Are you a procrastinator?

One of the first steps to overcoming procrastination is recognizing that you're doing it.

But this isn't always as straightforward as it sounds!

Many procrastinators persuade themselves that they have good reasons for delaying getting on with what they must do. You might hear yourself say….'hey, I have plenty of time,'….or 'I work better under pressure,'….or 'this is so boring'…..These are all pretty persuasive arguments when faced with a challenging task.

Once you fall into this mindset, you might not realize that you are procrastinating. So take the procrastination quiz below to determine whether you are a procrastinator!

Are you a procrastinator: Take the Procrastination Quiz

Procrastination Survey

15 Statements to Answer

 Not at All Rarely Sometimes Often All the time
1 I wait until the last minute to do things.
2 I wait until a crisis arises before taking action.
3 I find myself doing tasks I had intended to do days before.
4 I avoid setting a daily schedule for how I want to use my time.
5 I have a hard time saying no to requests or invitations.
6 I find it challenging to begin a project or task.
7 I struggle to make decisions in a timely manner.
8 I waste time doing other things when there is a deadline.
9 When I get bored with the task, I turn to other things.
10 I am continually saying, "I'll do it tomorrow."
11 When I have something challenging to do, I often find excuses to postpone it.
12 I rarely accomplish what I set myself to do that day.
13 I don't have clear goals or objectives for what I want to do.
14 I spend too much time on social media.
15 I get distracted by activities that are not essential for completing the work.

Score

Score Comments
50-75

You are not a systematic procrastinator. That is good news! If you occasionally find yourself procrastinating on something, check out the below tips for overcoming procrastination.

30-49

You're a mild procrastinator. You are likely to face moderate challenges with avoidance and procrastination. You may struggle with managing your daily tasks and accomplishing and meeting deadlines. You tend to delay and postpone essential tasks that need to get done. You may have difficulty prioritizing what's important. You may struggle with delaying immediate gratification and with seeing the long-term outcomes. Check out the below tips for overcoming procrastination.

15-29

You're a procrastinator, likely impacting your life in several ways. First, it means that you miss deadlines and waste a lot of time. You will likely leave things to the last minute and feel stressed and overwhelmed. As a result, your boss is not getting what you're capable of delivering, and they are probably very frustrated with this. Check out the below tips for overcoming procrastination.

Overcoming Procrastination

When you were completing the procrastination quiz, you probably had a good sense of where you could improve. 

The following are some of the areas of the survey that were looked at in the quiz:

  1. Procrastination because of challenges to starting the activity
  2. Procrastination because we are falling for our own persuasive arguments
  3. Procrastination because of being distracted by other, more enjoyable activities.
  4. Procrastination because we don't have much motivation to do the activity. 

Have a look below at the specific tools to overcome procrastination.

1. 'Challenging to start' for the procrastinator

(Questions 6, 8)

The mind works in mysterious ways. For example, it can take a difficult or unpleasant task and create an illusion that it is too big to start. The trick here is to lower the commitment barrier to start the action.

So, rather than committing to writing this whole article, I only needed to write for 10 minutes. Rather than running 5 miles, I can commit to 10 minutes of running. Rather than me having to read an entire chapter, I can commit to 10 minutes

Here are some strategies to lowering the commitment to start:

2. As a procrastinator, are you 'falling for your own pick-up lines?'

(Questions 3, 5, 9, 11)

"I'll get to it tomorrow" are the typical lines of a procrastinator. 

Maybe you tell yourself that you work better under the pressure of a deadline. Or you need to wait until you feel right to get started on that task. Or I don't need to do the task now...I will just err...you know fit it in later today sometime! 

Except that sometime never comes!

If you are telling yourself these things, you have the hallmarks of a typical procrastinator. This is because you fall for your procrastination pick-up lines. 

Now there are many reasons why people procrastinate. Still, procrastinators need to recognize their pick-up lines and change their conclusion to them.

The first step is to know what your common procrastination pick-up lines are. 

Which type of procrastinator are you? Find out here

3. Are distractions taking you off the task-at-hand?

(Questions 8, 14, 15)

Avoiding procrastination is becoming harder! Did you know that proximity to a distraction is one of the biggest determinants of procrastination?

It wasn't nearly as easy when I was a kid – the computer was downstairs in the study room. Now, our technology is in most people's back pockets. So not only are our distractions right in our face all of the time – but the power of these distractions is stronger…a lot stronger. 

No wonder the procrastination statistics show that there has been a five-fold increase in chronic procrastination since the 1970's.

Here are some strategies to overcome procrastination if technology is taking you down the rabbit hole.

4. Conquering procrastination with a strong 'why'.

(Questions 2, 4, 5, 13)

Are you having trouble getting motivated and finding yourself locked in a pattern of action avoidance? Perhaps you can't be bothered because you can't muster a compelling enough argument to start.

This kind of avoidance has a few root causes, and knowledge of these root causes can help you conquer procrastination.

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