Why I Love Procrastinating And How It's Helped My Business.

It all started when I set aside an hour every morning for procrastinating. I was doing so much of it during the day that I just decided to bite the bullet and officially give myself an hour to "generally screw around online" which also happens to be my favorite activity.
I could easily procrastinate all day long. This is what I do:
find new blogs to love
read articles on lots of different topics
look at pictures at FFFound (this site is dangerous if you don't have an hour to spend there)
make coffee
find out the newest events in town and in cities I don't live in but wish I did
watch videos that are popular or have been sent to me
follow other people's blogrolls until I am at really obscure but fascinating places

Normally, I classified this stuff as "time wasting" and scolded myself for it a lot. Then a funny thing happened and one of those events I found in some obscure place led to a new connection that has been very valuable for me. And some of those articles that I've come across have led to really interesting conversations with people that want to work with me now.
So I set aside some time every morning for "procrastination" which made me really happy since I don't have to yell at myself for something I like to do anymore.
Now I call it "productive procrastinating" since it's more like one person brainstorming. Here's how it's helped:
I'm more on top of current events
I have met a ton of people who write cool, niche blogs
I have kept track of companies and their successes and failures with social media so that when I talk to them they know it's because I know what they've been up to
I am much more aware of topic trends online
I can play "a blog for everyone" better than most people.*
(* A blog for everyone is a game I like to play with people who "don't have time to read blogs". They tell me their interests, passion, whatever really revvs them up and I tell them a blog they will love.)

There's a difference between procrastinating and doing nothing.
When I procrastinate, it's about this kind of industry web surfing and not about sitting at my computer watching Hulu videos of Saturday Night Live. I say if you have the urge to simply web surf blogs for a while every morning then do it. I find that after my hour or so I am much more focused where I need to be.