Procrastination Survey Results

“Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.”
– Victor Kiam

The number two reason people procrastinate is not being sure about what to do.

What’s the number one reason? The results might surpise you.

Why People Procrastinate

Last week, I asked you why you procrastinate – and also, why you believe other people procrastinate.

Literally within minutes of publishing the post the responses started pouring in, and after the first few hundred, a pattern quickly started to appear. Even as more responses come in, the numbers are staying consistent.

Remember, the top four reasons were:

No Time
It’s Just Not Urgent
Don’t Feel Like It
Not Sure What To Do

What do you think came in at number one?

Let’s take a look at the results:

By far, the number one reason people procrastinate is they simply don’t feel like doing the things they need to do.

Nothing else even comes close!

Interestingly though, the results for what you thought was the main reason other people procrastinated were much more evenly split:

I’ll leave it to you to think about what that means =).

Let’s talk about the first graph – and why most people procrastinate.

What The Results Mean

Most interesting to me, is that the results show what I’ve often said: procrastination, and lack of personal productivity, often is not a time management problem, and it’s not really a prioritization problem either.

We know what our priorities are, we have the time to do them, we know what we need to do…and yet, we just don’t feel like doing it.

So it’s not about planning, time management, juggling your schedule – it’s all about self management.

It’s attitude, energy, mental focus.

As Stephen Covey once said:

“‘Time management’ is really a misnomer – the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”

If you like what you’ve seen so far, and want to make the most out of your life, take a moment to read the details about my course The Action Solution and see if it’s something you’d be interested in. Check it out here: The Action Solution.