Tips to Prevent Procrastination: Motivation Theories
5 June 2025
Is procrastination harmless? A way to reset our brain for a few minutes after completing a task? Possibly… but what about when those few minutes happen regularly throughout the day? That’s when you see productivity dip. Still, there’s a bigger conversation to have, and it’s essential to dig deeper and look at the causes of persistent procrastination. During this blog, we’ll explore what causes procrastination at work, why it matters and how to apply Maslow and Pink’s motivational theories and a robust recognition strategy to your business to prevent procrastination.
We’re continuing our series on applying Maslow, Herzberg and Pink’s motivational theories to workplace issues and HR headaches. Start with our blog, ‘Harness the Power of Motivation with Maslow, Herzberg, and Pink’, to unpack the core of these three psychological theories, then read the other topics in the series.
What is Procrastination?
Procrastination = delaying or postponing what we need to achieve.
Sound familiar?
People procrastinate in all areas of their lives, using different distraction methods to avoid completing a specific task. The impact of procrastinating depends on what we’re avoiding and why, but in the workplace, procrastination can be a productivity killer.
Procrastination in Numbers
On average, UK employees spend two hours and nine minutes procrastinating each day (Factorial). Since full-time employees generally work eight-hour days, they spend just over 25% of their working day avoiding work.
Ouch!
Procrastination costs UK businesses £21 billion each year (Factorial)! We can agree, then, that procrastination at work is far from harmless. Time is money, and when employees waste yours, it impacts your bottom line.
Exploring the Procrastination Cycle
One of the biggest problems with procrastination is that it becomes a habit. Our mobile phones are usually within arm’s reach. A ‘quick look’ at something before getting started on a job can happen without thought. Then we repeat it because smartphones are addictive.
The problem is that these minor delays add up, and before you know it, you’ve stared at your phone for ten of the thirty minutes you set aside for researching blog content (purely a hypothetical example, we hasten to add).
Anxiety and stress come next when the fear of not completing work on time kicks in.
Procrastination isn’t just about not doing work. You can still be working and procrastinating. Say you have a complex report to write or a minefield of data to analyse, and the thought of getting stuck in is daunting, so you put off getting started by doing tasks less demanding and important.
You’re getting something done… but was it a priority?
What Are the Causes of Workplace Procrastination?
There are many causes of procrastination, and some of them aren’t that complex or troubling. Tiredness, being a little bored, waiting for some exciting news, daydreaming about the amazing book you’re reading that has you in its grips… all these things can draw employee focus and attention away from what they're supposed to be achieving.
When it comes to understanding what causes procrastination in the workplace, we need to dig deeper, as there may be more to the situation.
Lack of Self-confidence
Fear of failure, or a lack of confidence in our ability to complete a project, can lead us to delay getting started on the task. Age, gender, and experience make a difference, with females aged 18 to 25 reported to have 15% lower levels of self-belief than males in that age group, as revealed in our blog, 'Mental Wellbeing Series: Let's Talk EAP'.
Poor Time Management or Overwhelm
Poor time management + increasing workload = excess stress.
Procrastination also stems from having a large and overwhelming workload. When we don't manage our time well, or priorities aren’t clear, deciding where to start can be challenging. Not knowing where to start often causes employees not to start at all.
Disengagement
Disengaged employees cost the UK economy over £340 billion annually (FMJ).
Engaged employees are more focused and driven to help your business succeed. They may have moments of procrastination – they’re still human – but they will be considerably less than unengaged or disengaged employees.
Lack of Motivation
Lack of motivation is one of the top reasons employees procrastinate. The drive to deliver simply isn’t there.
There is a link between engagement and motivation – engaged employees tend to be more motivated. However, motivation has a separate source of drivers that we’ll explore later in this blog.
The Disadvantages of Unmotivated Employees
It’s vital to identify procrastination causes, especially when linked to unengaged, disengaged, and unmotivated employees because they cost your business money.
What are the effects of unmotivated employees?
Much like a poorly engaged workforce, unmotivated employees lack the desire to go above and beyond, which negatively affects innovation, creativity, collaboration, and growth..
How to Prevent Procrastination at Work
Referencing the procrastination causes listed above, we’ll outline the steps you should take to alleviate each.
Boost Self-confidence
Nurture talent to increase self-belief.
Training, empathetic managers, and mentoring are effective ways to support and build the confidence of new and younger employees. Clarity on project stakeholders, subject matter experts, and lines of communication is essential to ensure employees know where to turn for support.
Feedback boosts confidence and self-belief, providing constructive learning for future projects and recognising achievements and success.
Time Management Techniques
Providing your people with the right tools for the job, including best working practices, is an impactful way to empower employees. Time management and prioritisation aren’t always skills we naturally have, but employees can learn them.
There are two things you can do to help employees prioritise their work and manage their time:
- Provide them with the tools to manage tasks, automate updates, and plan ahead.
- The power of no. Not all employees feel they can push back when asked to take on a new task; however, managing expectations is a skill that all employees should possess. When we overpromise, we risk underdelivering, which increases stress and can lead to further issues.
It’s also essential for managers to monitor workloads, provide additional support when needed, and intervene on behalf of their team members if necessary.
Enhance Employee Engagement
Increase engagement = reduce procrastination.
Highly engaged employees increase productivity by 17%. Increasing employee engagement will help to reduce problem procrastination and boost your bottom line. Our guide to building a sustainable and cost-effective people strategy delves into the issues of unengaged and disengaged employees.
Here are a few of our top reengagement tips:
- Nurture a culture of individuality.
- Build a culture of trust and lead with authenticity.
- Encourage peer-to-peer recognition.
Do you monitor employee engagement levels in your business?
Pulse surveys effectively capture honest feedback from your people and identify how engaged they are. Once you have set the benchmark and identified problem areas, you can define the necessary steps to increase employee engagement in your business.
Applying Pink’s Motivational Theories to Preventing Procrastination at Work
We identified a lack of motivation as a cause of procrastination, and next, we’ll review the work of two renowned psychologists on preventing procrastination: Pink and Maslow.
As you have read in our host blog, ‘Harness the Power of Motivation with Maslow, Herzberg, and Pink,’ Pink states that the true drivers of motivation are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
How do we apply these to prevent procrastination?
Autonomy
Another reason an employee may procrastinate is stringent and overly complex workplace practices. Say an employee is eager to drive a project forward, but to get approval, they need to provide an in-depth analysis and a business case that needs to go through three levels of approval.
Granted, for big-budget projects, this level of approval and gatekeeping can be necessary, but is it always?
Giving employees some freedom, flexibility, and autonomy over smaller projects and initiatives without requiring them to jump through numerous hoops will boost their motivation to complete the task and prevent procrastination.
Mastery
As we’ve mentioned, ensuring employees have the right tools and skills to handle tasks is essential, and Pink’s theories align with our position.
When an employee feels incapable of completing a task and is afraid to attempt it due to the risk of appearing incompetent, they’ll procrastinate. Ensure employees have the necessary skills to succeed by focusing on their development and upskilling.
It doesn’t need to be a big task. If you have an internal learning portal with bite-sized training sessions, you can direct employees to them before they begin a new task. Whether that’s leading a presentation with confidence or writing a report, sometimes a little guidance is all that’s needed.
Purpose
If an employee feels like a task you've given them to complete is meaningless and has no purpose, they’re likely to procrastinate. Sometimes, we need to suck these things up. We said it. Boxes will always need ticking in the business environment, and whether we see their value or not, they will serve a purpose somewhere along the line… think auditors.
Still, when the work you’re asking an employee to do doesn’t fill them with some pride or boost their sense of self-worth, more often than not, they will become unengaged.
Ensure you mix things up. Discover what interests your workforce, understand their values, and provide them with opportunities to engage in initiatives that give them a sense of purpose.
Applying Maslow’s Motivational Pyramid to Procrastination Causes
Maslow presents a pyramid, and you must meet each level to motivate employees. It begins with personal growth at the base, followed by advancement, responsibility, the work itself, then achievement, and places recognition at the top.
Let’s apply each layer to procrastination causes so we can identify how to prevent it.
Personal Growth
Say an employee’s been in your business for a while and hasn’t progressed. They’re still doing the same things each day without fulfilling their need for personal growth and learning. In other words, they’re in a bit of a rut and are procrastinating because they’re tired of the monotony.
Prioritise continuous learning, whether formal or on-the-job, so that when they look back on the past few years, they have a strong sense of personal growth.
Advancement
With personal growth comes the desire to progress in your career. Put yourself back in the shoes of the employee who has been in your business for many years and has watched people come and go, move on and up, but has always remained in the same place.
There are, of course, those who are content with their position and the work they do. The corporate ladder isn’t for everyone. Still, those who seek advancement and feel you're overlooking them will become unengaged and unmotivated, which will increase their tendency to procrastinate.
Always seek to promote from within before advertising externally, and allow employees the opportunity to move into different roles within the business. If there are unlikely to be promotional opportunities in the near future, consider giving long-serving employees more seniority within their teams.
Responsibility
As a motivator, responsibility is another layer that’s individual. Some personalities may become anxious with increased responsibility, causing them to procrastinate more, which is undesirable.
The micromanaged employee who’s desperate to spread their wings and have a bit more responsibility over how they do their work may also procrastinate more than those with more autonomy. Assess each situation and give employees the proper levels of responsibility based on their skills, taking a leap of faith in some cases, as people will often rise to the challenge.
Work Itself
This level has strong links with Pink’s theory on purpose. When employees have a task to do that brings them no joy, is arduous, and unnecessarily time-consuming, chances are they’ll start procrastinating when it’s the next thing on their to-do list.
A bit of camaraderie can go a long way – or, in this case, moral support.
Ensure employees understand the value of their work and its purpose in the overall business objectives. Don’t be afraid to move people to where their passions lie.
Achievement
An engaged and motivated employee takes pride in their work. They’ll crave a sense of having achieved something. which is linked to self-actualisation, our sense of self, and pride in what we do.
When employees work hard and don’t feel like they’ve achieved anything, well, you probably know where we’re heading with this by now... Motivation drops, and procrastination rises.
Set clear goals, KPIs and other measurables to help employees see what they’re achieving.
Recognition
The icing on the cake: Recognition.
You take your employees through all the other motivators, but you don’t recognise or reward their efforts = a speedy path towards disengagement and procrastination.
Ensure you recognise achievements and milestones, both business and personal, to keep employees motivated to continue giving their best. Read more about the role of recognition in improving your employee experience in our blog, ‘Let's Boost the Employee Experience with Recognition’.
How Can a Manager Motivate an Unmotivated Employee?
Managers can make or break the employee experience, and when it comes to dealing with unmotivated employees, you must ensure they have the skills needed to get it right.
When tasking your managers with creating a strategy to motivate the unmotivated, you need to empower them to act with autonomy. A good manager will know what makes their team tick and is more likely to notice small changes in individual behaviours.
Still, much of a manager’s power to motivate stems from how their team perceives them. A poor manager is great at motivating employees to leave the business – but that’s not what we’re aiming for.
Managers must be able to build strong relationships. Following theories and applying motivational strategies helps, but if they lack authenticity and empathy, it will limit their impact.
How to Keep Employees Focused and Motivated with Pluxee UK
If you want to boost employee focus, then you’re in the right place. At Pluxee UK, we specialise in increasing employee motivation, making work a place to belong and creating a thriving workforce able to give their best.
Becoming Self-Aware
Before we discuss how to enhance your recognition strategy with rewards that will excite your employees, let’s revisit something we touched on briefly earlier in this blog.
Smartphones. They’re addictive.
46% of parents in the UK feel addicted to their smartphones (SlickText).
Perhaps it’s time to run an employee survey on phone usage and sentiment and provide tips on how employees can take charge, limit or wean themselves off their phones, especially during working hours.
You should also encourage employees to take note of when they procrastinate to help identify the causes. If it’s one of the causes listed in this blog, you have the information you need to tackle it.
Employee Rewards: Fast, Fair and Worth it!
A ‘thank you’ costs nothing and goes a long way to make employees feel recognised. Rewards are the next step: strengthening appreciation, supporting employees, and making them feel genuinely valued.
75% of employees feel more loyal towards their employer when they receive support, and 66% would consider quitting if they felt unappreciated at work.
Support your recognition and motivation strategy with rewards that actually feel like a reward, and you’ve got the perfect response to problem procrastination.
Rewards boost employee engagement and retention, especially when they help your people enjoy more of what they love. When you gift your employees with our Pluxee eVouchers, they’ll have over 100 brands to choose from, meaning there’s something for everyone.
Your employees can redeem their eVouchers with high street and high-end brands and retailers, helping them afford essential items or a well-deserved treat.
Explore, resolve, motivate, recognise and reward to prevent procrastination from eating into your profits.
Dive into the other blogs in this series...
