Types of Procrastination in ADHD and the Remedy for Each

For a long time I told myself just one thing: "I'm procrastinating."

Then one day I looked at my list and noticed that four tasks that had been sitting for weeks did not resemble each other at all. One frightened me. One was deadly boring. For one I did not know where to start. And one was actually ready, and I was only holding it back so that it would be "better."

I was applying the same remedy to all four and it was working for none. Then I got angry with myself, because the remedy was ready and I had not done it again.

This article is about making that distinction. It became one of the ideas that helped me most.

Steel's summary

Steel's (2007) broad meta-analysis ties procrastination to four main factors: how boring the task is, the person's impulsivity, their expectation of being able to succeed, and how far away the reward is.

In ADHD each of these four weighs more. In Barkley's (1997) model, the job of stopping behavior and taking the future into account already sits in a place that is strained.

Sirois and Pychyl (2013) add one more layer: procrastination is behavior that avoids discomfort in the moment. That is, it is less a matter of time management than of emotion regulation. When I first read this sentence something settled: I do not procrastinate because I cannot manage time, but because I cannot carry the discomfort of the moment.

The five types below turn this framework into everyday terms.

1. Procrastination from uncertainty

How you know: When you think about the task, your mind empties. You do not know where to start. The task sits on your list with the same vague phrase: "thesis," "tax," "house."

Remedy: Breaking it down instead of doing it. Sitting for five minutes and only writing the steps, doing none of them. Writing the steps is also a task, and mistaking it for the task itself is a common error.

The next step must always be a single movement: "open the file," "call the number." On my list "write the report" can sit for months; "open the document and write the title" gets done that day.

2. Procrastination from emotional load

How you know: When you think about the task, something happens in your stomach. You know the steps but cannot get close. You try to forget the task exists.

Remedy: This has stopped being procrastination and has turned into avoidance. Shrinking the steps is not enough here, because the matter is not the size of the step.

What works: doing the task in the same room as someone else, saying the worst case out loud, and redefining the task as "looking at it" instead of "finishing" it. Having someone beside me is what helps me most; the details are in the article on body doubling.

I dealt with the distinction itself in the article on procrastination or avoidance.

3. Procrastination from perfectionism

How you know: You do not start because you are afraid you will not do it well. Or you start and cannot finish, because it is not yet good enough.

Remedy: Writing the quality threshold before starting the task. A sentence like "this text will stay a draft" or "this presentation will be plain" defines the end of the task in advance.

A time limit also works: two hours, then whatever it is. I still struggle to say this to myself, and the days I say it are the days the tasks get finished. The details are in the article on perfectionism.

4. Procrastination from boredom

How you know: There is no difficulty in the task and no fear either. There is just an unbearable dullness. Paying a bill, filling in a form, entering data, writing the same information in a place for the third time.

Remedy: Adding stimulation to the task from outside. A podcast, music, coffee, a different place, racing a timer. The glossary entry on reward pairing explains this.

There is one more principle: gathering tasks of the same kind together. Doing boring work for one hour is easier than switching to boring work five times during the day. For me this became doing all the paperwork in one sitting on a certain day of the month.

5. Procrastination by waiting for urgency

How you know: You can do the task, but only at the last moment. You cannot get moving until the pressure comes, and the result is usually not bad either.

Remedy: This is the most debated type. In the glossary it is panic productivity, and it really works. The price is paid in stress and exhaustion; I cannot count how many times I have paid it.

The approach that works is to produce the urgency earlier instead of removing it: artificial deadlines, promises made to others, interim deliveries. Artificial deadlines do not work for me alone, because I know they are artificial. A promise made to someone else works.

Diagnose the type first. When you cannot start a task, ask yourself a single question: because I do not know, because I am afraid, or because I am bored? Knowing the answer tells you which method to try, and gives back the energy spent on the wrong method.

Look at what you do while procrastinating

There is a second hint that works for diagnosis: what you do while putting it off.

If you are doing another task, there is usually boredom or uncertainty. I tidy the house, I look at e-mails, I rewrite the list. All of these look productive, and that is exactly why they are dangerous; this is what is called productive procrastination in the glossary.

If you are doing nothing, there is usually emotional load. I look at the phone, I look at the screen, I get up and sit down. This is the state that makes me feel most guilty, and actually it is the state that needs the most compassion.

If you are researching the task, there is usually perfectionism. I read how to do it, I collect examples, I compare tools. The preparation does not end, because the preparation ending means starting.

If you keep looking at the clock, you are waiting for urgency. Deep down you are saying "let it come a little closer."

Recognizing these four states sped up which question I ask myself. Seeing the moment of procrastination not as a failure but as a source of information was the change of view that made the most difference for me.

The types can mix

I have to say this too, because in reality the picture is not this clean.

The same task can be put off for more than one type of reason. A tax form can be boring, uncertain and a little frightening all at once. What do I do then: I start from the top layer. Usually uncertainty sits on top, because while there is uncertainty you cannot even see the others.

There is also this: the type changes over time. A task that is put off in the first week because it is boring can be put off in the third week because of the shame of the delay. At that point the second type applies and the remedy of the first type does not work.

For a protocol that makes starting compulsory, you can look at the five-minute rule.

Why this distinction works

The problem with looking for a single remedy is this: when it does not work, you are left with one explanation, and that is you.

Knowing there are five types breaks this explanation. When a method does not hold, instead of "I am incompetent" you can say "I diagnosed the wrong type," and this sentence makes the next attempt possible.

For me this was the real gain. The methods were already out in the open; what was missing was which to use when.

I described the practice of lowering the threshold for starting in the article on the two-minute rule.