To me, this is all about motivation. You know your mental capacity/ability easily exceeds and achieves what is asked of it, so in order to stop yourself over d

To me, this is all about motivation. You know your mental capacity/ability easily exceeds and achieves what is asked of it, so in order to stop yourself over delivering you have created self imposed limits to prevent wasting your creative resources. Applying the 'minimum effective dose' to your work load is efficient but makes you a poor team player. You then use time pressure & the guilt of not having done much work as motivation and a daily indicator of when it's time to really apply yourself & sprint to your deadline. You're obviously deeply motivated by the sense of reward in experiencing the 'phew, just made it' scenario and this is far more attractive than pacing yourself and then asking for more work. I don't actually think you're procrastinating - just waiting to be motivated & challenged and then filling in that extra time with (poor quality) mental stimulation. By working in this sprint fashion you're actually ensuring you can cope with deadlines, stress & pressure - important skills you learned in your academic life. Ways to resolve this involve using this motivation to your advantage (be careful not to burn yourself out) Explain to your manager you feel you could be more productive & ask for a milestone approach to your work. Surround yourself with ambitious people that you respect (even in online circles) they will provide a peer group that might trigger your competitiveness Work on projects in your spare time in a sprint fashion e.g one night/week/month only or Startup Weekends Decide on a work based project of your own creation to keep you productive even when you're not working on your core tasks. You've ticked off the achievements that society sets out for us, now you have to continue the list & decide on your own new aims.