Skip to main contentA logo with &quat;the muse&quat; in dark blue text.
Advice / Succeeding at Work / Break Room

The 8 Stages of Procrastinating at Work

Stage 1: Pre-Procrastination

The worst happens: Your boss gives you that one task you hate. And an EOD deadline.

Source


Source


Your immediate reaction is complete disbelief.

Source


Then frustration.

Source


But since you're at the office, you keep a cool face on.

Source


Stage 2: Denial

You try to get the task assigned to someone else.

Source


But no one budges.

Source


So you try to start the task—but get nowhere fast.

Source


Source


So this leaves you with one option: Put off this task as long as possible.

Source


Stage 3: "Productive" Procrastination

First, you procrastinate by doing other assigned work.

Source


Then, you clean out your work email inbox.

Source


And your personal email inbox.

Source


And your junk email inbox.

Source


Then, you just start typing random stuff to looking busy.

Source


Stage 4: Social Media Procrastination

You open up Facebook to stalk people from high school.

Source


My goodness, their lives look cooler than yours.

Source


Of course, you're doing all of this while trying to avoid your boss.

Source


Soon, you start tweeting like a crazy person.

Source


You have to keep your enthralled followers up-to-date, right?

Source


Stage 5: Office Procrastination

You start to feel bored, so you clean your office space.

Source


Before you know it, you find yourself in the kitchen snacking on anything you can get your hands on.

Source


Stage 6: Procrastinating Procrastination

Uh oh, you're running out of things to do.

Source


Yeah, procrastinating is getting boring.

Source


Stage 7: Realization of Procrastination

Suddenly you look at the clock.

Source


Only 30 minutes to get this task done?!

Source


You race through it, never looking up.

Source


And you finish with two minutes to spare.

Source


Stage 8: Post-Procrastination

Huh, that wasn't so bad after all.

Source


Until your boss asks you to do that task again tomorrow.

Source


How about...

Source


Photo of clock courtesy of Shutterstock.