KEY POINTS:
What's your delay tactic of choice? Wikipedia pick-a-path? Checking Facebook/email/mobile every two minutes? Doing favours for friends? Or is it housework that suddenly becomes compelling when there's something else you know you should be doing?
Procrastination seems to be part of the human condition. Research shows more than 95 per cent of us admit to deferring unpleasant, intimidating or boring tasks, despite expecting we'll be worse off for the delay.
For most of us, the worst consequences are last-minute flaps and cross words from the people around us.
But for 20 to 25 per cent of people, research shows procrastination is an entrenched, chronic pattern that cuts across all areas of life and powerfully undermines happiness, health, relationships and career.
The finding has been replicated in at least nine countries, including Australia.
You know the chronic procrastinator. They miss out on events because they put off buying tickets; they get behind on bills; they stand you up.
"They're always running late. They never go to the doctor. And they're great excuse-makers," says Joseph Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University in Chicago.
Ferrari has studied procrastination for 20 years. He's convinced chronic procrastination is so detrimental it should be seen as a medical condition, and that sufferers need therapy.
Constantly delaying costs people much more than time. Research by Ferrari and others show chronic procrastinators perform more poorly overall, are more miserable in the long term, are more likely to suffer from depression and low-self-esteem (although it's not clear which is cause and which is effect).
They struggle to hold down jobs and relationships. Their health suffers because not only do they put off going to the doctor, guilt and stress from the effects of procrastination weaken their immunity.
At a broader level, procrastination has been linked to lack of retirement savings, voting decisions, and the disastrous consequences of major decisions being delayed in the banking sector.
And one American study estimated last-minute errors cost procrastinators $560 on average, resulting in $662 million of overpayments in 2002.
"It's not about time management," says Ferrari. "You send these people to a course and they'll say, 'That's very interesting but that doesn't apply to me'. I call it the but-however factor.
"People email me at least every couple of weeks, they say, 'You've described me! My relationship has fallen apart, I didn't get my promotion, I lost my job'. It's very debilitating."
Ferrari has identified three procrastinator styles:
Arousal procrastinators are thrill-seekers who stay up all night to tackle projects at the last minute. They need the adrenalin rush of working to the wire to motivate them.
Avoidance procrastinators routinely put off hard or boring tasks, often for fear of being seen as a failure. The logic is if you don't leave yourself enough time to do your best, you can believe the outcome under-represents your potential. "They would rather be thought of as lacking effort than ability, or having a character flaw," says Ferrari.
Decisional procrastinators are chronically indecisive in every area of their lives.
Most people exhibit both arousal and avoidance styles at different times, but some are more one or the other.
Auckland contractor Jeremy, 37, is a chronic avoidance procrastinator (real name withheld to protect his professional reputation).
"The only aspect of my life where I don't procrastinate is doing things for other people, which makes me sound awfully altruistic, but it's an avoidance tactic. I find it much easier to tend to other people's projects than my own."
Depression and nihilism underpins his procrastination. "I can't help thinking whatever I do in my work, it doesn't really matter, there's not really a great point to it."
The pattern is a drain on him, personally and professionally. "The whole time I'm procrastinating, I feel terrible. The closer you get to a deadline, the more daunting it is, then it becomes quite terrifying. You end up putting this massive pressure on yourself which makes it harder for things to go well, and you feel really terrible, inadequate, stupid.
"You think, the next day I'll be disciplined, and it's once you realise in your heart that's not likely, and you're almost resigned to it not happening, that's when you get that really deep demoralisation."
He's bought a meditation CD to help him relax and focus, but hasn't got round to opening it.
When he was younger, he says, he could get away with pulling out the stops at the last minute. "But when you get older and things go wrong in your life, it gets harder and harder to perform under pressure, and your expectations get higher."
At 21, Auckland couple Miriam and Ross readily admit they procrastinate, but they get by fine. As a student, Ross regularly wrote his essays the night before they were due and still got As.
"I'd think, 'Man, imagine what I could have done if I'd started a month ago', but I never got around to that. It may be that I was scared I'd do worse if I started early."
Ferrari says it's a common myth that some people do better under time pressure. Studies have shown we tend to selectively remember the few times we did well.
Around 70 per cent of university-aged people regularly procrastinate, but Ferrari argues most of them are "academic" or situational procrastinators who will grow out of it once they start working.
Some experts argue the distractions of modern technology, our busy lifestyles and the tendency towards unstructured workplaces are compounding the problem.
Calgary University researcher Piers Steel says the number of chronic procrastinators has shot up from one in 20 in 1978 to one in four today.
"I take exception to that," says Ferrari, pointing out the snooze button is 50 years old. Certainly, references to the dangers of procrastination appear as early as 800BC, in the writings of Greek poet Hesoid.
Ferrari does argue other aspects of society are fostering procrastination. "We don't give the early bird the worm any more. Today we have to slice it up and give it to everybody."
There are some punishments for lateness, but little incentive for being early. Society as a whole tends to be reactive rather than proactive, waiting until problems escalate to attend to them.
And, he says, we cut procrastinators too much slack.
"We tend to bail them out. The non-procrastinator gets frustrated and says, 'Fine, I'll do it for you'."
It's unclear whether there's a genetic component to the pattern, but Ferrari's research suggests it's often a learned response to the authoritarian (cold, strict, demanding) parenting style. "The kid can't rebel, so the way they deal with it is to delay the task."
A major study by Steel this year showed certain goal-setting techniques, making tasks more interesting and raising energy levels all help overcome procrastination.
Ferrari and therapist Dr William Knaus have written a self-help book, out next year.
Ferrari says many chronic procrastinators need cognitive behavioural therapy to change their thinking and behaviour.
"The person has to commit to a lifestyle change, much like dieting or stopping smoking. It's not easy, you have to work at it."
And non-procrastinators have a role to play.
"My Italian grandmother had a saying: 'Some people won't get off the beach until the water hits their behind.' Sometimes you've got to let the procrastinators get wet."
