Procrastination: The Thief of Time

“Procrastination is the thief of time.” This quote by poet Edward Young depicts how sneaky and serious this delay habit is. It steals more than just time—it steals peace of mind, confidence, and momentum. And then you might also resonate with Oscar Wilde’s “I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do – the day after”. Instead of completing an important task, you might search for pleasurable activities and immediate satisfactions (snacks and Netflix) or dedicate your time to mundane tasks like reorganizing a wardrobe.

I am a life coach who works with people every day who feel stuck, overwhelmed, and frustrated by their habits of procrastination. And yet, I’m not immune to it. Sometimes the very strategies I offer others to tackle procrastination are the ones I have to remind myself to use.

Procrastination isn’t about laziness or lack of ambition. And it does not discriminate. It sneaks up on students, CEOs, creatives, and yes—coaches too.

With the series of blogs, I want to shed more light on procrastination, why we do it (even when we know better), and most importantly—how we can start to catch it red-handed and take back control. Whether you’re a chronic procrastinator or just find yourself stuck now and then, this is for you.

In this blog I want to focus on the first key step towards overcoming procrastination- awareness: gaining clarity about one’s procrastination and recognizing its root cause.

What is Procrastination?

Procrastination originates from the Latin word “procrastinare”, meaning to defer until tomorrow. We delay or postpone tasks, often replacing them with less important activities despite our better judgement warning us about consequences. As if we buy time only to run out of time. While it may seem harmless at first, chronic procrastination can lead to increased stress, missed opportunities, and decreased productivity. It’s not just about poor time management or laziness—it often stems from deeper emotional and psychological factors such as fear of failure, perfectionism, lack of motivation, and anxiety.

Dr. Windy Dryden (Emeritus Professor of Psychotherapeutic Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London) identified that regular procrastination typically occurs in three major areas:

1. Self-development: career (changing a job), education, personal (finding a life partner) and social life.
2. Personal maintenance: finances (paying bills), administration (answering emails), house tasks, health.
3. Honoring commitments to others: promises made earlier (in good faith or due to lack of boundaries) are considered as burdens.

Too many times have I heard myself proudly declare that I am procrastinating productively, I get so many things done though not the ones on the top of my priority list, especially the ones with looming deadlines. My selective memory would bring up procrastination “success stories”, how instead of enjoying the silent swim of writing Master’s thesis in 1 year, I “thrived” under last-minute pressure like a true adrenaline junkie and wrote it in 2 months. I would conveniently forget to mention the cost of procrastination: cocktail of guilt, shame, eroding self-trust with a sprinkle of anxiety on top.

We all procrastinate—it’s practically an art form at this point! But have you ever wondered what hinders your fruitful action?

What kind of procrastinator are you?

According to Dr. Linda Sapadin’s (Psychologist and author) research, six types of procrastinators have been identified:

1. Perfectionist – You hesitate to finish the work/project if it doesn’t qualify as perfect. You might even postpone starting the work, because anything short of perfect will be seen as failure and expectations are too high.
2. Dreamer – You have great ideas and visions, but struggle to translate them into reality. Practical tasks to achieve your goals seem boring and you avoid the challenges of hard work.
3. Worrier – “What if”-s and worst case scenarios overwhelm you. You resist change, avoid risk and making decisions fearing unknown and unfamiliar.
4. Defier – You rebel against others’ expectations, suggestions or instructions, because they are perceived as attempts to control you.
5. Crisis-Maker – You believe you work best under pressure and you thrive feeling adrenaline rush, so tasks are deferred until the last minute.
6. Pleaser/Overdoer – You struggle to set appropriate boundaries and say “NO” to others, resulting in too much work on your plate and not enough time to complete tasks.

You might recognize yourself in more than one type—and that’s totally normal! The goal isn’t to label yourself, but to understand what’s going on underneath your procrastination so you can start to shift it.

Procrastinators around the world – claim thyselves and vote here!

I do claim myself as Master Procrastinator, who also mastered procrastination by discovering its emotional roots and my own ways to tackle it. Once you understand the “whys” behind it, you can begin to change your relationship with it. I befriended my Perfectionist & Crisis-Maker, discovered their “positive intentions” and now we live in harmony, they don’t rock the boat anymore (just little nudges here and there).

Whatever your style, it’s time to own it! Take this poll and find out which type of procrastinator you are—because let’s be honest, answering this is way more fun than whatever you should be doing right now😆.

If you display mix of these procrastination styles, choose the one that you resonate with the most!

In the next post, we’ll dive into avoidance behaviors and the creative justifications we all use to dodge the work we secretly want to get done.

Stay tuned…..