Is procrastination an AS trait?

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I'm exactly like that, and for the same reason.
I told the mother of one of my students that I'd send them a certain document. This was a couple of months ago, and I still haven't done it, because sending that document is not part of my online routine.

It's a lazy trait. I also do this. Took me a while to do the laundry finally today because I finally got off my butt and did it and got quarters from the bank for laundry.

procrastination is a natural to humans as breathing.

ruveyn

yep
I like to wait for things to become a real mess and then spend a good 30 min - 1 hour cleaning it. The worst part is that it only takes a few hours to make a mess again .

Yep, I procrastinate, but mostly because I get so obsessed with/involved in something that I can't stop, and so I have to put whatever else off until the very last moment...
...or sometimes I don't do it altogether...
I need incredible motivation/inspiration to do something, and it's really difficult for me to being a task on a subject I have no interest in.

I procrastinated in school, yes, although I sort of prepared beforehand. I examined the assignments and figured out about how long it would take to do them, then left enough time at the end. Prepared procrastination works beautifully, but unprepared procrastination is a disaster waiting to happen.

procrastination is a tolerable excuse we use till we can accept laziness.

It’s not laziness or a lack of discipline, although both these things could aggravate the situation and make it worse. The fact is, even when we work much harder than those around us, we often get worse results.

I was told that my “best handwriting” was not good enough because unlike everyone else, I did not practice. After spending several years practicing hours a day, my handwriting was no better relative to my peers, and it turns out that none of them were practicing at all.

I still took longer to produce the same results. Unlike my peers, for me handwriting is excruciatingly painful, and I quite literally cannot produce more than a few lines of legible text unless I take a very long time, am copying directly from a source, stop every couple of lines to rest for a few minutes and stick to printing rather than writing.

Is it laziness or lack of discipline that makes me reluctant to experience excruciating physical pain to end up with a text no one (including me) can read anyway? I do not think so.

How about the dishes. I can wash dishes all day. Most people would rather stack the dishes than wash the dishes, but I often take hours to do the dishes because stacking them can be overwhelmingly difficult. I am not more lazy or less disciplined than others who find this task is not exhaustingly difficult, and frustrating. Faced with a task that was equally difficult to them, they would probably procrastinate too.

It’s not lazy or lacking in discipline to only have so much fortitude, and to only have so much mental, emotional or physical energy, and to be limited in how much pain one is prepared to endure, or how often one can bear to endure and for how long. Anyone would be put off, and even the most disciplined and least lazy would start to find the payoff for effort, exhaustion/frustration incurred and pain suffered less than inspiring. Humans have limitations and it’s not lazy or undisciplined to be a human.

Add to this the issues of the pathological effects of all encompassing interests and narrow focus for many of us.

This is not an issue of discipline as “lack of discipline” is quite different from physiological limitation. Describing an inability to “self cure” for this symptom as lack of discipline is no different than describing the tics of Tourettes as arising from lack of discipline, or of the effects of epilepsy being the same. After all people without these conditions use discipline to sit still…that’s why these conditions are clinical rather than attitudinal.In other words there are involuntary limits on the extent to which these things can be controlled, whereas issues of discipline pertain to voluntary behavior/conduct.

If it's not in my routine, I find it difficult to do. I used to have a routine where I'd have dinner around 7, do dishes at 8, laundry at 9PM on Wednesdays, and then that routine changed when I got rather depressed over work-related rubbish. It was difficult to do things like laundry, dishes, etc.

I always procrastinate. Sometimes being lazy is a part of it, i admit, but i don't think that's the only factor. Doing reports for school is always a problem. Writing papers isn't exactly something that i enjoy, and i'd rather being doing something that i like to do. I know that it needs to get done, but i always think "oh, it's fine.. i have lots of time to get it done in" and just keep telling myself that until the night before its due. It often gets me in a big panic, but i can't motivate myself very well without that sense of urgency. Before then, it just doesn't seem important enough. Also, like a lot of people have said, it takes me awhile to figure out how exactly to go about doing something. With a school report, the whole idea of getting it all done seems completely overwhelming. I'll think about it, and it seems like i have no clue how i'm going to break down the parts and put it together to get it done. It just seems like too much... Even though i know that i've completed tons of reports before. So, i avoid doing it for as long as i can. I'll just keep thinking that maybe LATER i'll bemore mentally prepared to do it or maybe more aware of what the teacher expects. Not wanting to pull myself away from something else can play a role in it sometimes, too. My mind might be stuck on one particular thing, and i won't feel like putting that much effort into something that doesn't involve that particular thing. To add to this, i'm often confused about what exactly is expected of me. Like with the report example, i'm not sure that i know what the teacher is looking for.. and i always feel like i must be doing something wrong. I know that i'm going to end up not putting everything in what the teacher thinks is the "right order," or, without realizing it, i'll go off on too many "tangents." Uhhhg. It's just too much to think about.

Plus... say, if i have a paper due next week... Then i do the paper tonight. Well, i could die tomorrow... and, then, wouldn't it be a shame that i spent my last night doing something that i hate to do? If only i had procrastinated, i would have lived slightly happier life

You might be an Aspie If ^

Certainly it does for me......once I'm locked onto a task, to break out of it is like trying to turn a juggernaut round in a 3-foot alley.

And performing a task that I can't lock onto is painful. Like clearing out a cupboard - the only protocol I can work out for such a job seems immense - take each item in turn, identify it, determine whether or not I need to keep it; if not, do I throw it away or give it away? Who do I give it to? If I decide to keep it, I need to decide on a place to put it....does it need protection from getting squashed? From heat/dust/light? Will its new place render it suitably accessible, given the number of times I'm likely to use it? How will I order these items logically so that the I'll be able to remember their new locations? When there is competition for space, which items take precedence? But I'm only mucking out a cupboard....I shouldn't try to do it perfectly or it'll take me weeks....then where should I allow imperfection? Surely any fool can clear out a cupboard, this shouldn't be hard - why am I so incompetent/lazy/undisciplined?

So I decide to just try to muddle through without turning it into degree-level stock control, and my mind yells "this isn't going to work!" Then while in the throes of this messy, fiddly job, I notice a cherished item I'd misplaced years ago......my attention locks onto it and I set about examining it, restoring it, trying it out, remembering the hours of fun I've had using it. Suddenly, time's up and I realise I've failed to achieve the target.

I am the worlds worst at leaving things to the last minute, or starting one task, then getting absorbed into something more interesting. It drives my AS partner crazy. He mostly achieve's what he started.
I know many NT people who procrastinate.

I think it's a human trait.

Vee

I procrastinate, however I don't think it is exactly an AS trait as I know that some NTs also procrastinate.

(There's actually a SpongeBob episode called "Procrastination", but that's a different story. )

No, it's a human trait.

Sure.....it would probably not be a lot of good as a diagnostic criterion, as there are many neurotypicals who procrastinate - and I bet they didn't invent the word just for Aspies. But I reckon it's very likely that Aspies are significantly more prone to procrastination than NTs.