In three particular areas of activity, namely college, business and home life, procrastination can have an especially detrimental effect. A closer look at the inherent factors for procrastination in each of these settings can help illuminate a few of the influences in the decision to procrastinate.

For many students, procrastination emerges as a significant problem during the first years of college. The college procrastinator is frequently an individual who, for many possible reasons, did not learn efficient time management strategies during high school. Often accustomed to senior high assignments that are strictly short term or that have been broken down into a series of smaller assignments by the high school teachers, the college procrastinator is at a loss to adjust to college’s long term assignments. In some cases, the college procrastinator underestimation of the difficulty from a term paper or end-of-semester project because the professor does not perpetually remind the year about the upcoming deadline.

For this reason, the difficulties faced by the college procrastinator can be regarded as a failure to adjust from a structured, regulated learning surroundings into an environment where independent time management skills are necessary. Once the need for discipline and organization has been recognized, a a couple of simple tools, such as a day planner, can assist the college procrastinator organize a self-structured series of goals and deadlines for long-term assignments.

Whereas the college procrastinator might postpone a difficult assignment by playing computer games or socializing, the business procrastinator is often more subtle in his or her strategy. Rather than pursuing meaningless amusements, which could be reproved if detected, the business procrastinator often wastes time on activities that are in fact part or his or her job description but that is not the most important tasks at the second.

In some cases, a lack of confidence in the ability to successfully finish difficult assignments compels the business procrastinator to pursue easy, straightforward minor projects. In different situations, an inability to distinguish between high- and low priority assignments causes the business procrastinator to perceive that the simple jobs are just as crucial as the complex ones, allowing the business procrastinator no reason to follow up on the more difficult jobs.

To remedy this circumstance, the business procrastinator firstly must learn to discern which tasks have the most expected to impact the success of the business itself and to affect the course of business in the long term. Once these has been accomplished, the business procrastinator can manage long-term, complicated tasks into a series of deadlines which are not quite so overpowering.

Instead of being unable to face a deadline, the home-life procrastinator is often ill at ease with the never-ending nature of daily home-related chores. Yard work, home repairs, cleaning and meal preparation can all assume the uninspiring role of routine inconveniences in a person’s life. As undone chores gather over time, the home-life procrastinator begins to experience the pressure of house work trespassing on the pleasures of everyday life.

To counter this situation, a specific time ought be set aside each week to schedule a reasonable number of weekly chores. By naming which tasks should be accomplished on which day, the home-life procrastinator can gain control over the amount of work. And by limiting certain chores to certain days, the procrastinator can lay off feeling guilty about any incomplete chores provided that he or she has realised the chores set aside for the current.