Confessions of a Recovering Type-A Personality
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 08:00AM 
If I had to, I would officially classify myself as a Type-A personality. I plan, schedule, and I have Excel charts for days. I like to make decisions and goals for my life, and then work to achieve them... in a decidedly organized and obsessive way. I've been this way since I was a little kid and forced my brothers and sisters to act in plays that I wrote, directed, costumed, and tyranized all by myself - because I was an uber-annoying older sister.
You wouldn't think this is a problem. I pay my bills on time, I can be counted on to be on time, I usually am a lady that gets things done.
However, in college I realized the problem with this scenario. I was studying Production Management, which involved stage managing theatre on a grand scale. I asked my senior stage manager for advice on how I could improve my skillz. He gave me some of the best advice I've ever received:
"You are very organized and on top of things, but when you broadcast that, it makes everybody very nervous and stressed - don't let everybody know you are running through all the details and specifics in your head. Loosen up, sister." (paraphrased!)
This is so true. I love me a Type-A... we email you back right away, we get things done, but... we can also be - shall we say - super-frakking ANNOYING! We are the ones that want to buy tickets six months in advance (when it's unnecessary,) we take initiative when it's not our place to do so, we make the simplest tasks SO overorganized instead of pleasurably organic, we label the life out of you. This is why Type-A's often characterize themselves as "anal retentive."
I prefer "precise." :)
To me, the key to navigating life as a Type-A is to... be Type-A without announcing your Type-A status to the world. Don't Google Doc if you don't need to, don't label when you should be just enjoying those items you are labeling, don't stress everybody around you out. Life is firstly to be enjoyed - inputting the details into Excel charts comes secondarily.
I have been working on being not so obviously Type-A since college, and I still don't have it figured out, but hopefully I don't stress my friends out as much as I used to! I keep my Excel charts a closely guarded secret, right next to my illicit drugs (calm down, mom. I'm kidding.)
Are you Type-A? Do you find it a blessing or a curse? Please submit your comment in a series of bullet points. We all know you want to. (Secretly, I want you to, too.)
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Reader Comments (7)
Type A here!
- I consider it a blessing, nay, a GIFT
- hubby-to-be "accepts" me for it, whatever that means
Thank you for sharing this - it's kind of like a lighbulb just went off with the advice from your sr. manager - I can be this way but not project it onto everyone else. Everybody wins! I find the hardest thing is wanting those around me to care as much as I do about carefully thoughtout plans of action for everything. That's my problem though, not their's!
Type As make GREAT marathoners! ;)
+I try to let my creative juices flow, but still write in complete sentences and always capitalize properly and write without abbreviating, even in text or email.
+I usually get snobby about my Type" "A"-ness, because it feels like I'm the one who holds things together and gets things done. (After getting married and moving away from home, my friends say they rarely get together or do anything fun any more because I'm not there to organize it!)
+I ruined my bachelorette party because I couldn't stand the chaos or the unknown.
+I consider myself a recovering Type "A". Marriage has helped that.
Thank you for sharing the advice--i got something out of it too. I can be type "A"-ish for myself, but I don't have to subject others to it (at least as much as I can help it).
i have no idea what i am, but i'm so glad you are thinking of all the details in your head!
Thank you for this post. I always thought that I was type A until I read your post and decided that I must be Type B. I read a description for Type B again and decided there is no way that I'm a Type B personality. So I decided I must be both. =D Everything is right in my world again. Funny thing though, I think Type A personalities migrate toward each other because you described most of my friends perfectly, with a few Type AB personalities mixed in.
I'm the opposite, I think, but I'm about to go look it up because I feel like I've been transitioning personalities (does that make me sound schizo?) :)
I'd love to hear what your Meyers-Briggs assessment is, you should totes blog about that!
I think I am a Type-A personality. I go to law school, so I think that automatically puts me in that category!
I am a flip flopper, I think! I can be very type A about many things, but sometimes I am very much a B personality. I am a Gemini... hmm.