implementing a "Need to Know, Need to Be" policy throughout his organization. This simple but powerful approach distinguishes between who truly needs to be in a meeting to make decisions (usually very few people) versus who simply needs to know the outcome (often many more). "Meetings are expensive," Ron points out. "If you add up the value of everyone's time and what they could be doing instead, you quickly realize that unnecessary meetings must be eliminated." His team now rigorously audits standing meetings and has implemented a practice of "precisely codifying and effectively communicating" decisions to those who need to know rather than requiring their presence. The result? Many weekly meetings have become monthly meetings, saving approximately thirty-six hours per year per person. To implement elimination in your own life, start by identifying what you can simply stop doing. Look for re-decisions (revisiting the same choice repeatedly), unnecessary meetings, long emails that should be conversations, confrontation emails that should be in-person discussions, gossip, and unreasonable people or requests. A particularly powerful area to eliminate is the compulsion to share your opinion on everything—most people don't need it and will be fine without it. The biggest obstacle to elimination is our fear of saying no. We worry about disappointing others, appearing unhelpful, or missing out. But here's the truth: you are always saying no to something. When you say yes to one thing, you are simultaneously saying no to something else. The question is whether you're consciously saying no to things that don't matter or unconsciously saying no to things that do. When saying no feels difficult, remember you can decline graciously. Use phrases like "As much as I would like to help you, I simply can't right now" or "I'm really stretched thin right now and I promised myself I wouldn't take on anything else." The most successful people have mastered the art of saying no with honesty, integrity and class. Give yourself permission to ignore—without ramping down time or needing to explain anything to anyone. Your highest obligation isn't to do everything; it's to focus your finite time and energy on what truly matters. Every second you spend on things that don't create value is one more second you're stealing from the people and purposes that deserve your best.

Chapter 3: Automate: Create Systems That Work While You Don't

Automation is the powerful art of investing time today to create systems that will save you exponentially more time tomorrow. It's about recognizing that certain processes can be systematized to run without your constant attention—allowing your results to multiply while your direct involvement decreases. Scott Bormann, an executive for a global animal health company overseeing more than five hundred people in North America, uses a framework he calls "G.R.O.W." to determine which processes are worth automating. "The biggest challenge with time is prioritizing our key impact areas," he explains. "It's constantly working to answer the question 'What can I do right now that will have the greatest impact on our business and for our customers?'" The G.R.O.W. framework helps Scott evaluate potential investments of time and resources: "G stands for 'Goal Alignment.' If we make this investment or change, will the resulting impact align with our future goals? R stands for 'Realistic Possibility.' Is there an infrastructure that allows us to accomplish this objective? O stands for 'Opportunity Value.' Can we really see ourselves competing in that space? And W stands for 'Way Forward.' How do we get there and at what rate?" Using this framework, Scott's team has successfully automated numerous processes, from customer service systems to training programs. Rather than repeatedly addressing the same questions or problems, they've created solutions that work continuously without constant supervision. One example was restructuring their teams and geographic responsibilities to make them more responsive to customer needs—a painful short-term investment that yielded tremendous long-term gains in efficiency and service quality. To implement automation in your own life and work, look for repetitive tasks that consume your time: Frequently asked questions can be compiled into accessible resources; online bill payments can be set up to eliminate monthly manual processing; data backup systems can protect your information automatically; social media management tools can schedule posts across multiple platforms; and client follow-up can be programmed to maintain relationships systematically. The challenge for most people isn't identifying what could be automated—it's giving themselves permission to invest the necessary time upfront. There's often an emotional resistance to spending time today on something that won't show immediate results, even when the long-term return is enormous. Scott addresses this directly: "If we end up doing something wrong, we can always correct it, but if we just sit around and pontificate and procrastinate, then there isn't anything we can do with it. The greatest sin isn't doing the wrong thing; it's doing nothing." Remember that automation is to your time what compounding interest is to your money. Just as money invested grows exponentially over time, so too do the returns on well-designed systems. The initial investment may feel substantial, but the cumulative time saved over months and years makes it one of the most powerful multiplication strategies available. Give yourself permission to invest in creating systems that will work while you don't.

Chapter 4: Delegate: Embrace the Power of Imperfection

Delegation is the strategic art of entrusting tasks to others, allowing you to focus on activities that truly require your unique expertise and talents. While the concept seems straightforward, many high-achievers struggle with delegation due to perfectionism—the belief that no one else can perform tasks to their standards. Troy Peple, a successful serial entrepreneur, learned the power of delegation early in life. "At age ten, I discovered there was more margin in cutting lawns, so I switched from my paper route. One week we were going on vacation, and I asked one of my buddies to help me out. When he asked how much I would pay him, I paused and said, 'Five dollars.' He agreed immediately. So he cut three lawns for me for fifteen dollars, and I made sixty dollars. After that, I hired as many kids as I could to cut lawns for five dollars, and instead of spending forty hours a week cutting lawns myself, I spent four hours a week selling lawn services." This early lesson in multiplication through delegation shaped Troy's entire career. He realized that certain activities created dramatically more results in less time—he had discovered leverage. "My strength is establishing vision," he explains, "and my contribution is to think and take risk to create more value for everyone. A limiting belief for most people is thinking 'no one can do it as well as I can,' and while I have found that to be true, it is only true for a very short while." Troy acknowledges that letting go of control isn't always easy. "If you get really good at getting rid of everything, then if you're not careful you can become really bad at getting things done yourself," he admits. But he remains convinced that delegation is worth the initial discomfort: "80 percent done by everybody else is always better than 100 percent done by me." To implement effective delegation in your own life, start by calculating what economists call the Return On Time Invested (R.O.T.I.). Consider this example: If a daily task takes you five minutes to complete, you should plan to spend about 150 minutes (30 times longer) training someone else to do it. While this initially seems inefficient, the math proves otherwise. If that five-minute task occurs 250 working days per year, you'll spend 1,250 minutes annually on it. By investing 150 minutes in training someone else, you save 1,100 minutes every year—a 733% return on your time investment. The Money Value Of Time (M.V.O.T.) concept further reinforces delegation's value. Everyone has an hourly wage, whether explicitly stated or not. When you perform tasks that someone with a lower hourly rate could handle, you're essentially paying premium rates for basic work. You're always paying someone to complete a task—either someone else at their rate or yourself at yours. The greatest barrier to delegation isn't logical but emotional—the fear of imperfection. To overcome this, you must give yourself "the permission of imperfect." Accept that others might not perform tasks exactly as you would—at least initially. Embrace the natural process of learning through mistakes. As leadership expert Andy Stanley wisely noted, "Leadership isn't about getting things done right. It's about getting things done through other people." By mastering delegation and releasing your need for perfection, you'll not only multiply your own time but also develop the capabilities of those around you. Your results will grow exponentially as you build an army of capable individuals rather than remaining a lone warrior, no matter how talented.

Chapter 5: Procrastinate on Purpose: The Strategic Patience

Strategic procrastination—or what we call "Procrastinating on Purpose"—turns conventional wisdom on its head. Unlike ordinary procrastination born of avoidance or laziness, this is the intentional decision to delay certain tasks because now is not the optimal time to complete them. It's the recognition that sometimes waiting is the most strategic choice. Michael Book, who leads a financial services agency with over $2 billion in assets under management, constantly makes these timing decisions. With hundreds of emails daily and frequent interruptions from his team of 130 producers, Michael has developed a framework for determining what deserves his immediate attention and what can wait. "What you have to realize is that today the vast majority of the pressures you feel in your life are not from your emergencies; they are from other people putting their urgency on you—and you can't let that happen," Michael explains. "I don't let other people's urgency become mine unless I decide that it really is an emergency and I am their only solution." Michael distinguishes between urgency and emergency: "Urgency is someone just wanting the immediate gratification of an instant answer or completing something for the sake of completing it. Emergency is something truly significant that must be dealt with right now because there is a substantially negative impact of dealing with it later." His litmus test is simple but powerful: "Can this wait until later?" When forced to answer this question honestly, people often realize the answer is yes. If it can wait, then it should wait—allowing focus on truly time-sensitive matters. This doesn't mean ignoring responsibilities, but rather scheduling them for the optimal time. The wisdom in strategic waiting comes from recognizing that in our dynamic world, things constantly change. When you take action too early, you become vulnerable to "unexpected change cost." Consider a company that orders twenty thousand extra units to have "plenty on hand," only to have their product rendered obsolete by a competitor's innovation two months later. Or think about emptying your bank account for a new car, only to miss an incredible real estate opportunity days later. To implement strategic procrastination effectively, develop the habit of batching similar activities together. Rather than checking email continuously throughout the day, designate specific times for processing messages in batches. Rather than writing thank-you notes one at a time, accumulate them for a dedicated session. This reduces the substantial cost of switching between different types of tasks—what efficiency experts call "intermittent change cost." Mastering strategic procrastination requires finding balance between two extremes. "Gun Slingers" have no fear about waiting until the last minute but may occasionally act too late. "Worry Warts" want to complete tasks immediately but risk acting too hastily and exposing themselves to unexpected change costs. The ideal approach combines patience with appropriate urgency. The emotional challenge for many high-achievers is giving themselves "the permission of incomplete"—accepting that work is never truly finished and that everything remains a work in progress. By embracing this truth and strategically delaying certain tasks, you create space for what matters most. You free yourself from the constant pressure to do everything immediately and gain the perspective needed to focus on what truly deserves your attention now. As Michael Book summarizes: "My ultimate responsibility is to always be looking down the road to what is going to create the best success for the entire organization. I can write checks to make problems go away, but I can't write checks to get me more time."

Chapter 6: Concentrate: Protect What Matters Most

The final and perhaps most crucial strategy for multiplying your time is concentration—giving yourself permission to protect what matters most. After eliminating unnecessary tasks, automating systems, delegating appropriately, and strategically postponing what can wait, you're left with your true priorities. These are the activities that demand your full, undivided attention and energy. Tonya Mayer, who built a team of fourteen hundred people in just four and a half years while raising four young boys, mastered the art of concentration through what she calls "fifteen-minute pockets." "Once I started to be intentional about every moment of my day," she explains, "I discovered that it's amazing how many little fifteen-minute intervals we waste throughout the day—waiting for appointments, standing in line, or commuting in the car." Rather than trying to find large blocks of uninterrupted time that rarely materialized in her busy life, Tonya learned to fully concentrate during these brief windows. "When I ask people if they have ten to fifteen extra hours in their week to put into something, they'd say, 'No way.' But when I ask if they can make two or three phone calls in a few fifteen-minute 'pockets' throughout the day, they say, 'Of course!'" The key to making these concentrated bursts effective was eliminating distractions and being crystal clear about priorities. "At this point for me, it's pretty simple," Tonya says. "I've determined that the most impactful thing I can be doing is training up my leaders and personally recruiting to lead by example. Those are the two main activities that are going to help my team grow." To implement concentration in your own life, start by asking this critical question: "Is what I'm doing right now the next most significant use of my time?" This helps you identify your true priority—not just what's urgent or important in the moment, but what will create the most valuable long-term results. A priority is any task that rises to such a level of significance that it is beyond the convenience of what your schedule allows. By definition, you can only have one priority at any given moment—it's whatever you are choosing to focus on right now. If what you're currently doing isn't aligned with your highest goals and values, stop immediately and redirect your attention. The greatest challenge to concentration is our fear of letting others down. We trade significant activities for insignificant ones because we worry about appearing mean, resistant, disloyal, or selfish. We must give ourselves "the permission to protect" our priorities by temporarily ignoring less important matters. As Tonya puts it: "Each second I'm procrastinating, or not doing what I'm supposed to be doing, or I'm distracted, is one more second that is being taken away from the time I get to spend with my family—and that is just not something I'm willing to trade." Remember this essential truth: your highest obligation to other people is to be your highest self. Just as airplane safety instructions direct you to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others, you must protect your most significant priorities to be of greatest service to those around you. You were put on earth to do something that no one else can do, and if you don't concentrate on that purpose, you inhibit both your potential and others'. When a task passes through all the checkpoints of evaluation and stands as truly significant, protect the time needed to complete it with fierce dedication. Turn off notifications, close your email, inform colleagues you're unavailable, and give yourself entirely to that single focus. Your dream matters too much to lose to distraction.

Summary

Throughout this journey, we've explored a revolutionary approach to time that transcends traditional management techniques. The core message remains powerfully simple: you multiply your time by spending time on things today that create more time tomorrow. This isn't about squeezing more into each day but making strategic choices that compound your effectiveness exponentially over time. The five permissions—to Eliminate, Automate, Delegate, Procrastinate strategically, and Concentrate—provide a framework for making these multiplication decisions. As Troy Peple wisely observed, "With my skill set, I am infinitely better off owning 10 percent of ten businesses that other people run, than owning 100 percent of things that I have to run." This perfectly captures the multiplier mindset: creating systems and relationships that generate results far beyond what you could achieve alone. Your next step is simple but profound: identify one area where you're currently struggling with time pressure and apply the Focus Funnel. Ask yourself what you could eliminate entirely, what systems you could create, what you could delegate, what could wait until later, and what truly deserves your concentrated attention right now. By consistently making these decisions through the lens of significance, you'll not only transform your productivity but also experience the peace that comes from aligning your time with what truly matters.

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Rory Vaden

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