[ISFJ] ISFJs as a bad student and messy?

[Generalist]

Hi, thanks to anyone who shows interest. Some folks on another post seem to think I am an isfj. It kind of troubles me due to some of my slacker behavior. Have any of you ever been bad students consistently through school, like procrastinating and checking out during class? I wasn't a trouble maker at all, a goody two shoes, just not the best student, I didn't stay on top of things well. One semester could be good and the next not so good. Anyone have that experience? I have been attending a local community college where I have been doing very well and consistently. Whole new appreciation for school. What about housework and being personally organized. I have been a procrastinator all my life, especially when it comes to housework and I have been messy all my life. In the last nine years though, I have had much bigger fish to fry, like figuring out my life direction, my kids' future and so on, but even before then I was pretty messy. Anyone here not give a fuck about housework, consider it low on the totem pole? What about work. I had some bad attitudes and didn't perform to the best of my ability, one company I thought was a bit unsavory. Anyone else have this issue. Thanks again so much.

 

[Smilephantomhive]

Yes, ISFJ can procrastinate.

 

[Yama]

I don't think school performance/organization is a very good indicator of type. You could very well be an ISFJ. Nowadays I am a straight-A student and I am hyper-organized, but take that with a grain of salt as I have OCPD which makes me very high-strung when it comes to organization and things. Back when I was in 8th grade, however, I was a terrible student. Fs and maybe a couple Ds all around the board. I simply didn't care or try. I only got better once they threatened to hold me back, and I have been an excellent student ever since. It's a matter of willpower more so than J/P dichotomies, I think. It also heavily depends on your learning style and what sorts of teachers you have, and the subjects you are taking, and whether they all "click" for you or not.

I'm a stickler about living in a clean environment, but I'm not obsessed with housework. My philosophy is that if everyone just cleaned up after themselves (*coughs heavily in the direction of my messy-as-fuck INTP sister*) then only minimum effort would be required to live in a decently clean environment. I'm very picky about my own room's cleanliness (for the aforementioned personality disorder reasons), but I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than spend more than an hour tops doing any sort of housework. If you clean your messes as you go (throwing wrappers and trash away, taking care of dishes as soon as you're done using it) then there's not much left to do really. Vacuum once in a while. Dust sometimes. But I definitely don't follow any sort of set housecleaning schedule and really don't care much for it.

So I wouldn't throw ISFJ off the table just because you don't like housecleaning and aren't a perfect student all the time.

 

[Generalist]

Thank you so much!

 

[Unionruler]

I've only been a bad student in primary (i.e. junior) school. My results were good, but I often neglected homework and other stuff for teachers/subjects I didn't like.

Thereafter was a teacher's pet through to uni.

 

[Generalist]

Thanks!

 

[cascadeco]

As a counter example, I am decidedly not isfj and I was a good student and am not a messy person. So moral of this story is, behaviors like this are just that - behaviors. And shouldn't be used to indicate or decide on a type.

Messy doesn't equate to P, and cleanliness to J. And so on.

 

[Generalist]

Thanks!

 

[Pierre-Yves]

Well, I seem to be quite archetypal ISFJ, and I was not the perfect student at school !
I had low grade family problems, & health issues, which has probably contributed to lead me in this way.
But (and I feel it's always been this way) when I enter a topic, I love to immerse in as much information as it takes to give me the feeling I 'get' the essential of it (which often means a lot of informations !), which seems to be typical ISFJ.
As long as something interests me, I can go far its way.
So it's not as much the fact that you would be good or bad at school or studies that should make you doubt on being ISFJ or not, but, in terms of knowledge/academic achievements, the way you handle your interest in stg.
If that can help you feeling the answer to your question ?

Best regards,


Pierre-Yves

 

[Generalist]

Thanks so much! I also have a talent for consuming large amounts of information about a topic I find interesting. To be fair I suppose, in the past couple years I have been diagnosed with mild depression, ADD, and anxiety, so I am sure that played into it. Thanks again.

 

[Pierre-Yves]

Another thing is, it seems that we ISFJs face some difficulties with abstraction (better learning by example/practice), which can lead to lack of motivation for school/studies.
This is quite not my case on many topics, but definitely on some others.
And my best friend, whom I strongly suspect to be ISFJ as well (not yet 100% sure by now), has faced major difficulties with abstraction during his scholarship. Which does not prevent his from being project manager in IT, and earning more than twice my income

 

[Generalist]

That is true! Thanks again!

 

[tinker683]

Yup! Big procrastinator, at least about the things I don't really care about, which was often many of my school studies. Psychology, The Humanities, and my computer courses were the only courses I cared about in college. Everything else felt like a waste of time.

Everything that I do really care about though, and I'm that guy who is up at 6am and wondering why the hell everyone else is still asleep....

 

[GIjade]

Anyone here not give a fuck about housework, consider it low on the totem pole?

Me.

 

[/DG/]

Add me to the list of extremely disorganized/messy/lazy SJs. I can't say that this has ever really made me a bad student, though, with the exception of last semester. I was really overwhelmed then. Hoping to do better this time around.