3 Types of Procrastinators: Which One Are You?

There are a million ways to procrastinate. Instead of doing our work, we might find ourselves practicing our favorite Fortnite dance, shopping online for the perfect mullet wig, or scrolling through baby back rib recipes before remembering we’re vegetarian. Procrastination might even disguise itself as productivity, like cleaning our desk or making a healthy (yet perhaps unnecessarily elaborate) snack.

Procrastination is tricky to overcome because it involves a certain amount of self-deception. It makes us say, "I’ll do it later." "I’m tired—I need to take a break." "I got some stuff done—this is my reward." "I have plenty of time." 

On a deeper level, we know exactly what we’re doing, but trying to motivate ourlseves to do our taxes or write that term paper doesn’t stand a chance against the seemingly reasonable justifications procrastination loves to whisper in our ear.

But if procrastinating is getting you in trouble—you’re missing deadlines, irritating those around you, or just feeling guilty about wasting your time—the first step to addressing the situation is discerning what you get out of it. What type of procrastinator are you? This week, we’ll cover the three most common procrastination profiles, plus five ways to secede from the land of Procrasti-Nation. 

Type #1: The Avoider

“I procrastinate to avoid unpleasant emotion, like stress, uncertainty, or feeling overwhelmed.”

This is classic procrastination. We’re not necessarily avoiding the task, we’re avoiding the negative emotion that goes along with that task.

For example, we may avoid an overtly stressful or high-stakes chore, like studying for exams or writing our best man speech. This makes sense—it’s unpleasant to feel the pressure or worry we’re going to bomb, so instead we blissfully watch the entire "Star Wars" series and are rewarded with not feeling bad.

But we may also procrastinate on tasks where we simply don’t know what to do next. Here, we avoid the negative emotions of doubt, uncertainty, or simply feeling stupid. I once had a client who accumulated a huge pile of hazardous items in his garage for years—including leftover firecrackers, gasoline, and fertilizer—simply because he didn’t know how to get rid of them. A simple online search for how to dispose of each item got him on his way.

Like my client’s, avoidance can be small scale: we might avoid...

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