Procrastination Test (Pure Procrastination Scale)

What it measures

This is the Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS), developed by Piers Steel (2010) from a factor analysis of over 4,000 respondents across three established procrastination measures. It captures trait procrastination — your general tendency to delay decisions, start tasks late, and miss deadlines — across three facets: decisional delay, behavioural delay, and poor timeliness.

How it works

You rate 12 short statements about your habitual behaviour on a five-point scale from 'Very seldom true of me' to 'Very often true of me'. Your ratings are summed into a single score out of 60, then placed in one of three descriptive bands. The whole thing takes two to three minutes.

Tips for an accurate result

• 1Procrastination is an emotion problem, not a time problem — Research by Sirois and Pychyl (2013) shows that procrastination is primarily a failure of emotion regulation: we avoid tasks because they trigger uncomfortable feelings (anxiety, boredom, self-doubt, perfectionism), not because we mismanage our calendars. Recognising the feeling is the first step to moving through it.
• 2Use implementation intentions — Vague plans ('I'll do it later') are easy to defer. Replace them with specific if-then commitments: 'When it is 10 am on Wednesday, I will sit at my desk and draft the first paragraph.' Decades of research show this format dramatically increases follow-through.
• 3Break tasks into the single next action — Procrastination often spikes at the threshold of a large or ambiguous task. Identify only the next concrete physical step (open the document, send one email, fill in one field) and commit only to that. The sense of progress reduces avoidance.
• 4Self-compassion reduces rebound procrastination — Harsh self-criticism after a delay tends to make the next bout of procrastination worse, not better. Studies find that forgiving yourself for past delays is associated with less procrastination going forward — it removes the negative emotion that drives further avoidance.
• 5Retake after making changes — If you adopt new strategies or circumstances shift significantly, repeating the scale after a few weeks gives you a fresh read on whether your habitual patterns are changing.