A funny thing just happened to me.

I was procrastinating about getting a bit of work done – or I could fudge that and say I was taking a bit of a break after getting a stack of work done this morning (that’s true – I wrote my first 2,500 words for NaNoWriMo and also did a heap of blogging).

In any case, one click led to another and I was suddenly taking a 20-question quiz on procrastination. At the end they told me my score was 30/100 and that meant my test result is low – I don’t procrastinate very often. Well, you can imagine I was kind of surprised by this, because I think I’m the Queen of Procrastination.

But it turns out it all depends on what counts as procrastination. Paying bills late, for example, is an example they use of procrastinating. I’m a stickler for paying bills on time (my father was a bank manager; although ironically I suspect he doesn’t pay his bills on time. I’m sure my mother does, though). Calling people back within an appropriate time means I’m not a procrastinator. The most ironic question was one about a situation in which I urgently needed to do some work, but my desk was messy – would I clean it first or just sit down and work? Because I’m even better at being messy than I am at procrastinating, I chose sitting down and doing the work.

One bit that made me think perhaps my procrastination problem is not as bad as I thought was the realisation that when it comes to work issues, I don’t procrastinate badly enough for anyone else to notice. Very few of my editors would think that I get my work in late. Certainly in my teaching job I don’t do anything that approaches procrastination. And quite on the contrary, some colleagues and friends who know the combination of teaching and writing I do have commented that I’m actually super-organised.

Hmm. So where does this leave my excuses for not writing? I’m starting to think that the majority of my procrastination problem really is centred on fiction writing, which is tragic when it’s one of the things I love the most in life. That’s why events like NaNoWriMo are perfect for me, because they add that external pressure that I need, the deadlines that all other parts of my life seem to have that help me overcome the procrastination urge. That’s something for me to think about.

And in the meantime, I know there are a few fellow procrastinators who read this blog, so if you need an excuse to waste a few minutes, do the quiz and tell me your scores. Maybe you’ll be as surprised as I was.