What procrastinator are you - and how to fix it now (not later)
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Dr Itamar Shatz of Cambridge University identifies nine procrastinator types — including dreamers, rebels, hedonists, thrill-seekers, zigzaggers, worriers, pessimists, perfectionists, and burnouts — in a book publishing this week, noting people can fall into multiple categories simultaneously.
- Prof Fuschia Sirois of Durham University rejects categorical frameworks entirely, arguing the root cause is almost always dodging unpleasant emotions tied to the task, and pointing to brain studies showing procrastinators' amygdala reacts to perceived threats faster than their prefrontal cortex can countermand.
- Workplace psychologist Ian MacRae of the British Psychological Society warns the types are not fixed character traits, urging people to frame them as temporary states — 'I'm acting like a perfectionist today' rather than 'I am a perfectionist.'
- Roughly one in five people regularly procrastinate, according to the article's cited statistics.
- Recommended fixes include naming the underlying emotion, using breathing and mindfulness to interrupt the anxiety cycle, practising self-compassion, removing distractions, and breaking overwhelming tasks into small 'easy wins.'
- MacRae counters that procrastination can sometimes be useful since some problems self-resolve, and advises action-seekers that motivation typically follows momentum rather than preceding it.
Why it matters: For the roughly one in five who regularly procrastinate, the practical value is diagnostic: the real obstacle is usually an avoided emotion — anxiety, self-criticism, overwhelm — not laziness, and matching the fix (mindfulness for anxiety, task-scaffolding for overwhelm, self-kindness for guilt) to the underlying feeling makes breaking the cycle far more likely than generic productivity hacks.
