The action of delaying or postponing something.
I’ve heard of 4 types of procrastinators; the performer, the novelty seeker, the self-deprecator & the overbooker.
The performer, or “Mr. Perfectionist” is usually the first person to say that he works well under pressure. Unfortunately, this is not true, and he usually burns before the impact of the crash ever comes. His biggest hurdle is simply getting started. He’ll give himself an unrealistic amount of time to do a fuckload of work, or he’ll fuck around until he doesn’t have a lot of time left to get it done. The pressure of time constraints is what he believes inspires his best work, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. The anxiety & stress that results from his lack of preemptive urgency often lead to his work being mediocre.
The novelty-seeker, or “Mr. Idea” is a person that has an endless amount of ideas, but never really follows through with them. He’s always eager to start something new, but not the best at following through. With every new idea he generates, an older one disintegrates. With the frequency the new ideas coming, the older ones are often forgotten. He ultimately starts a plethora of projects but never finishes any of them. This usually results in everything being half-done or just an idea with no real backing.
The self-deprecator, or “Mr. Lazy” is a person that isn’t lazy at all. Surprisingly, calling himself lazy is just a cop-out. In reality, he’s just tired & overworked. He’ll work himself to the bone, and blame any resulting inaction on “laziness” or “stubbornness” rather than acknowledge that he is rightfully tired. His biggest challenge is simply taking a break, he’ll ride until the wheels fall off. The resulting work is usually unfinished and sometimes he hardly gets started.
The over-booker, or “Mr. Booked & Busy” is with who I identify most. I’m a professional calendar filler, but I’m not so good at the balancing act that should accompany such a profession. My favorite line is “I’m so busy,” when in reality the busiest people are the ones who get the most done. When taking a look at everything that needs to get done, I tend to get overwhelmed and look for something else entirely to do. “I’m too busy” is a clear indicator of avoidance. Rather than facing a challenge head-on, I’ll run in the opposite direction. Instead of admitting that I don’t want to do it, I’ll place the blame on having more important things to do. This obviously leads to me getting jack-shit done.
