Do you believe that kids (and adults) who procrastinate waste their time, are being lazy and don’t care about finishing things? If so, you are not alone in subscribing to these myths about motivation. In fact, most procrastinators rarely spend their time doing nothing. Instead, they are great at doing other things — sharpening pencils, picking the right music to listen to, tidying up their workspace, etc. Sometimes it seems that kids, especially those with ADHD, can only be productive if they focus on what interests them. 

When a student is procrastinating, they are struggling. Unsure how or where to begin, daunted by the size of the task, driven by perfectionism or feeling uncertain about their abilities, children and teens may not ask for assistance or reject any help that is offered. Procrastination can be debilitating. Your child or teen puts something off until the last minute when their panic about not having it done kicks in. You may do the same thing. Adrenaline jumpstarts your activity level by fueling the neuronal dopamine pathways in the brain to fire. Jaden, age 15, explains: “I’m the best procrastinator ever. I work best under pressure because I need the heat to make me do it. My dad says he and my mom do the same thing.”

When a student is procrastinating, they are struggling. Unsure how or where to begin, daunted by the size of the task or driven by perfectionism, children and teens may not ask for assistance or reject any help that is offered. Anxiety plays a significant role in procrastination. A student may be worried about the outcome of the assignment or lack confidence about their capabilities, so they avoid something as long as possible. When the due date stares them down and they’ve run out of options, they take the plunge, often forgoing quality for completion. 

There are three types of procrastination: 

• Perfectionism procrastination shows up as immobilization from worry about not getting something right or doing a good enough job. There’s concern about disappointing others and not meeting expectations — yours, your parents or your teachers. A youngster tries to limit mistakes and reduce future shame: “I’m not going to begin this because I don’t know if I can do it perfectly, well enough. I’d rather not try.” 

• Avoidance procrastination is directly related to a fear of failure or an expectation of failure…