The Pleasures of Procrastination

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For writers, especially ones working in deadline-based industries such as journalism, pushing due dates is as natural as breathing. Sometimes the resulting time pressure—I really must file this to my editor now—unlocks flashes of brilliance, turning the carbon grist of my thoughts into an unlikely diamond. (More often it inspires mediocre metaphors like that one.) I’m dissatisfied with this tendency to dillydally.