Do you procrastinate? More importantly, do you know when and why you procrastinate?
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As a psychologist, I’m always more interested in the why and the when. After all, the procrastination is more of a symptom of something underlying. It’s that underlying thing, the root cause, that we need to get to.
In this article, you’ll learn about:
- Why people procrastinate
- Different types of procrastinators
- The consequences of procrastinating
- Seven things you can do to stop procrastinating
Why do we procrastinate?
The procrastination equation
Procrastination = Expectancy x Value / Impulsiveness x Delay
- Expectancy: People who feel incompetent are more likely to procrastinate.
- Value of the task: The more unpleasant a task is to a person, the more likely they are to put off doing it. Alongside this, people low in the need for achievement tend to procrastinate more.
- Impulsiveness: People who are easily distracted, impulsive, and who have low self-control are more likely to procrastinate.
- Delay: The longer the lead in time to a task, i.e., time delay, the more likely we are to procrastinate. The nearer we are to achieving a goal or task, the more effort we will put in.
This equation predicts a gap between intention to act and action. Procrastinators fail to act on their intentions.
Our underlying emotions
Most people procrastinate in some way. For some of us, it’s because the task is too difficult and we’ll do anything we can to avoid it – choosing the easiest thing in the short term, rather than the most rewarding in the long term. For others, it might be because we’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t have the headspace to do the thing we need to. And for others, it could be because we lack the confidence or competence to do the thing we need to do but feel embarrassed to say.
Underlying all of this are uncomfortable emotions. It’s these emotions that we are dealing with when we procrastinate, rather than the task itself. Procrastination is essentially us avoiding dealing with and regulating difficult task-related emotions. The part of our brain involved in processing emotional responses is the amygdala. The amygdala helps us detect and identify threats and emotionally uncomfortable situations. One of the things it does to protect us is help us avoid danger. In a work context, therefore, when a task feels too difficult, stressful, or overwhelming, the amygdala triggers avoidance responses.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that a recent study in the British Journal of Psychology found that difficulties in managing and regulating emotional reactions and poor control over thoughts was related to lower engagement in a task and an increase in task-related distress and worry.
Lack of motivation
Sometimes we just don’t feel like doing the thing we need to do. We might have the skill but not so much the will.
Low mindfulness and ruminating on negatives
Rumination is where we persistently dwell on negative thoughts or past failures and events. According to one study, rumination can increase not only our distress but also the likelihood we will procrastinate. While another study found that a tendency to procrastinate may be to do with low mindfulness.
Stressful circumstances
The context we are in also plays a part in the likelihood of us procrastinating. Working in stressful contexts may make some people more vulnerable to procrastination. A study by procrastination expert, Professor Fuschia Sirois, suggests that for some people working in a high stress context, when they experience a depletion in coping resources combined with a low threshold for tolerating feelings of stress, they end up procrastinating to avoid dealing with the emotions in a productive way, such as through mindfulness and self-compassion. This then leads to rumination and maladaptive coping strategies, such as self-blame or substance use.
Different types of procrastination
Not all procrastination is equal. There are three types of procrastination we typically see:
- Occasional procrastination where you procrastinate on the occasional task. For me, when something is difficult and I’m feeling overwhelmed, I end up tidying, tidying, tidying! Anything but doing the thing. However, the task is done at some point.
- Chronic procrastination where procrastinating has become the norm. This is about consistently avoiding or delaying doing tasks, even if there are serious consequences.
- Productive intentional delay where the procrastination is about deliberately stepping away and letting your brain percolate on a problem. This makes me think of an episode of Big Bang Theory where Sheldon, a genius physicist, is trying to solve a theoretical physics problem and does all sorts of other things, including playing in a ball pit, so his mind works on the problem in the background. He is doing something completely different when ‘BAZINGA!’ (if you know, you know). Sheldon’s brain has solved the problem.
Daniel Levitin, in his book, The Organized Mind, identifies a couple of other types of procrastinators. He says, “The rest-seeking procrastinators would generally rather not be exerting themselves at all, while the fun-task procrastinators enjoy being busy and active all the time but just have a hard time starting things that are not so fun” (p.97).
The consequences of procrastinating
Besides the two most obvious consequences of a drop in our performance and a potential damage to our reputation, there are two others:
An overloaded mind
Whenever I’m working with coaching clients on overcoming procrastinating, I sometimes use the metaphor of the smartphone update. I have an iPhone and most of the time it functions well. But there are times where it suddenly slows down, gets very hot and when I look in my storage, I suddenly seem to have lost several gigabytes of storage. What’s going on? Ah, of course. There’s a software update lurking in the background. Once I initiate the update, those missing gigabytes come back, my phone speeds up, and it cools down.
I think our minds are the same. When we procrastinate on important tasks, it will weight on our mind a lot. This is known as the Zeigarnik Effect, where incomplete or interrupted tasks weight on our mind much more than completed tasks.
Negative impact on health and wellbeing
There are many studies suggesting that procrastination, particularly chronic procrastination, may lead to higher stress, poor quality sleep, less healthy behaviours, and an increase in physical illnesses and symptoms, such as cardiovascular disease and hypertension.
7 ways to stop procrastinating
1.Process your underlying emotions
Naming our emotions can take the power out of them. Affect Labelling is a psychological concept which essentially means, putting our feelings and emotions into words. If we can name and describe the emotion we’re experiencing, and what’s causing it, we can reduce its hold and impact on us.
Try this:
Reflect on an important task you are procrastinating on. Complete these sentences:
The main emotion I am feeling is…..
I am feeling this emotion because…
One small action I can take to manage this emotion is…
2. Use a timer and work on the task for a set amount of time
There’s the Pomodoro Technique where you set a timer for 25 minutes and then take a break for 5. Do this for four rounds before taking a longer break of between 15 to 30 minutes. I often use this when doing things like filing my accounts or writing articles such as this one. Alternatively, Liz Nassim, in an article for people with ADHD, suggests the five-minute rule, which follows the same idea. This is something I suggested recently to a client. He puts off simple and mundane tasks that then weigh heavily on his mind. We have been experimenting with working on the task for 30 minutes, first thing, before he fires up his email inbox.
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Try this:
Take a task you have been procrastinating on. Book time first thing tomorrow. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Once the timer goes off, stop. Do the same thing tomorrow. (What you may find is you want to keep going beyond the 10 minutes to just get it done. If so, do it.)
3. Practice self-compassion
A 2014 study found that taking a kinder, more accepting approach to personal flaws, lack of competence or setbacks was linked to lower procrastination. It’s important this doesn’t feel like yet another thing to add to an already overwhelmed action list. As Nancy Doyle and Almuth McDowall suggest, in their 2024 book about coaching neurodivergent people, “for busy workers it is more conducive to practise self-compassion on the job” (p.225).
Try this:
When you notice you’re starting to feel bad about procrastinating, ask yourself, ‘How can I be most compassionate to myself in this moment?’
4. Find a motivational trigger
There’s a helpful framework which suggests there are three proactive motivational states that can help us achieve our goals (or in this instance, a task we’re putting off).
Can do: This is underpinned by the belief that you can do the task, that you can control the situation you are being tasked with, and that the cost of failure is low. Note down the strengths you have that will help you get the task done.
Reason to: This is underpinned by an acceptance of your responsibility and a clear reason why this task matters. Tapping into your values can be useful. For example, if helping others is an important value, using this as a lever to motivate yourself to do the task – because not doing it would be unhelpful.
Energised to: This is underpinned by positive and active feelings, emotions, or mood. For example, feeling enthusiastic (active) rather than content (passive). I have a mood boosting playlist which I put on when I need to pump myself up to do something. Music that makes me happy and gets those all-important endorphins going.
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5. Practice mindfulness
Studies suggest that higher levels of mindfulness may lead to less procrastination over time. This is partly because mindfulness may help reduce the effects of negative emotions. Mindfulness can also help us hold our attention on a task. Researchers found that our minds tend to wander during more difficult tasks, or during easy tasks where we get bored. In addition, the same study found that the longer a person spends on a task, the more their mind starts to wander—regardless of whether the activity is difficult or easy. Practicing mindfulness alongside using a timer might be a powerful combination.
Daily meditation may help to regulate emotions, giving us the calmness to simply observe our negative emotions and accept them. In turn, helping us to be more resilient in the face of uncomfortable emotions, processing them more objectively. One of the simplest ways to be mindful is focusing on our breathing. Set a timer for one minute, sit or lie somewhere quiet and comfortable, where you won’t be interrupted, and just notice your breath, in and out. Any thoughts that come in, just let them go. Don’t analyse them. Bring yourself back to your breathing.
Try this:
Once a day, for a week, practice mindful breathing for one to five minutes at a time. Most people I work with choose to do it first thing, before work, or at the end of the working day. At the end of the week, reflect on how you feel and any differences you notice in your thinking or emotions.
6. Delegate the task to someone else whose strength it is
Are you the only person who can do the task? Or could you delegate it. This is something Dr Nancy Doyle talks about in her book, Learning from neurodivergent leaders. Our difficulty may be someone else’s strength and something they enjoy, and vice versa. I was chatting to a friend recently and she realised that she had been putting off doing something because she felt so anxious about it. She delegated the task to someone else who did it easily and with no fuss. That weight is off her mind, and the important task has been done.
Try this:
Go through any tasks you have been procrastinating on. Highlight the ones that you struggle with and identify someone else who can either do it, or help you do it, whose strength it is.
7. Take a more neutral stance to the task
A 2024 study looking at the impact of attitude on motivation when it came to completing or putting off tasks found that those who weighted a task more negatively tended to delay. In addition, those who weighted the task more negatively and self-reported low motivation and/or emotional energy tended to put off the task. Those who took a more neutral stance about the task tended to complete it (and complete it faster). The researchers are clear that a negative weighting bias does not always have a negative effect, i.e. lead to procrastination. A negative weighting bias may lead us to be more realistic in what we can achieve, while a positive weighting bias could lead us to be complacent. Key is to ask ourselves questions to test our thinking. For example, “Have I put prepared enough for this presentation?”
The researchers suggest a neutral, objective stance is the most helpful when it comes to tackling tasks. However, they recognise that context is key here. For example, a task that requires you to do something you’ve never done before may cause anxiety. Thinking about the support you might need, rather than trying to do it alone, might be a way to neutralise the negative weighting.
Try this:
- Rephrase how you describe a task, moving it from negative language to more neutral language. For example, “I hate this task. It’s awful”, to “This task is simply something that requires some of my attention for some of my time”.
- Think about support you might need if doing a task that makes you feel anxious. Identify someone you can reach out to.
Post author: Dr Hayley Lewis. First published on the HALO Psychology website 13 April 2026.
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REFERENCES
Editors. (2025, August 7). Why we procrastinate: A neuroscientific view. Science News Today.