What Type of Procrastinator Are You?

Not everyone procrastinates in the same way, or for the same reasons. Understanding how and why you procrastinate is an important step in changing your behaviors.

Dr. Linda Sapadin, author of It’s About Time! The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them, offers the following free mini-quiz on her Beat Procrastination Web site.

Discover Your Style: The Six Styles of Procrastination

1. Do you have difficulty completing a project because your own high standards have not been met?
2. Do you get preoccupied with details, rules, or schedules that others do not seem to care much about?Do you think a lot about things you want to accomplish, but rarely get them off the ground?
3. Do you wait for opportunities to drop into your lap rather than take an active, “go get ’em” approach?
4. Do you hesitate to leave your comfort zone, avoiding situations that might cause stress or anxiety?
5. Do you ignore deadlines, then at the last minute work frantically to get things done?
6. Do you enjoy taking risks and living on the edge?
7. Do you become sulky, irritable, or argumentative when asked to do a task that you do not want to do?
8. Do you take offense when others tell you how you could be more productive?
9. Do you have difficulty saying “no” to others, then feel resentful when you feel overburdened?
10. Do you run around doing many things, without really feeling that you are accomplishing very much

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you have a procrastination issue. To discover your procrastination style, read on!

If you answered “yes” to:
Questions 1 and 2: you are a Perfectionist.
Questions 3 and 4: you are a Dreamer.
Questions 5 and 6: you are a Worrier.
Questions 7 and 8: you are a Crisis-maker.
Questions 9 and 10: you are a Defier (Passive-aggressive).
Questions 11 and 12: you are a Pleaser (Over-doer).

A brief summary of what fuels each procrastination style:

Perfectionists procrastinate because they want everything to be perfect.

Dreamers procrastinate because they want to go from “A to Z” without dealing with all those bothersome details in between.

Worriers procrastinate because they fear change, excessively worrying about what may happen in the future.

Crisis-makers procrastinate because they love living on the edge, getting motivated only when they are under pressure.

Defiers procrastinate because they feel resentful and resistant when others tell them what to do.

Pleasers procrastinate because they have trouble saying “no” to others, then realize they have way too much to do.

Note: Quiz content used with permission from Dr. Linda Sapadin.

Additional information and resources can be found on her Beat Procrastination Web site.

References

Sapadin, L. (2010). The six styles of procrastination quiz. Retrieved from Six Styles of Procrastination Web site: http://www.beatprocrastinationcoach.com/

Sapadin, L., & Maguire, J. (2010). It’s about time! The six styles of procrastination and how to overcome them. New York, NY:Penguin Books.