Look at @thesweetfeminist for the finest politically active procrastibaking!
1
How disappointing that Moskin didn't credit the originator of the coinage- Aya Reina- whose cleverness was first brought to light by no other than Nigella Lawson.
1
My go to is Challah...I love kneading the dough and with 3 rises, I have something to look forward to...plus the 6 strand braid keeps my brain sharp! And in the end I have 2 loaves of great bread to eat!!!
3
Brownies tomorrow... or is that procrastinating...?
Tomorrow I will put together the 4 ingredients in no-knead bread to bake the day after, and make the cinnamon rolls from Stella Parks' "Bravetart: Iconic American Desserts" to bake first thing the next day.
Her volume just won the 2018 James Beard Book Award for Best Baking and Desserts; I have to adjust most things for altitude, then everything comes out perfectly.
I procrsticook.
Sounds like a bunch of people with Inattentive A.D.H.D to me. Inattentive types love to do activities that are easy and feels like you are accomplishing something, but your real work never gets done. Get evaluated!
1
While you're not wrong, I'd rather knit and bake than live my life on legal meth.
7
Rather a dull comment giving how baking takes one out of themselves and ultimately, all enjoy except apparently ... you. sad!
3
Don't forget procrastiknitting. It's the new basket weaving. So therapeutic! You can do it even while you are procrastibaking.
10
How about a link to a recipe for millionaire's shortbread for my next round of procrastibaking?
3
Procrastigardening is a real thing, and no, I’m not interested in a cure, thanks.
8
I’m confessing to procrastigardening. Evil habit when the sun is shining, and grass could use a little mow, and the garden bed a little weeding and pruning. Multiple visits to plant nurseries to fill in those empty spots with new plants!
3
This is absolutely brilliant, borders on the philosophical, who knew I had a peer group. But today I resisted the temptation to procrastibake bread. I remained at the computer and procrasti-youtubed videos about blockchain. It's coming alright. Tomorrow it's back to kitchen or laundry room for some other procrasti-tangible activity.
2
So-called ‘procrastibaking’ is a lot like the term ‘foodie:’ both suggest disposable income for food as hobby rather than food as necessity.
Anyone who is a baker knows that one needs much more than a sheet pan to bake (as claimed in the article). Ingredients, kitchen equipment, tools, and supplies are cost-prohibitive for many. Nowhere in this article is privilege or its privileged perspective acknowledged.
2
Flour, salt, water, and time is really all that's needed to bake. A sheet pan is helpful, and frankly necessary for any kitchen with an oven, but a large stone in your oven could work. I suppose you might be thinking of the cost of the electricity, which I also consider. There are tools that assist, and ingredients that help, but down to basics, you dont need much. I didn't think 1.50 for flour, 1 for salt, and pennies for water would be prohibitively expensive. Learning to make sourdough is fun, cheap, and can easily allow you to procrastinate for entire days. Sure, you could say one needs a mixer, but hands work too. I've got a dough whisk I got for less than $5 that makes working with dough a breeze, easier than a stand mixer. Add one more ingredient, yeast, which when bought by the lb($4-$6) will last years in the freezer. I've been using the same bag for over a year. Might be halfway through with regular weekly baking. I do end up spending more on specialty flours because of my curiosity, but I end up spending less on food in the long run when I end up with homemade bread loaves and buns for the cost of spare change. Even when I use the high end flour, I can make a batch of 6 pita breads for about $.50. Which at the store is maybe$2.50 on sale and a mockery to fresh pita. If you've got a kitchen with an oven, it's so worth the investment to learn to bake.
12
You mention time as if it were nothing. The time one spends procrastibaking is often the time many of us need to use working to pay rent. Comparing learning to bake and eat healthier as in your example of the fresh pita is NOT the same as baking because you can afford in every sense of the word to not do the work you need to do.
I am not alone! Who knew? Thanks NYT!
As the author of 50 books, I never before acknowledged the role of a great loaf of walnut sourdough in getting the creative yeasts rising!
3
This could have been written about my daughter, a grad student in Philadelphia. It is especially bad when she comes home to get out of the city. Our kitchen resembles a war zone ... and our bank accounts take on the look of the national debt as we pay for all the ingredients ... to say nothing of our expanding waste-lines.
But, as I dive into another piece of butterscotch-bourbon pie, I tell myself I'm doing it for my daughter.
Now, please pass the French press!
9
Procrastibaking? Oh yeah. Typically on the weekend, when I have to write lesson plans for the week. I have never learned to knit, so no procrastiknitting. And I don't like gardening, so no procrastigardening. But...I believe I'm an expert at procrastigoogling. There is always something to be looked up that MUST be attended to RIGHT NOW, or I will be forced to live without that essential bit of information. (A variant is procrastiposting, which I'm doing right now while my granola ingredients and my lesson plans await...)
7
I procrastibaked, and also procrasticooked, all the way through my dissertation. Couldn't work w/o peanut butter cookies and Coca-Cola! Gained 30 lbs, despite thrice weekly bike trips to do laps at the pool. Fortunately the dissertation did get done, and on time. Also fortunately, the weight slipped away so quickly after I finished that my doctor was worried I had something nasty!
2
I never finished my dissertation or wrote more than a couple chapters of a text book but I make a good loaf of bread. Who knew all those years I was just procrastibaking? We now need a word for making pasta from scratch to avoid grading papers.
5
I realized that cooking was a psychological balm for me in October 1985 as we prepared to visit Washington, DC with our two sons who were under 10 years old. That was not the point. Packing a suitcase was. That same autumn Marion Cunningham’s recipe for her Italian plum cake was published in the San Francisco Chronicle (I learned years later it had also been published in the NYT; it is now a classic). She learned the recipe from a friend. I loved her story that accompanied the recipe. Two days before leaving on our trip, I began baking and made eight of these cakes and then froze them. For me they signified “home” and made me happy, knowing I had an abundant supply of wonderful, comforting treats waiting for our arrival home. They still signify home and comfort food. Over the years I learned that cooking keeps me from tasks I dislike (mostly packing), and I realize I love home the best, with the kitchen as my favorite place in the world. I find comfort knowing good food will await my homecoming.
6
Marian Burros. It is easy and delish.
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/3783-original-plum-torte
2
I thought it was just me!
9
I have found my people.
16
I hope procrastibake is followed by procrastercise.
8
"recently got a name," huh? i guess i am a trendsetter, as i have been procrastibaking under that moniker since undergrad almost 15 years ago. i guess someone has to utter the word in new york city limits for it to become "new" and "news."
3
While editing fiction, I procrastibaked my way into a freelance baking job where I develop and photograph recipes #sourdough :)
3
I am glad that bakers are finally getting in on the "procrasti" movement. I have been procrastiknitting for years now! Procrastiknitting is often done to avoid something (anything really) that you simply CAN NOT do right now. Thanks for the chuckle!
3
I'm am also a procrastiknitter. And procrastibaker. Now, to achieve maximum levels of pseudo-productivity, you must procrastibake your procastiknitting.
Now we need a word for when you bake something from scratch to avoid going out into the world and dealing with people. Too lazy to leave the house, so you bake from scratch something like hamburger buns or pizza.
I'm so relieved to know I am not alone. I do not bake (no one wants me to bake as I'm miserable at it). But for decades I've been procrasticooking..
3
The secret to consistent baking is weighing your ingredients. The method by which you scoop your flour into a measuring cup can result in variances ( /-) 100 grams. That can make a big impact on your breads. Instead, break out your kitchen scale, and weigh by grams. The smaller measurement allows for greater accuracy and easier calculations of bakers percentages. King Arthur Flour has some great online resources. Great recipes, an ingredient weight chart that is a really handy reference tool, and a bakers hotline if you need professional assistance, and it's all free. There's no need to fear. Beating on some dough while you hand knead is extremely cathartic.
3
Exactly! Just have to remember that cooking is an art, but baking is a science.
1
If you really want to procrastibake, take up the art of learning how to macarons and meringues. This will take up plenty of time as both require time to procure materials and to test many many times until you master a decent batch. Of course there is the required reading both on the Internet, books and YouTube videos.
1
Making Paris-Brest could take two days.
When writing my dissertation, I baked a lot because it was everything that my dissertation was not. It was tangible, it could be finished quickly, others understood it and I could share it with others.
8
I procrasticooked today. Delicious bean soup is now ready for the rest of the week. Glad I now have a word for it.
3
Meal prepping seems way too productive to be procrasticooking. You've gotta make something extra. Like granola. Something you could easily not make yourself, but you will waste the time to do it.
2
I can't bake, but I can offer a tip to deal with procrastinating.
Split up the task into a few chunks. If the first chunk is too large, repeat the process until the first step becomes almost trivial (like "Open the email from boss").
Do this first step.
Then the next.
Pretty soon the momentum builds up and progress happens.
Then do the baking. Or, as in my case, go to the bakery shop :-)
Not only do I procrastibake, I am even better at procrastiknitting. Knitting takes precedence over all other activities and, as a "soothing mechanism", is effective in reducing the stress of avoiding those other activities like house cleaning, sweeping, gardening, grocery shopping, and job/volunteer commitments. Because procrastiknitting yields tangible results, there is concrete proof that no time was "wasted." Procrastiknitters can feel even more virtuous when they devote days to rearranging and storing the stash of yarn, books, patterns and magazines necessary to support the habit. I recently spent an entire day sorting buttons (used for knitting projects) into a new system. Procrastiknitting is also a way of overcoming "gumption traps."
8
I dabble in Procrastimoving. Rearranging furniture allows me to solve a problem that I didn't even know I had -- instead of the one right in front of me (like studying, writer's block, research, making a doctor's appointment, you name it...). At the end of my redesign, I feel I've been immensely productive. Oftentimes I get a better workout (lifting, pushing, bending and climbing) than I would at the gym. After a shower and admiration of my newly designed space -- I'm ready for a nap.
10
I recognize this syndrome, even though for me it's Procrastigardening. Back when my eyes and hands were more deft it was sewing, but I almost always do some warmup puttering before getting down to studio time.
9
Yesterday was a batch of masoor dal. Of course, naan was needed to properly eat the dal. Once the dough is made, no sense to just make the one naan for lunch, so the full batch of 6 was made, sequentially sizing, then rolling and finally taking their allotted time in the cast iron skillet. Afterwards, each naan is treated to an individual wrap before a deep freeze. My concentration then turns to restoring the seasoning on my cast iron skillet. Thank goodness for conference calls and hands-free earbuds!
13
I thought I baked because it was a stress reliever! But after reading your article I recognized myself. I'm the one who when faced with making a huge dinner party, plans and bakes cakes and cookies first! I used to work from home and often had a cake in the oven while working on a project. Now that I work away from home, I search the internet and compile recipes while at my desk. Those kitchen sink cookies-- they were all I could thing of all day-- they are in the oven now as I type.
4
I thought it was called "stress baking." I've been doing it for years (although there is a tipping point beyond which I'm too stressed to do anything *but* work). My colleague sees the cookies in the break room and says, "I'm sorry you're stressed but it works out well for me!"
15
For more about the benefits and solution-yielding results of switching from left-brain intense focus to right-brain, more-free and intuitive brain activity, see "The Breakout Principle" by Harvard's Herbert Benson, and "A Whole New Mind" by delightfully positive best-selling author Daniel Pink. Both emphasize the benefits of active or passive immersion in the arts - whether cooking, making/listening to music, painting, photography, etc. - as a necessary respite that allows the often over-worked left brain to "gestate" the solutions. My favorite example from the Benson book: the McKinsey consultant who supposedly turns to knitting when he is faced with a particularly challenging client situation - consulting is a craft by any other name, involving a lot of active listening and quiet reflection in order to devise solutions. I'm a strategy consultant who advises nonprofits on how to generate and demonstrate impact and value to donors - very rewarding but very challenging when the metrics are more qualitative than quantitative. My favorite diversion is changing out the decor in my home: pillows, art, throws, flowers, etc. So, perhaps we should call it: "ProCRAFTinate".
12
I do all of these that circumstances allow - procrastibake, procrastiread, procrasticrochet - but I don't have outdoor space to procrastigarden. Does meticulously checking a potted plant for health count?
Also, I have to riff on Amy Senetmentes' contribution that "the content of your product should not be something that you need to make in order to meet your daily nutritional needs", because my procrastibaking sometimes morphs into making something unduly complex compared to our usual weeknight dinners-for-two - maybe chicken cordon bleu or jaegerschnitzel or some dish with unusual flavors I've wanted to try - with all the sides and a nice dessert. We need _something_ for dinner, but it doesn't have to be that. "Procrasticooking"?
12
I prochesstinate (on my computer).
I remember two grotesque procrastibaking episodes from college. I was renting a room for the summer in a large apartment mainly occupied by grad students, one of whom owned a copy of the Craig Claiborne NYT cookbook. I made a 3 layer pesto, mozzorella, tomato sauce pizza (made the pesto myself of course), and on another occasion saw a recipe that vaguely resembled my favorite meal ever: "Cotalette de Volaille" from the Russian Tea Room (a ground chicken, veal, parsley mixture wrapped in a thick-crusted pounded chicken cutlet). I made a mushroom sherry sauce for the chicken. I was procrastibaking from Russian and medieval literature courses.
But nowadays (what with my prochesstinating and other distractions and responsibilities), I don't have time to procrastibake, but I definitely do procrastieat.
8
I was a procrastibaking enthusiast in law school. Never baked so much bread in my life! I miss baking now that I have an office job.
4
Me too! I procrastibaked all the way through that three-year slog. Some of my classmates rented a house a couple blocks away, so I'd call them to come get the finished products -- it was the baking I needed, not the eating. So those guys lived on fresh cookies, cakes, and pies from my tiny apartment. I should have dropped out and gone to work in a bakery, but then maybe I wouldn't love it as much.
2
Nice story Emily! But as to dropping out of law school and working in a bakery, maybe you'd be on the Supreme Court by now, having learned all that law when you were supposed to be kneading and sifting.
1
Spooky to think the NYT has been looking over my shoulder...
19
ProcrastiGARDENING is great to!
10
I was going to dutifully get up to speed with todays news in the Times but...naaaah. Raspberry corn muffins coming right up!
6
Knitting is less fattening.
11
Most everything become a cute label. WASTE of ink!
Well, many of us are only spilling e-ink...
1
I guess I'm old. We called it a study break.
6
Quite different.
After all these years, there's a name for this? I finally feel legitimized instead of being accused of fattening up my colleagues.
4
So there's a name for what I very often do.
1
I procrastiread. I also sometimes procrastiknit. It depends on my mood. I’m indulging in the former at the moment because I don’t want to tidy my bookshelf. The irony.
4
The swell of readers' enthusiasm for the word procrastibaking made me try and track its origin.
It is not in Merriam-Webster dictionary, and the oldest reference on the web goes back only to 2008.
But now, the reputable dailies bear the cross of Arbiter Linguae, since the gears in the heads of the lexicographers of great dictionaries turn much too slowly. Every new word, published online in the paper, enters the vocabulary of the language.
Thus all the new procrasti-something in this article are new words, legitimately entered in the word treasure of the English language.
I find moderately complicated baking projects to be the most soothing thing I can do when I'm stressed or sad or angry. I get a lot of exercise too, but sometimes the performance-based aspects of working out make it less relaxing and more of a task. Baking is the assembly of components in the perfect order and proportions, the application of heat, and then a miraculous result. I'm a scientist, and I never fail to be pleased by how a baking project works out; even if it's a mess, I still learn something! The added bonus is that then I get to eat some of the results and share the rest with friends.
9
Although it probably doesn't count as baking, I was just gathering the ingredients to make cheese blintzes for Shavuot, which I have never done before. This would be in lieu of the gardening and other household chores waiting for me. How timely!
3
Since one of the themes of Shavuot is the conclusion of the omer, referencing bundles of grain, and also the importance of gleaning the grains on the field in Megillas Ruth, I would say very timely indeed. "Procrastibaking" and the run-up to Shavuot a perfect match, or I should say "shidduch."
3
Like exercise, which I participate in daily, procrastibaking stimulates my brain and allows me to break through to new solutions to all kinds of issues! I see the activity as therapeutic, not a frivolous habit. Plus home-baked treats bring great joy to my friends and neighbors. What could be better?
6
I love the idea of channeling avoidance and/or frustration into baking and plan to try it. It certainly beats making another circuit with the vacuum.
4
I tell you what, bring your vacuum cleaner to my house, and I'll send you home w/baked goods!
Vacuuming is definitely one of the things I postpone by baking.
1
I rarely procrastinate and I rarely baked - notice the past tense. This changed after the 2016 election. After the initial shock and after resistance activities like protesting and organizing meetings got integrated into my "new normal" I began to bake.
The NYT can take credit (or blame) for facilitating this - when I have insomnia after digesting the day's bizarre and discouraging news coming out of the Whitehouse, I fall asleep to the NYT cooking app. The simple beauty of ingredients combining in predictable but surprising ways to create something that sustains and delights is like a bedtime story. The reader comments generously share cooking insights, support less able bakers and proudly relate their successes. Even when contributors scold a fellow commenter for sins like using processed cheese or low-fat substitutions, it is all in the spirit of baking and reminds me that disagreement doesn't have to be Trump-like and that people can be good and kind.
I haven't thought of clever name for my kind of baking but I am glad that I found a harmless antidote to my angst and outrage - well, except for all those calories...
50
for all the advantages cited, the baking seems rather a positive part of the work-at-homers work day...creativity, necessary rumination, reflection,darfe one add mindfulness (?), among them, hereabouts we call it integrabaking, which includes, btw, the forbidden "necessary" baking (one's daily bread), the extended, if elliptical, journey of millefoiling, as well as the usual subjects, scones, cake and the humble pie (scratch crust only).
I don't do social media so I've thought I was alone all of these years. Thought I don't call it procrastibake, I call it baking therapy. I do make cakes but when I'm really stressed I make artisan bread. Loaves and loaves of it. I have one recipe that actually gathers free yeast from the air. It takes forever to make it.
20
I "procrastiMAKE"all the time, usually not baking but teaching myself new cultural food styles. I'm acing the Pad Thai lately. Still haven't gotten the Indian flavors right, yet. It's the best therapy when the tasks you're avoiding are emotionally difficult to tackle.
4
I retired 3/31 after 38 years, so far I’ve baked eight loaves of bread, four or five of batches of Madeleines, muffins, butter tarts and two butter milk pies.
My plans were to rearrange my cabinets, so even in retirement procrastination rears it’s wondrous head.
61
Yet another anecdotal Times piece. This is not a trend. (I bake to bake.)
1
I turned procrastibaking into a business. Then it wasn't as fun.
26
Procrasti eat. Been doing way too much of that.
15
Yes! Not only procrastieat, but when my fitness app reminds me “time to stand up” after sitting at my computer too long, I walk to the kitchen for a snack. Hey, it’s healthy, right? I’m standing up!
3
Recognized my student self immediately from the title. Back in the day before food porn or instagram or even food blogs, you had to commit with virtually no reward other than deliciousness- that was authentic procrastibaking! It was also my favorite part of grad school.
6
I take this concept a rung lower and spend an embarrassing amount of time finding THE best recipe to try also.
The NYT chocolate chip cookies make the perfect days-long diversion btw.
16
youi forgot:
procrastibiking
procrastirunning
procrastigaming
procrastieating
procrastitweeting
procrastibinging
proicrastidogwalking
procrastiipoding
procrasti-iphoning
procrasti--practically everything.
A lot of stuff is hard to do, may involve thinking, reading, decision making, working--just ask our tweeter-in-chief. He gets NOTHING done, has spent ,MORE time on the golf course in one year than Obama did in 8 years,
It is difficult to learn to play the clarinet or bassoon, or speak Chinese or Russian or French, it is difficult to read Stephen Hawkings books, living is pretty difficult sometimes. it is difficult to pick QUALIFIED candidates for elected officials and that is where procrasti-anything happens.
It is all like taking a cold shower when you are "in the mood" and I'm not talkin' Glenn Miller here. The government does it all the time with useless committee meetings a or investigations into Benghazi or Clinton cigar scandals.
We could get a lot done except we don't want to.
4
@ dve commenter calif
And for the incorrigible cigar smokers and coffee drinkers,
procrastismoking and prograstidrinking.
The latter may be interpreted more widely ...
1
Let's not forget procrastireadingtheNYTimes.
3
Chicken pot pies are my go to for this! They take all day and I do everything from scratch and mostly organic. I usually make them for people who are in some kind of pain or need comfort. It totally takes over and I don’t need to think about the horrors of our times. Everybody loves them and it is cheaper thank a shrink.
33
How many people will not comment on this because they are to busy baking?
17
Baking as a way to overcome writers block. Top story that is relevant to a majority of Americans? Or just writers writing about writers and writerly things? Can anyone say Trump 2020?
"Hi my name is Lee. And I am a procrastibaker..."
21
Better than procrastacleaning.
12
Oh, the things you can learn when you procastiNYT...!
116
If you're in an environment where you can procrastinate your "work" by baking, you're not "at work."
2
Nonsense. Many people work from home.
11
I think that's the point... or perhaps the delusion. For those of us who work at home and don't have the usual office distractions of birthdays, lunches, gossip, broken equipment, temper tantrums etc, we need a little relief.
3
I procrastindrink.
2
"My name is Lee. And I am a procrastibaker..." ;)
I'm currently procrasticrocheting a completely unnecessary afghan for the office couch.
17
I do procrasticleaning, a fine art I learned in graduate school. I would think "I have to code variables and clean data, and, oh! Would you look at those baseboards and how dusty they are!" The grout became bright. Windows sparkled. I eventually finished the dissertation.
21
One of my favorite activities! Never knew it had a name!!!
1
Upon reading this, I have come to realize that my procrastibaking is effectively helping me avoid my procrasticleaning. What an important revelation. Thanks!
27
A wonderful term!
One can also procrastigrill, procrastifry, and generally procrasticook.
3
Pie. May I say again, pie. Apple, berry, or cherry. Or pumpkin...it's zen, and then you get to eat it.
3
I am detecting a real thread of people procrastibaking in graduate school. I definitely did this while getting my masters. Perhaps this is a valid PhD dissertation topic with baked goods to bribe the professors when having to defend their thesis.
18
I procrastinate by scrubbing the shower stall, including a toothbrush finish. That happens also when I’m upset/mad, b/c I realized that the gardening option was resulting in too much radical pruning :)
8
I'm at the second level - reading articles on procrastibaking when I should be grading exams.
49
Making Italian Rainbow Cookies is an excellent example of " Procrastibake" that yields rave reviews and satisfaction.
50 million steps, the clean - up is monstrous.
Hours tick past.
Cooling time, layering, melting chocolate.
And you'll kill 45 minutes looking for the right knife to cut them with.
All this and you'll be revered in your family for decades.
11
I’m not sure what I hate more: the latest affectedly cute hashtag or myself for identifying with it.
1
I totally relate. I'm a master procrastibaker, and when I was in graduate school I vacuumed. A LOT. My apartment was always cleanest before a paper was due!
11
Articles consisting of write-in anecdotes are increasingly frequent in the NYT and need to be avoided.
Baking provides endless satisfaction in a myriad of physical and mental ways, not least the lingering endorphin-producing fragrance that can't be bought or bottled.
If it hadn't been for baking, soup making, and crossword puzzles I would not have survived the Trump Years To Date. That may literally be true. A friend gave me bags and bags of empty sugar cookie tins found in her mother's house and I used them all to give away the products of my labors.
16
I've been procrastibaking all my life and also procrasticleaning, too. I just didn't know there was a word for it. Whenever I have papers to grade, or an essay to write myself, the mixer is on and the house is clean. In my leisure time, there is nothing to eat and the house is a mess.
13
Guilty as charged. Procrastibaking has gotten me through grad school and work projects. When I shared the article with my husband, he replied: "Now there needs to be a story about the conflicted spouses. Made anxious, but enjoying the treats."
19
Really happens...my procrastination project in medical school was plucking my eyebrows. This before waxing/ "threading" etc. I hated to do it so would be a sort of relief/ punishment kinda thing. My rule to never study past midnight was unbreakable. So not much time for procrastiplucking. Now in retirement I cook for the joy of it
1
They had me at the title. When my first son was born I baked and baked and baked more (usually some type of bread with sinful sugary crumb topping). I baked for his visitors, I baked for others with whom we went to visit. The child was bathed, fed and happy, his mother (me) just had nothing else to do on mat leave. I guess that was until I realized he never had a proper, organized closet until I actually got down to doing it - he was well over a year old - and for good measure, I threw out half an apt’s worth of old goods in tandem with that closet project. I was baking!
4
"Procrastibaking — the practice of baking something completely unnecessary, with the intention of avoiding “real” work — is a surprisingly common habit that has only recently acquired a name."
What a great article! Now I don't feel alone nor do I feel like a geek. I always found reasons or excuses to avoid what needed to be done, i.e., baking is a form of therapy; cleaning the house and/or doing the dishes is a form of relaxation; and bike riding is a form of blowing off steam.
My biggest procrastinating activity has always been dusting. I guess that work would be labeled "procrastidusting". I could convince myself that a dusty book shelf, counter, or fireplace mantel took precedence over balancing the check book, finishing that research project or writing/editing that summary or justification work assignment.
A delightful article. Thanks for making me smile on a dreary and rainy Tuesday afternoon.
10
I totally did this when I was in law school. The classmate who became my wife wanted to sue me for breach of promise when it turned out, after graduation, that I don't bake when I can't use to procrastinate.
14
I do this all the time. As a writer, it not only provides me the evidence I need that yes, I AM a productive person, it also puts me in the left-brain mode that helps unstick my ideas. It's also symbolically validating--a little of this, a little of that, and voila! Something really wonderful to consume!
8
While I am an enthusiastic sourdough baker, I do dishes to avoid work. Makes my wife very happy.
1
I am not a baker, but I am serial procrasticleaner. My floors are always spotless.
7
You can come to my house any time! My floors need a good procrasticleaner!
8
Ah yes, I know this well.
Glad I'm not alone in this delicious form of procrastination...
2
I did not know this was a “thing”!! I have an entire picture album of food- pies, brownies, caramels, that all came out of procrastibaking or in the case of the caramels- procrasticooking. I agree regarding pie as being a very physically engaging process. Bread making, particularly yeasted breads, are an excellent means of physical and mental engagement. All are bordering on the meditative with a happy ending.
11
My late husband didn't procrastibake (in fact, he did not cook at all - not even grill), but when there were tasks I needed him to do when we were entertaining, he would decide that was the perfect time to clean out the garage or basement. Of course, if he did this without me there, he would throw out things I wanted to keep, and would rearrange things in such a way that they didn't resurface for years. Don't know what one would call this, but I simply called it "very annoying"!
17
Is there ever a legitimate time to bake something outside of holiday preparations? There is always something more important to do like cleaning the bathroom, doing your taxes, doing sit-ups, washing your car. People need not feel guilty for creating wonderful things to eat. Baking is living itself.
56
I never understood why people have the need to wash their car. Sure windshield once in a while so you can see but the whole car?
1
If the dirt is thick enough that might cause drag which will slow down your car and reduce efficiency.
1
@Filip
"I never understood why people have the need to wash their car. "
It's to eliminate the temptation for mischievous children to spit on a finger and write "WASH ME" on the hood.
1
Wow - I didn't know there was a word for this!
I procrastibaked when I was in graduate school, and my baked good of choice was yeast bread. Not only did it smell amazing and taste great (especially still warm and slathered with butter), but the kneading process gave me an excuse to punch something. Procrastibaking had the added benefit of being an excuse to turn on the oven to warm my freezing Boston apartment.
34
How could I have overlooked procrastibaking as I am such an accomplished procrastinator?
I'm going to put it on my list of techniques, right at the top. I can see that it has all the benefits of my usual means of putting off the important work, plus the added advantage of resulting in something edible.
It will be yet another example of the following precept, an uncommonly precise distillation of wisdom which I discovered long ago — and which I've regularly ignored, ever since.
"Beware the seductive illusion that doing a lot, and even doing it well, is the same as doing what matters."
43
George sums up my thoughts so eloquently that I need add nothing other than to wonder if he shares my top procrastinating technique: read the New York Times and then write inordinately crafted comments.
26
An interesting quote, but I cannot find a source for it. Can you supply that?
Hmmm ... actually, that's a very interesting question, which is to say, a challenge.
Quite a while back — probably the mid-1980s — I bought a calendar/ organizer book that had a page for each day of the year and a quotation or saying at the bottom of every page. Though many of the entries were less than memorable, that one was etched indelibly into my memory.
So, the one word, quick answer to your question is "no".
The challenge would be to see if somehow I could come up with it, perhaps through querying some abstruse set of resources.
As a practical matter, I guess the answer IS "no", because even if I were to find it, by that time the comments on this topic will be closed.
Thanks for your interest.
GRC
(also a "leading edge boomer ")