It seems like an inevitable consequence of having things to do- we’re going to have to spend time pondering, avoiding, being distracted from the task in hand. But researchers studying procrastination think it can have serious health and financial consequences, and are looking for ways to conquer time wasting, potentially rendering facebook useless.

Around 90% of university students are time-wasters, according to University of Calgary economist Piers Steel, who describes procrastination as ‘voluntarily delaying a course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay’. It comes from a human urge to avoid the unpleasant. Students are a high risk category due to their often hectic academic schedules and social lives.

Studies have shown that chronic procrastinators have raised stress levels, and are prone to further risks to their health by putting off trips to the doctor and the dentist. They are much more likely to have accidents in the home as they will avoid ‘dull’ tasks like changing a lightbulb. Procrastination at work has financial consequences as time spent staring out of the window could be time spent productively badgering away.

Steel believes certain character traits bring out the inner procrastinator, leaving some more prone. Time wasters are low in the conscientious trait, they are less ‘dutiful, organised and industrious’. They are also likely to be impulsive- mixing up their intentions so being easily distracted. Anxiety can be implicit- a fear of failure can lead someone to put off starting a task.

If this sounds like you, or you’ve noticed a stressed out friend with bad teeth and anecdotes of falling over in darkened rooms, help is at hand. One strategy which has been shown to work is to set yourself attainable, specific goals, instead of a vague goal which allows a get-out clause. So replace ‘I will get fit’ with ‘I’m going to the gym tomorrow at 7.30am.’ Psychologist Tim Pychyl gives some nice parent-style advice- “just get started”, the anticipation will be much worse than the actual task. To prove his credentials, he carried out a survey on his students, querying their moods and how much they were putting off tasks with deadlines. He found ‘when students actually do the task they are avoiding, their perceptions of the task change significantly. Many times, they actually enjoyed it.’

So do your homework, you might like it….

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=procrastinating-again

Published in Felix, Imperial College’s student newspaper, December 2008