My name is Scott Ballard, and I’m a procrastinator. I’ve been a procrastinator for 58 years. For all those years, in school and in business, I’ve been told that procrastination is a problem. That I should feel bad about it; that it makes me less of a leader or executive — that I should feel guilty. And that it’s somehow heaped a bunch of stress and strain on me and on my business. But I want to talk to you today about a different way of looking at procrastination, and maybe give you an idea that you’ve never considered:  maybe your procrastination is actually embedded in the genius of your mind.

Maybe procrastination is actually telling you something important:  that you need more info, or that this isn’t the right time, or that it’s not the right business venture to get into, or that’s not the right person to promote. Have you ever thought that your procrastination is actually working for you? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself, Why am I procrastinating about this? Perhaps your procrastination is actually your secret weapon.

What if you sat down at the end of your work day and you honestly said, What are the three things that I’m procrastinating on the most in my business? If you clearly identified those three things, and resolved that tomorrow, no matter what happened, you would take the next step on each of them — what would you be doing? Maybe procrastination is a bad habit. But maybe it’s your compass.

Procrastination: Good or bad? You decide.