Even in cases of a clear deadline, such as for homework or taxes, there is uncertainty about how much progress will be made during the time spent on the priority task, which opens the door for escape to a task with greater certainty. In fact, many people are willing to devote more time and energy to a procrastivity task than to the priority task because the certainty of the outcome is more desirable to one’s sense of efficacy, the belief that one can do it. Thus, two hours of yard work is preferable to 45 minutes working on taxes.

Uncertainty About Progress Makes Us Run For The Door

1) They tend to be manual or “hands on”Procrastivity tasks tend to be more manual or hands-on than priority tasks. Priority tasks, on the other hand, are more mentally challenging, exacting greater cognitive load, such as administrative tasks, writing, homework, and many others. Even among these intellectual tasks, such as different homework assignments, there is a personal rock-paper-scissors algorithm of difficulty, such as “writing is harder than reading” and “reading is harder than a problem set.”

The Characteristics Of Procrastivity Tasks

4) There is a clear end pointThere is a clear stopping point with most procrastivity tasks at the job is completed and off the to-do list. This fact comes with a visceral sense of satisfaction of task completion, even with chores and other administrative matters. This positive feeling is underestimated despite the fact that procrastivity tasks are not the most existentially fulfilling matters. It feels good to get things done. And due to the vagaries and uncertainties inherent in many priority tasks, it is difficult to determine an exact end point that one is confident can be reached.

Procrastination has been deemed the quintessential self-regulatory failure—putting off tasks despite knowing we will be worse off as a consequence. Seeing as ADHD itself is a developmental problem of self-dysregulation—a chronic, persistent delay in the acquisition and employment of the foundational self-regulatory capacities, known as the executive functions—it is no surprise that procrastination is among, if not the most commonly cited presenting problem faced by adults with ADHD seeking treatment.

Procrastination And ADHD

Everyone—ADHD or not—puts off tasks, including via procrastivity. Adults with ADHD, though, are at greater risk for experiencing more significant negative effects and impairments from it.But what is it about procrastivity tasks that make them magically more enticing than priority tasks? The laundry and yard work themselves likely had been objects of procrastination before. Why the motivation to do them now?A reverse engineering of procrastivity and the nature of the tasks used to avoid higher priorities offer some important lessons abouttheir particular features.

Why Put-off Tasks Are Used To Put Off Other Tasks

Procrastivity is a sneaky form of procrastination, a sort of Trojan horse of avoidance. Also known as productive procrastination, procrastivity is defined as putting off one’s priority task to escape to a lower priority, but still productive task. Procrastivity is at play when a student is suddenly driven to do laundry rather than writing a paper, or mowing the lawn is more important than working on income taxes. Procrastivity is a way to gain smaller-sooner comfort by getting something done, but at the cost of the larger-later and often more important payoff from finishing the priority task.

Procrastivity, Or Productive Procrastination

3) There is a clearer sense of making and maintaining progressWith procrastivity tasks, you can see the laundry and lawn getting done with a corresponding decrease in the amount of time and effort remaining, a countdown until the task is done. With most priority tasks, more than one work session is required, such as writing a paper or completing taxes, and there is a possibility of surprises or difficulties with the task that could conceivably end up taking more time and effort than was originally anticipated.

2) They offer a familiar script of onboarding steps for getting startedFor the procrastivity tasks mentioned above, laundry and mowing the lawn, there is a clear, well-rehearsed set of steps to perform for getting started that is viewed as more “doable” than the higher priority task. This makes getting started on those tasks easier and probably fuels justifications for escape in the form of the thought “I’ll do this other thing first, then I’ll me ‘in the mood’ for the priority task.” (Have you ever really been "in the mood" for laundry or taxes?)

The puzzle of procrastinating via procrastivity, of avoiding tasks via avoided tasks, and the characteristics of procrastivity tasks that can perhaps help us turn procrastination against itself. 

Procrastination And ADHD

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