Why We Procrastinate: Getting to the Root

Bridgette Bryan, DNP, MS, RN

It is More Than Time Management

Ask most nurses why they procrastinate, and you'll hear the same familiar answers: "I work better under pressure," or "I just need to find the right time." But what if procrastination has almost nothing to do with time at all?

Research over the past two decades has fundamentally shifted our understanding of why people delay. For nurse educators — who are simultaneously managing clinical responsibilities, curriculum demands, student needs, and their own continuing education — understanding the true roots of procrastination isn't an academic exercise. It's a professional necessity. Beyond the missed deadlines, research shows procrastination actively increases anxiety, depression, and overall stress — making it a wellbeing issue as much as a productivity one.

Let's explore what the research tells us, and what it means for us as educators and for the students we teach.

The Core Triggers of Procrastination

Because procrastination is rooted in emotion rather than time, identifying which emotional trigger is driving your avoidance is the first step toward addressing it. Consider the following triggers and determine if any of these research-based root causes are challenging your emotions:

Perceived Aversiveness

If you are procrastinating a task, do you find the task boring, frustrating, or unpleasant?

In nursing education, this often includes administrative tasks, grade entry, or documentation requirements that can feel disconnected from meaningful work.

Low Expectancy of Success

When we don't believe we'll do a task well, we avoid starting it. This is particularly relevant for nurse educators who are experts in clinical practice but may feel less confident in pedagogy, scholarship, or technology — domains where impostor syndrome runs high. Does a low expectancy of success lead you to procrastinate?

Lack of Intrinsic Value

When a task feels imposed rather than chosen, motivation drops. Mandatory professional development, compliance training, or institutional reporting requirements often fall into this category. Can you recall procrastinating tasks that you perceive as lacking intrinsic value?

Distractibility

Distractibility refers to the tendency for attention to be pulled away from a current task by competing stimuli — an email notification, a nearby conversation, a passing thought. It isn't simply "getting distracted" in the moment; it's a trait-level pattern where the brain consistently prioritizes immediately stimulating input over sustained focus on something less engaging.

For nurse educators, this is compounded by professional conditioning. Years of working in high-alert clinical environments — where scanning for change, responding to alarms, and shifting attention rapidly is not just normal but lifesaving — can actually reinforce a distractible attentional style. Is distractibility leading you to procrastinate?

Low Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy — the belief that you are capable of performing a specific task — is one of the strongest predictors of whether someone will begin and complete that task. Low self-efficacy doesn't just reduce motivation; it activates avoidance. Are you experiencing low self-efficacy with current assigned tasks?

Maladaptive Perfectionism

High standards do not cause avoidance; however, the fear of what those high standards mean about you if you fall short can lead to avoidance. For nurse educators, delaying course material revisions because the redesign has to be perfect, or avoiding submitting manuscripts because they never feel ready, may sound all too familiar. Is maladaptive perfectionism a root cause of your procrastination?

Strategies That Work

Once you've identified your root cause, these research-based strategies can help:

Name the emotion, not the task. Rather than naming the task, name the emotion associated with it: "I feel ____ when attempting this task." Affect labeling — putting a name to the feeling — reduces its emotional intensity. This simple step can decrease avoidance and restore your capacity for self-regulation.

Start with just two to five minutes. When feeling task aversiveness, commit only to beginning. Starting is the hardest cognitive step, and once you do, momentum will typically take over.

Practice self-compassion. Offer yourself the same kindness you would extend to a struggling colleague. Research consistently links self-compassion with reduced shame and lower rates of chronic avoidance.

Protect your cognitive capacity. Sleep, boundaries around workload, and recovery time are not luxuries — they are neurological prerequisites for self-regulation.

Conclusion: Reframing the Conversation

Understanding why we procrastinate and getting to our root cause is not a process of identifying a character flaw. It is a predictable, research-documented response to emotional discomfort — one that is particularly common in high-demand professions like nursing education.

When we reframe procrastination as an emotion regulation challenge rather than a personal failing, we open the door to genuine, sustainable change — for ourselves and for the students we teach. We shift from self-criticism to self-understanding. From punishment to problem-solving. From shame to strategy.

That reframe is where progress begins — and where stress begins to end.

For additional information, please visit:

Bolden J., Fillauer J. P. (2020). “Tomorrow is the busiest day of the week”: executive functions mediate the relation between procrastination and attention problems. J. Am.College Health. 68, 854–863. DOI:10.1080/07448481.2019.1626399

Yan, B., Zhang, X. (2022). What Research Has Been Conducted on Procrastination? Evidence From a Systematical Bibliometric Analysis. Frontier Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809044

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June 15, 2026