“Everyone procrastinates at least sometimes, but we wanted to explore why some people procrastinate more than others and why procrastinators seem more likely to make rash actions and act without thinking,” psychological scientist and study author Daniel Gustavson explained. “Answering why that’s the case would give us some interesting insights into what procrastination is, why it occurs, and how to minimize it.”

Presumably without wasting even a minute, the researchers got right down to business and started studying human twins. Identical twins—who share 100 percent of their genes—tend to show greater similarities in behavior than fraternal twins, who only share half of their genes like any other siblings.

After having 181 identical twin pairs and 166 fraternal twin pairs complete several surveys intended to uncover their tendencies toward impulsivity and procrastination, and their ability to set and maintain goals, researchers found that procrastination and impulsiveness are both at least moderately heritable. The results of the survey also suggest that the traits could not be separable at a genetic level.