“How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.”
– Fred Brooks
The results from the procrastination styles survey are in! We had hundreds of responses, and honestly one of the results surprised me a little.
I’ll get to the results in a second, let’s first quickly recap the two styles of procrastinators – long term and short term procrastinators.
Short Term: “I’ll Do It Tomorrow”
Short term procrastination is the type of procrastination where you have a small task, something you could finish right now.
However, instead of starting, short term procrastinators tell themselves “I’ll do it tomorrow.”
This is procrastination one day at a time.
Long Term: “I’ll Do It Someday”
The second type of procrastination is long term procrastination. This is the type of procrastination that kills dreams, leads to long term regrets, and that other people will play along and help you deny you’re doing it.
Long term procrastinators have some project they want to take up, a dream they want to accomplish, but have no idea when they’ll actually be able to do it. They get tied up in day to day work, little emergencies and short term “urgent” tasks
As as a result, they are never able to put aside enough time to write, or exercise, or taking that trip they’ve dreamed about because they’re so busy – all those things get pushed off to “someday.”
If you want to see a deeper discussion, see the original article: The Two Types of Procrastinators.
The Results! Most People Are…
The last time I wrote to you, I asked you first share with me which type you more identified with, short or long term, and then guess which you felt most other people would identify with.
Well today I’ll give you the results – and let’s see if you guessed right! Do you remember what you chose last week?
I’ll give you the results to the second question first.
By a small margin (55% to 45%), most readers felt that other people were long term procrastinators.