Pure Procrastination Scale

The PPS (Pure Procrastination Scale, Steel) combines the 12 highest-loading items from three classic procrastination scales to measure irrational delay — putting things off despite expecting to be worse off. Answer for how things usually go for you.

The PPS was assembled by procrastination researcher Piers Steel, who pulled the 12 highest-loading items from three classic scales (DPS, GPS, AIP) to make a unidimensional measure of 'pure' procrastination — avoiding items that confound delay with strategic timing.

Items are rated 1-5 and summed to 12-60. The bands shown (12-24 low, 25-35 mild, 36-47 moderate, 48-60 high) are descriptive; the published sample mean sits around 37.

A key insight from procrastination research: it's an emotion-regulation problem more than a time-management problem — dealing with the 'ugh' feeling first often works better than planning harder.

Source: Pure Procrastination Scale (Steel, 2010) · The author states the PPS is free for research and clinical purposes; Chinese items are our careful translation of the published wording. · Original source

How much does each statement describe you?

1. I delay making decisions until it's too late
2. Even after I make a decision I delay acting upon it
3. I waste a lot of time on trivial matters before getting to the final decision
4. In preparation for some deadlines, I often waste time by doing other things
5. Even jobs that require little else except sitting down and doing them, I find that they seldom get done for days
6. I often find myself performing tasks that I had intended to do days before
7. I am continually saying "I'll do it tomorrow"
8. I generally delay before starting on work I have to do
9. I find myself running out of time
10. I don't get things done on time
11. I am not very good at meeting deadlines
12. Putting things off till the last minute has cost me money in the past