A friend of mine commented, as I was completely absorbed in meticulously drawing a chart and doing sums, that it was so interesting watching a Type A personality work. Unlike most “Type A” comments that I get, she wasn’t making fun of me. Or at least she better not have been making fun of me since I was helping her figure out her budget! At any rate, not fifteen minutes later she shook her head and laughed at me for my starkly non-type-A action of wiping the dust off a can by rubbing it on my pants. However, this didn’t strike me as odd at all, after all I’m type A not a clean freak. But of course this got me to thinking, and whenever I start thinking about something in particular it always leads to the internet and doing research. Like you do.
What did I find? That all of the people that have been making fun of me for years for being quintessentially type A, were pretty much completely right. Out of all of the articles that I read I think the Huffington Post summed it up the best with their 16 Signs That You’re a Little (or a Lot) Type A. Here’s how I scored:
- Waiting in long lines kills you a little bit inside.
- So not true! I do something else while in line like responding to emails, updating my to-do list or working on my next blog. Multi-tasking baby! That response makes me more Type A doesn’t it?
- You’ve been described as a perfectionist, overachiever, workaholic or all of the above.
- Um . . . check, check and check.
- Um . . . check, check and check.
- You bite your nails or grind your teeth.
- Ha! I have a no.
- You have a serious phobia of wasting time.
- At. All. Times. One of the reasons I really don’t like movie theaters is that I can’t do anything else while watching the movie.
- You’re highly conscientious.
- I’m great at big events/parties where I’m in charge and have to be constantly doing things to make sure that people are taken care of and everything is as it should be. I hate hosting small parties though because I stress out the whole time that people aren’t having fun, or I don’t have enough food or I have the wrong kind of food, etc.
- You’ve always been a bit of a catastrophist.
- Nah, everybody has an earthquake survival kit in their bedroom, their car and at work . . . right?
- You frequently talk over and interrupt people.
- I don’t do it on purpose! I get excited.
- You have a hard time falling asleep at night.
- Every. Damn. Night.
- People can’t keep up with you in conversation, or on the sidewalk.
- I can’t help it if I have long legs and talk like the Micro Machine Man when I’m excited!
- You put more energy into your career than your relationships.
- This might explain why I’m single . . .
- Relaxing can be hard work for you.
- But making spreadsheets IS relaxing!
- But making spreadsheets IS relaxing!
- You have a low tolerance for incompetence.
- How about no tolerance for incompetence? Yeah, let’s go with none.
- You’d be lost without your to-do list.
- I will never understand how people get by day-to-day without a to-do list. How do you remember all of things that you need to get done? I once tried to go without a list. It was the worst three hours of my life.
- At work everything is urgent.
- If you don’t need it done right now, than why did you give it to me right now? C’mon!
- You’re sensitive to stress, which can lead to high-blood pressure and heart disease.
- Ha! Another no. I have shockingly low blood pressure. I do however have anxiety and heart burn . . . so maybe this is a yes.
- You make it happen.
- If you didn’t want it done and done well, why did you ask me to do it in the first place?
Huh, 15 out of 16. Yeah, I guess you can say that I’m a little (a lot) Type A.