THE RECKONING
Coiled spring or hopeless loafer with the attention span of a goldfish? Here’s what your answers say about you
Mostly As PERFECTIONIST
Because you have such high expectations and strive for perfection, you find it hard to ever actually get started on the task, lest you don’t deliver to your usual exacting standards.
Suggestion: We know it hurts, but lower your standards a little and you’ll find you have fewer unfinished projects. As the Dalai Lama once said*, “A half-baked job is better than no job.” Try to remember times when you didn’t do a perfect job but the result was much the same and you might feel more motivated to begin.
Mostly Bs TIME BENDER
You’re always convinced you can do more than you can in the time available. It’s common among optimists, so in some ways, it’s a positive attribute. You’re not late or lazy, you just have an unshakeable confidence that everything will be fine, but sadly an inability to stretch time...
Suggestion: Gen up on Einstein’s theory of relativity and set about proving that timespace can be bent through the use of wormholes. Or simply get a good watch, a diary, and a grip on life, and start using all three.
Mostly Cs EASILY DISTRACTED
It’s not that you don’t take a job seriously, it’s more… “Ooh look! A badger!” You always spot the fun diversions just off life’s main road and that’s lovely, but you easily go off at a tangent and never more so than when you have an important deadline or a “Goodness! I’ve never made choux pastry! I’ll knock some up now!” moment.
Suggestion: You need to make your task the shiny thing in your life. Make it fun by introducing an element of competition, or company, or treating yourself to something new (nice pencils? A new cleaning cloth? Whatever it takes to help you do the job).
Mostly Ds OVER CONFIDENT
You once left an essay until the last minute, dashed something off in an hour and got a great mark, so you’re convinced you ‘work better under pressure’. You don’t. You just got lucky. Once.
Suggestion: You tend to believe the quicker a job is done, the better, and may even, dare we say it, have a tendency towards the slapdash? A little mindfulness will eventually retrain your brain to value the act of doing rather than simply the getting-tothe-end. So, if you’re painting a wall, challenge yourself to do a job Turner would be proud of; if you’re writing an essay, try to lose yourself in the joy of putting the best words in the best order. Every task can be a real craft, if you savour the doing of it.
Mostly Es OPTIMISTIC
You just don’t like to rush life. Plus, once you’ve disappeared down a procrastinatory wormhole, you discover untold treasures! Procrastination is a bit of an art form for you.
Suggestion: We feel like we should give you a telling-off, but we just can’t bring ourselves to. Never put off till tomorrow what you could do today... unless today brings unexpected joy that wasn’t on the agenda. Procrastination for you isn’t putting things off, it’s simply finding the scenic route. Don’t go changing!