I understood akratic procrastination to be the kind where we put off doing something we SHOULD be doing. This is the opposite of what rosa rugosa said.

“Either we’re procrastinating something worthwhile (a mistake) or something wasteful (a good move).”

The “procrastinating something worthwhile” is the akratic procrastination. The other one – procrastinating something wasteful – is the focus of the rest of the article.

I used to read and respond to my email every morning. Now I do it at the end of the day. I find that most people have either resolved their issues without me by then, or, if it was urgent, they came to see me in person. I’m trying to take that approach with some tasks as well. If it can wait, let it and find something better to do. Sometimes, by the time you get back to something, you find out it’s no longer needs doing.

There are also symptoms that can cause what seems like “procrastination” like “flexible sense of time.” After I got on meds and managed my symptoms, I was still having procrastination struggles. It wasn’t until I recognized the adrenaline high that comes with my procrastination that I was able to effectively address the behavior.

Also, figuring out whether something is important isn’t the last step. I can know something is important and still not do it because I have some sort of resistance to it. Maybe I’m trying to avoid an awkward, necessary conversation or maybe I’m trying to avoid working on my art, or whatever.

Still, figuring out whether it’s important is a good place to start.

I totally agree. That is a lot easier said than done. I think the biggest problem for so many of us is classifying what is important versus what is unimportant. Sometimes I only notice that I wasted a lot of time on something that was unimportant in retrospect.