You procrastinate mainly because the task brings up a bad feeling, such as boredom, anxiety, confusion or self-doubt, and putting it off makes that feeling go away for a while. Researchers Fuschia Sirois and Tim Pychyl describe this as putting short-term mood repair ahead of your long-term goals. A large review by Piers Steel found the strongest predictors of procrastination were how unpleasant the task feels, how far away its reward is, how confident you are that you can do it and how impulsive you are. Laziness wasn't one of them. The good news is that each cause can be changed: smaller first steps make tasks feel less unpleasant, set start times bring the reward closer, and small wins build confidence.
Procrastination is about feelings more than time
If procrastination were a time management problem, a better calendar would fix it. For most people it doesn't. Sirois and Pychyl's research shows that procrastination works as a way of regulating mood: the task makes you feel bad, so you switch to something that makes you feel better right now (Sirois and Pychyl, 2013). The cost lands on your future self, who has less time and more stress.
This explains why you can procrastinate on things you care about. Caring about the result can make the task feel heavier, not lighter.
The equation behind putting things off
Piers Steel combined decades of research into what he called temporal motivation theory. In simple form, it says your motivation to do a task depends on four things:
- Expectancy: how sure you are that you can do it and that it will work.
- Value: how rewarding or pleasant doing it is.
- Delay: how far away the reward or deadline is.
- Impulsiveness: how easily you're pulled toward whatever is in front of you.
Motivation goes up with expectancy and value, and down as delay and impulsiveness grow. That's why a task due in three months loses to a video that's one tap away, and why the same task becomes urgent the night before the deadline.
Six common reasons, and what helps
1. The task feels too big
"Write the thesis" or "find a new job" has no obvious first move, so your brain treats it as one huge, unpleasant block. What helps: shrink it to a first step that takes two minutes, such as "open the file and write one rough sentence".
2. You don't know where to begin
Unclear tasks feel worse than hard ones, because you can't tell whether you're making progress. What helps: pick any concrete first action, even an imperfect one. Starting usually makes the next step clearer.
3. You're afraid of doing it badly
If the result feels like a verdict on you, starting means risking a bad verdict. Steel's review found that low confidence in your ability strongly predicts delay. What helps: make the first version allowed to be rough, and keep the first session short enough that it can't go very wrong.
4. The reward is far away
Your brain gives much more weight to rewards that come soon. A pension, a degree or a fitter body in a year can't compete with relief now. What helps: put a reward close to the start, such as ticking off today's step, logging your start time or simply being able to stop after five minutes.
5. Something easier is always within reach
Impulsiveness was one of the strongest predictors in Steel's review. What helps: distance. Put your phone in another room for the session and close what you don't need before your start time.
6. You're not sure you want it any more
Sometimes the task has quietly stopped mattering, and avoiding it is your honest answer. What helps: ask yourself whether you'd still choose this goal today. If yes, keep it and plan the first step. If not, drop it or change it. You can't make yourself start on a goal you've given up on.
Is procrastination just laziness?
No. Laziness means not wanting to put in effort. People who procrastinate often put in a lot of effort, just not on the task: they clean, research, plan and worry instead. Many feel bad about the delay the whole time, which is the opposite of not caring.
Why it's worth taking seriously
Procrastination isn't only about missed deadlines. A study following 3,525 Swedish university students found that higher procrastination was linked nine months later with more symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, worse sleep, less physical activity, loneliness and money problems, even after accounting for many other factors (Johansson and colleagues, 2023). That's a correlation, not proof that procrastination causes these things, but it's a good reason to deal with it.
Procrastination, ADHD and low mood
If you put off almost everything, find it very hard to focus even on things you enjoy, or feel low most days, procrastination may be part of something bigger, such as ADHD, depression or anxiety. Those have specific treatments, so it's worth talking to a doctor. Cognitive behavioural therapy also has evidence for procrastination itself, including an internet-based programme tested in a randomised trial (Rozental and colleagues, 2015).
What to do next
Pick the reason above that sounds most like you and try the fix once today. If you want the full set of methods, read how to stop procrastinating.
Questions people ask
Why do I procrastinate even when I care about the outcome?
Caring about the result can make the task feel heavier, because doing it badly would matter more. Putting it off relieves that pressure for a while. Making the first step small and allowed to be rough lowers the pressure enough to start.
Is procrastination a sign of ADHD?
Not on its own. Almost everyone procrastinates sometimes. If you put off almost everything, struggle to focus even on things you enjoy, and have done since childhood, it's worth asking a doctor about ADHD.
Can procrastination be cured?
It can be reduced a lot. Methods with research support include if-then plans that set a time and place, self-forgiveness after a delay and cognitive behavioural therapy. Most people get better by making starts smaller and more regular, not by waiting for motivation.
Startr is a procrastination app built on the ideas in this guide. You type the thing you keep putting off, it writes a first step that takes two minutes, you pick a time and a place, and at that time it counts you down and starts a 5-minute timer. There's no sign-up, and the web app works on any phone or computer.
Get my first stepSources
- Sirois, F. & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2), 115–127. doi:10.1111/spc3.12011
- Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
- Johansson, F., Rozental, A., Edlund, K., et al. (2023). Associations between procrastination and subsequent health outcomes among university students in Sweden. JAMA Network Open, 6(1), e2249346. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.49346
- Rozental, A., Forsell, E., Svensson, A., Andersson, G. & Carlbring, P. (2015). Internet-based cognitive-behavior therapy for procrastination: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 83(4), 808–824. doi:10.1037/ccp0000023