What Is Procrastivity? Why You Do Everything Except What You Need to Do
Your final exam is tomorrow, but suddenly, you feel like you’re ready to tackle the laundry mountain that’s been piling up for months. All your laundry get’s done, and you feel like you’ve had a really productive day. But then you look at the clock and realize “my exam is tomorrow and I’ve hardly studied at all”. If you’ve ever finished an entire list of “productive” tasks while avoiding the one thing that actually mattered, you may have experienced procrastivity.
What is Procrastivity?
Procrastivity is when you stay busy doing things that are technically productive, but avoid the higher-priority task you actually need to work on. Procrastination on it’s own is avoiding something that needs to be done. Unlike traditional procrastination, procrastivity can actually make you feel productive while you're avoiding the task. Ultimately, we’re still avoiding the thing that needs to be done but with extra steps. That’s what makes it so difficult to catch.
Why this Happens
Procrastivity often shows up when the task you're avoiding feels ambiguous, overwhelming, boring, or difficult to start. Studying is a great example. You could technically study forever, and “study for my exam” doesn't tell your brain exactly what to do first.
Laundry is different. You know where to start, you can see the pile getting smaller, and there's a clear point where you're finished. These quick and visible wins feel more immediately rewarding than sitting down to tackle a vague or difficult task.
What Does Procrastivity Look Like?
You can often spot procrastivity by looking at the task your choosing over the one you’ve been avoiding. Here are three characteristics to watch out for:
It’s clearly defined. You know exactly what needs to be done and how to do it.
It’s routine. You’ve done it before, so you don’t need to spend the mental energy on figuring out every next step.
You can see your progress. There is a clear finish line, or you can visually see the work getting done.
Cleaning your entire apartment before starting your essay? Procrastivity. Organizing all your notes instead of actually studying? Possibly procrastivity. Answering every email before beginning the assignment you've been avoiding? Yeahhh… you get the idea.
It’s important to remember that engaging in procrastivity isn’t always a bad thing! Sometimes you genuinely need a little warm up, reset or to get something else done first. It becomes a problem when these “productive” tasks consistently become a way to avoid what matters most, and ends up hurting you in the end.
How to Reduce Procrastivity
Now that you understand what it is, why you do it and how you can spot it, we can look at strategies for reducing how often you engage in procrastivity Let’s get you spending more time on what you actually need to be doing!
Shrink the Real Task
For many people with ADHD, just getting started can be the hardest part. If you’re avoiding something, it can be a sign that it feels overwhelming. Make the first step as small as you possibly can. Instead of planning to “study”, maybe it’s “open my notes and choose one topic to review”, Or just telling yourself to gather your study materials. Maybe even just sitting down on your desk. Keep shrinking it until the resistance goes away.
Turn Busywork Into a Warmup
Instead of replacing your task with the procrastivity, you can use it as a warmup to getting to your priority task. Make it small, and set a timer so you don’t get carried away. Getting that small win can give you a sense of progress and help you build momentum toward the task you actually need to do. For example, fold five pieces of laundry, and then sit down to work on your assignment for five minutes. The key is making sure your warmup has a clear stopping point!
“Just 5 Minutes”
Tell yourself you just need to work on it for a few minutes, and set a timer. This can help you get started and into the flow. Sometimes you'll find that starting was the biggest barrier and, once you're moving, continuing feels easier. And if you only manage five minutes? That's still a start.
Make the Priority Task More Appealing
How can you make what you need to do feel a little more exciting (or at least not so awful?). You might find this article I wrote about INCUP, and how to motivate an ADHD brain to be helpful. Perhaps putting on music in the background or working with a body double can help.
The goal isn’t always to stop your urge for procrastinating. It’s shifting the focus on how to make the task your avoiding feel easier to approach.
Procrastivity in University and College
Procrastivity can be especially sneaky for students in university or college because there is almost always other things that you could be doing!
You could:
reorganize your notes
clean your room
answer emails or text back friends
make a new study schedule
catch up on all your readings
plan the next week
And, all of those things could be genuinely helpful.
But, if your paper is due tomorrow and you’ve spent the last three hours creating an elaborate color coding system for your notes, that may be using productivity to avoid the harder task. That’s why it’s important to check in with yourself by asking “am I doing the thing that actually matters right now"?”
Struggling to Start the Thing That Matters?
You are most certainly not alone! If you know what you should be working on but find you keep doing everything except that thing, it’s not necessarily because you don’t care.
ADHD, AuDHD or executive function coaching can help you understand what your roadblocks are and what strategies you need to make it easier to work on the things that matter most.
You can start with a chill (and free!) 20 minute discovery call. It’s not a sales pitch, just a chance for us to meet, talk about how coaching can help you and see if we’d be a good fit for working together.
Last Updated: August 2026
