Procrastinator? Blame the 'rents!

Imagine the following scenario for a minute.

MOM: Have you done your homework Billy?

BILLY: No mom, I'll do it tomorrow.

MOM: Billy, you can't keep putting things off until tomorrow!

BILLY: I try mom, but it's your genes that made me this way!

That's right! This past week procrastination has been suggested to be hereditary by a new study published in the Psychological Science journal.

''Everyone procrastinates at least sometimes, but we wanted to explore why some people procrastinate more than others...Answering why that’s the case would give us some interesting insights into what procrastination is, why it occurs, and how to minimize it.'' explains Daniel Gustavson, the study's author.

To determine the link between the tendency to procrastinate and genetic inheritance, they have looked at 347 twins (both identical and fraternal). Comparing their similarities/differences, allowed them to evaluate the degree of their shared behavior being a result of their shared DNA. It was then possible to calculate statistically that the ''procrastination trait'' came from our genetic coding. The result: Genetic inheritance influenced the chance of whether the average person would be a procrastinator or not by 46%.

I'd make sure your children, young and old, are not aware of this new study. Imagine having had this information back when we were kids, parents could not have argued with that reply!