Don't Delay

Understanding procrastination and how to achieve our goals.

Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. is an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he specializes in the study of procrastination. See full bio

April 16, 2008, Health

Comments on "I'll look after my health later: The costs of procrastination"

I'll look after my health later: The costs of procrastination

By Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D. on April 16, 2008 in Don't Delay

Every procrastinator knows the stress associated with that needless delay. The question is, does this relate to increased illness as well? In fact, it's not just the stress associated with procrastination that may affect your health. Treatment delay and fewer wellness behaviors have been implicated in the procrastination-illness relationship. Read More

What's difficult to grasp

Submitted by Anon on April 16, 2008 - 2:36pm.

What's difficult to grasp with procrastination, as a behavioral issue, is that much of the time you only know you've procrastinated after it's become too late. Naturally, we dream about and anticipate doing much more than we end up doing...and many problems, forseen way in advance, fall away or melt before they get to us. You could argue that the individual who never procrastinates quickly becomes a workaholic, anxiety riddled, anal nut case...forever stressed in the present by the pressure of preparing for the future. A healthier route could be the 'happy go luck' one, generally unstressed if occasionally hassled by cramming for the presentation you never thought you'd be lucky enough to give!

Hindsight is 20:20

Submitted by Tim on April 16, 2008 - 3:47pm.

I agree that at each moment it seems a rational choice to wait a moment longer. I will write about this at more length in my next blog post with the notion of intransitive preference (it will make more sense when I explain it). In any case, yes, at any given moment, things like health or other decisions can wait without major consequence. Yet, this delay can (and usually will) catch up with you. Lack of exercise over time is the "use it or lose it" issue. One cigarette will not kill you, week after week of smoking just might, etc.

I think this is where wisdom comes in with life. Although you could argue that never procrastinating can lead to workaholism and always procrastinating is sloth, there is a middle ground. And, we know where this is, we just like to fool ourselves to make ourselves feel better at the moment.

Interestingly, a study published by Diane Tice and Roy Baumeister in 1997 on procrastination and health showed that the happy-go-lucky procrastinators in the fall term did fair better than the non-procrastinators. HOWEVER, in the winter term, the procrastinators reported significantly more stress and illness. It caught up with them.

The moral of this story is clear. Happy go lucky doesn't necessarily pay. The wisdom part is knowing the difference of when to act and how much.

Many of us have this wisdom, but spend a great deal of time rationalizing delay because "we don't feel like doing that right now." Herein lies the problem, I think.

So, we agree on much here, particularly that many things can not be foreseen in advance, but the best bet seems to be act sooner than later.
cheers,
tim