Procrastination ≠ Procrastination Every day there are so many posts that use the same format: “How do I stop procrastinating, here’s my specific issue.” The responses inevitably take the same form: Pomodoro, just start, 2-minute rule, delete Instagram, discipline > motivation. Half the thread says it changed their life, half says they tried it and it did nothing. Imagine two people who both procrastinate but are nothing alike. For a given assignment, one might ignore it for two weeks and then stay up till 4am, submit it, and happily do the same thing again because it worked for them. The other might have the task open in their browser for a week, and feel sick every time they look at it. My thesis: stop asking for and giving generic advice. We need to figure out the underlying mechanisms first, before taking any steps to “fix” the problem. Procrastination is a symptom of many different issues. It’s not the cause. Mismatched advice can even lower people's self-esteem, because what seemingly worked for everyone else isn’t working for them. The scientific literature also points to this. There have been enough studies that I don't really understand why we’re still talking like there hasn’t been any. I’m an “avoidant procrastinator,” although different frameworks use different categories. There’s no complete consensus yet, but it’s a lot more valid than horoscopes or some of these personality-type quizzes. For example, Pomodoro assumes an attention problem, so it works great if that’s your issue or you have slight ADHD tendencies. Lowering standards and just creating anything, even if it’s bad, works for perfectionists. But neither of those will work if you’re an emotion-regulating procrastinator and opening a project or file fills you with dread. I’m basing these ideas on Ferrari (1991), Chu & Choi (2005), Steel (2007) and Sirois & Pychyl (2013). They can be synthesized into roughly 7 types, although it’s also really common to have one type with a relatively strong side component of another: Arousal: “I work great under pressure.” You love and need the thrill of cutting it dangerously close to deadlines. Avoidant: Never really trying protects you from being measured. Productivity systems fail. Decisional: Stuck choosing, not doing. “Just start something small” fails: start what? Perfectionist: The imagined output is always better than what you’ll manage today. Passive: Unchosen paralysis, guilt, missed deadlines. Active: Similar to arousal, but it works. This might actually not be procrastination and instead just be a scheduling preference — if it works. Emotion-regulation: You can kill the bad feeling by delaying for 20 minutes. This might be a layer under avoidant and perfectionist procrastination, but I’m not sure, and some people clearly identify with this directly rather than some of the others. There is no 7-type model. This is just what seems to come out if you look across these authors. I know there’s a 6-type model, but I’m not sure I agree with it. What can also happen is that the type of procrastination you do shifts by task. There are differences between work and private stuff. So instead of just telling people how Pomodoro worked for you and suggesting it to others, maybe figure out what type of procrastinator you are, and check whether the procrastinator you’re giving advice to is the same type. Then your advice could be genuinely useful. I’m curious what people here think. Do you recognize these patterns, or am I forcing different things into categories that don't really belong together?

Procrastitype

Discover what kind of procrastinator you are

Discover what kind of procrastinator you are