Procrastination at work
Procrastination at work: why time management isn't the fix
Procrastination at work is driven less by poor time management than by tasks that feel boring, vague or stressful. What HR and managers can change.
1h Protocols · October 4, 2026 · 10 min read
Procrastination at work is mostly a reaction to how tasks feel. Adam Grant, a Wharton psychologist who studies work motivation and job design (Shin & Grant, 2021), puts it in one line: "Procrastination is not a time management problem. It's an emotion management problem" (Grant, 2025). The workplace research points to boredom, unclear tasks, low autonomy and stress. So the levers for HR and managers are how work is designed and briefed, and whether people learn to start when a task feels bad, more than any time-management training.
Is procrastination at work worth acting on?
Yes, though the case rests on how common it is and what comes with it, not on a cost figure. An estimated 15–20% of adults procrastinate chronically (Steel, 2007). In a recent meta-analysis, chronic procrastination was linked with poorer self-rated health, partly through stress (Sirois & Monaghan, 2026). At a South Korean furniture company, the more employees said they procrastinated, the lower their supervisors rated their output (Shin & Grant, 2021), and in a large survey by Brenda Nguyen, Piers Steel and Joseph Ferrari, more procrastination went with lower salaries, shorter employment and more unemployment or underemployment (Nguyen, Steel & Ferrari, 2013). All of these are associations, not proof of cause.
Two gaps matter for a business case. No credible per-employee cost figure exists: the numbers that circulate tend to come from older estimates of personal activities and web use at work, not from procrastination measured directly (Metin et al., 2016). And the evidence on what helps comes mostly from university students; of the trials below, the one with working adults was small.
So see it as worth testing, not as a proven saving. Size it with what you already track, such as stalled projects, missed deadlines and engagement-survey items on workload or clarity. Then act at low risk: run a small pilot with one team, and judge it on participation and on how people's own check-in ratings change, which an anonymous dashboard can report in totals.
Why do employees procrastinate at work?
Piers Steel's 2007 review found that how aversive a task is and how long it takes to pay off were among the strong, consistent predictors of procrastination (Steel, 2007). Both are features of the task, and an organization shapes its tasks.
Fuschia Sirois, a Durham University psychologist who studies procrastination, calls some tasks "procrastinogenic": "tasks that don't give you autonomy, that lack structure, and that are ambiguous" (WorkLife, 2020). On another podcast she was specific about offices: "That is a key source of procrastination in the workplace, it's task ambiguity." Leaving people to work out instructions on their own, she added, is "a recipe for procrastination" (Your Parenting Mojo, 2022).
Boredom is the other strong signal. Utrecht University researchers who built the Procrastination at Work Scale split procrastination in the workplace into soldiering (avoiding work offline through long breaks, chatting or daydreaming) and cyberslacking (personal internet use during work hours). In surveys of office workers in the Netherlands and Turkey, procrastination at work was strongly linked with boredom, and fewer job resources, such as autonomy and chances to learn, went with more boredom (Metin, Taris & Peeters, 2016). When someone seems to have no motivation at work, check the job's resources before the person. Nguyen, Steel and Ferrari's survey points the same way: people who procrastinated more tended to hold jobs lower in intrinsically rewarding qualities, with some support for the idea that jobs can encourage procrastination.
Stress adds to this. Sirois argues that stressful periods raise the risk of procrastination because they drain the resources people use to cope with unpleasant tasks; distractions give procrastination an opportunity, in her account, but aren't its core cause. She concludes that "culpability for procrastination does not solely or always rest within the individual" (Sirois, 2023).
| What you see | What the research links it with | Where to look first |
|---|---|---|
| A task nobody starts | Ambiguity, little structure, low autonomy | The brief: outcome, standard, first step, who to ask |
| Long breaks, chatting, daydreaming | Boredom and few job resources | Autonomy, chances to learn, job crafting |
| Delays that spike in busy or uncertain periods | Stress that drains people's capacity to cope | Workload, clarity and support |
How can managers help people who procrastinate?
If someone's delays come with a persistent low mood or are seriously affecting their work or relationships, suggest a doctor or counselor, and leave any labels to them. Employees who want the individual side can read how to stop procrastinating.
Is time-management training enough?
Probably not on its own. Sirois has said that the evidence for time-management strategies against procrastination is mixed at best and doesn't last (Deep Dive, 2023). The Utrecht researchers do list time-management training as one option, alongside job crafting to make work less boring.
Evidence on what does work is thin, and it comes mostly from students. In a large preregistered trial with Swedish university students, one session of feedback and advice on a website made no measurable difference two months later; students who felt it hadn't helped said they struggled to act without continuing support (Åsberg et al., 2024). In a small trial with adults, most of them employed, about ten minutes a day of practice in tolerating and changing the unpleasant feelings around a task, for two weeks, reduced self-reported procrastination, though the effect was small (Eckert et al., 2016). A workplace response therefore needs better-designed tasks as well as employees who know how to start when a task still feels bad. Programs such as the 1h Protocol to Stop Procrastinating work on the second.
Should you block websites and phones?
It's a weak place to start. In the seven-country study of the Procrastination at Work Scale, soldiering went with lower engagement and task performance, while cyberslacking was unrelated to either (Metin et al., 2020). A preregistered meta-analysis found one small effect of a phone's mere presence, on working memory, and no reliable effect on other mental functions (Parry, 2024). Helping people put their own temptations out of sight has better support, at least in two studies with students (Duckworth et al., 2018), and protected focus time, with notifications off by the employee's own choice, follows the same logic.
Where a program fits
The 1h Protocol to Stop Procrastinating takes about an hour, is built around one task the employee keeps putting off, and ends with a personal protocol, followed by four short check-ins over 30 days. Companies buy program credits, one credit per program, and the 1h Protocols team works with HR on choosing the programs, preparing the launch and reviewing participation and the anonymous results. Your dashboard shows anonymous totals only, for groups of five or more, never an individual's programs, answers or protocol. Judge it as you would any new support, in a small pilot first: to scope one with a single team, request a quote.
Frequently asked questions
Why do employees procrastinate?
Mostly because of how tasks feel. Research links procrastination at work with boredom, ambiguous or unstructured tasks, low autonomy and stress, and Piers Steel's meta-analysis found task aversiveness and a distant payoff among the strong, consistent predictors. Fuschia Sirois describes procrastination as avoiding the negative emotions a task stirs up.
How much does procrastination cost employers?
No credible per-employee figure exists. The research shows associations instead: in a large survey, more procrastination went with lower salaries and shorter employment, and at a South Korean company, employees who procrastinated more were rated lower on output. About 15–20% of adults are estimated to procrastinate chronically.
Is time-management training enough?
Probably not on its own. Fuschia Sirois describes the evidence for time-management strategies against procrastination as mixed at best and short-lived. In trials, one session of advice made no measurable difference, while two weeks of short daily practice in handling unpleasant feelings had a small effect.
How can managers help people who procrastinate?
Brief tasks so nobody has to guess, and agree the first concrete step with a time. Ask what makes a stalled task unpleasant, give more autonomy where the role allows, and respond to slips by booking the next start.
Does procrastination ever help creativity?
A little delay can. In Jihae Shin and Adam Grant's experiments, moderate delay during an ideas task led to more creative ideas than low or high delay, and at a South Korean company, moderate procrastinators got higher creativity ratings when they were motivated or their job required creativity. More procrastination also went with lower rated output, so the benefit is limited to idea work.
Sources
- Grant, A. (2025). Procrastination is not a time management problem. LinkedIn (social post)
- Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin (meta-analysis and review)
- WorkLife with Adam Grant: The real reason you procrastinate (2020) (podcast episode with Fuschia Sirois, TED)
- Your Parenting Mojo 170: How to stop procrastinating with Dr. Fuschia Sirois (2022) (podcast episode)
- Metin, U. B., Taris, T. W., & Peeters, M. C. W. (2016). Measuring procrastination at work and its associated workplace aspects. Personality and Individual Differences (scale development and survey study, 443 office workers, Netherlands and Turkey)
- Metin, U. B., et al. (2020). Validation of the Procrastination at Work Scale. European Journal of Psychological Assessment (survey study, 1,028 office employees in seven countries)
- Nguyen, B., Steel, P., & Ferrari, J. R. (2013). Procrastination's impact in the workplace and the workplace's impact on procrastination. International Journal of Selection and Assessment (survey study, 22,053 people)
- Sirois, F. M. (2023). Procrastination and stress: A conceptual review of why context matters. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (conceptual review)
- Shin, J., & Grant, A. M. (2021). When putting work off pays off: The curvilinear relationship between procrastination and creativity. Academy of Management Journal (two experiments and a field study)
- Sirois, F. M., & Monaghan, C. (2026). Procrastination, stress, and self-rated health: A multi-sample meta-analysis. British Journal of Health Psychology (meta-analysis of 36 samples, 8,603 people)
- Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal: Professor Fuschia M. Sirois, the procrastination trap (2023) (podcast episode)
- Åsberg, K., Löf, M., & Bendtsen, M. (2024). Effects of a single session low-threshold digital intervention for procrastination behaviors among university students (Focus). Internet Interventions (preregistered randomised controlled trial, 2,209 students)
- Eckert, M., et al. (2016). Overcome procrastination: Enhancing emotion regulation skills reduce procrastination. Learning and Individual Differences (includes a randomised controlled trial with 83 adults)
- Duckworth, A. L., Milkman, K. L., & Laibson, D. (2018). Beyond willpower: Strategies for reducing failures of self-control. Psychological Science in the Public Interest (integrative review)
- Parry, D. A. (2024). Does the mere presence of a smartphone impact cognitive performance? A meta-analysis of the "brain drain effect." Media Psychology (preregistered meta-analysis, 56 studies)
- Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (meta-analysis of 94 tests)
- Wohl, M. J. A., Pychyl, T. A., & Bennett, S. H. (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study. Personality and Individual Differences (prospective study, 119 first-year students)
