With today being international “fight procrastination day” – the day in which we should avoid putting off until tomorrow what we could do today – Aviva asked 2,000 people what activities they would spend their time doing when at a loose end on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Ranking above reviewing their finances, which 22.1% said they would do, 31.5% said they would vacuum, while 23.9% preferred to change their bed-sheets.

Splitting it by the sexes, women would rather vacuum (31.2%), change the bed-sheets (27.5%), clean their bedroom (23.5%) or even tidy the kitchen cupboards (20.3%) before reviewing their finances (19.2%). Men meanwhile would rather vacuum (31.9%) than look at their finances (25.7%).

By age, those under the age of 45 would rather clean their bathroom than face looking at their finances, while those under 25 are twice as likely to choose changing the bed-sheets (40.2%) than change their finances (19.9%).

By region, the Welsh placed looking at their finances tied-fifth on their list of priorities, ranking it the same as doing the ironing. For the English it was ranked third, the Scots fourth and fifth for the Northern Irish.

Commenting on the findings Alistair McQueen, a savings and retirement manager at Aviva, said: “It’s natural to procrastinate, but as Abraham Lincoln said ‘you cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today’. This is very true when it comes to planning our retirement. Perhaps, when it comes to our finances, today is the day we should stop waiting and start acting.

“We all lead busy lives and we can often find a reason to leave our finances until the next day … or the day after that. But our insight suggests that, while we may be looking forward to the cleanest houses, we may also be looking forward to retirement that disappoints if we don’t make time to plan.”