Pick up your pens, put your fingers to the keyboard and: On Your Mark. Get Set. Go! Start writing. You’re not writing? Why? What’s stopping you? You have ideas, right? You have a particular area of knowledge that you can claim as your own,right? Think about it… do friends come to you for help keeping their plants alive? Are you the queen of fitting 25 hours of work into a 24 hour day? Perhaps you throw the best parties on a shoe string budget.
Again, put your fanny in the chair and get to work. Still not doing it, and you can’t for the life of you figure out why? Well, my writing friend, you are not alone. Did you know there are five different types of procrastinators? I didn’t until recently. It was an eye opener for me when I realized which category I fell into. Now that I know, I can work on “getting better.”
Here are the five types, courtesy of information gleaned here and from other sources:
1. Afraid-type procrastinator: This person is worse in stressful situations because they are unsure about their ability to complete the work. This type of procrastinator feels they will work better if they spend time relaxing first. BUT they spend so much time relaxing that they miss deadlines.
2. Decisions, decisions: If you suffer this style of procrastination, you know that the work needs to be done, but you can’t make a decision. It’s the sheer act of making a decision that freezes you in place. You spend so much time “what-if-ing” possibilities that the work never gets underway.
3. Getting away from it all: An escapist procrastinator is a day dreamer. If you are an escapist, you see the big picture but don’t chip away at the steps to accomplish the project. The escapist is akin to the relaxed procrastinator in that he or she spends so much time building the project up in her head that the work gets pushed to the side.
4. Smart is as smart does: An intelligent procrastinator feels that the project they’ve been given — no matter how complex or how many interviews might need to be undertaken — is simple and can be easily wraped up. They know there’s a deadline but believe the project is so simple that they can start a day before it’s due and easily complete it. Their intelligence leads them toward laziness and their time management skills are almost non existent.
5. Just chillin’: When it comes to laziness personified, the relaxed procrastinator is it. Similar to the intelligent procrastinator, they feel the work is easy enough to put off until last minute. They’d rather indulge in other activities than complete the work.
In addition to these five types I’ve also read about the Perfectionist Procrastinator — this type of person/writer is convinced that no matter what they write it will never be as good as they imagined it in their heads, so they never put pen to paper.
It’s likely that once you determine your procrastination type you can address it and become more productive. They say that knowing is half the battle, right?
by Guest Blogger Robbi Hess
Renee Blodgett is the founder of We Blog the World. The site combines the magic of an online culture and travel magazine with a global blog network and has contributors from every continent in the world. Having lived in 10 countries and explored nearly 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural diversity.
She is also the CEO and founder of Magic Sauce Media, a new media services consultancy focused on viral marketing, social media, branding, events and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped companies from 12 countries get traction in the market. Known for her global and organic approach to product and corporate launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an active user of social media, she helps clients navigate digital waters from around the world. Renee has been blogging for over 16 years and regularly writes on her personal blog Down the Avenue, Huffington Post, BlogHer, We Blog the World and other sites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Magazine and is listed as a new media influencer and game changer on various sites and books on the new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed as the 6th most influential woman in social media by Forbes Magazine on a Top 20 List.
Her passion for art, storytelling and photography led to the launch of Magic Sauce Photography, which is a visual extension of her writing, the result of which has led to producing six photo books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.
Renee is also the co-founder of Traveling Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to other countries to share and learn from peers, governments, corporations, and the general public in order to educate, share, evaluate, and promote innovative technologies.
