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When we talk about procrastination, it’s usually with a smirk. We riff about it like it’s an endearing irritation, a minor ailment that seems harmless enough. And, well, let’s face it, most of us have transgressed at some point. We’re all guilty of mindless online meandering. One minute you’re wading through your inbox and, before you know it, you’re marveling at the Viking incense smoker on TikTok. We rarely stop to consider the real effects of procrastination.
In this article, we looked at the reasons behind this: the struggle with emotional regulation and the inability to deal with unpleasant (also known as aversive) emotions. Its widely accepted that procrastination is not a time management problem. Instead, it’s an emotion management problem.
So, why do we find it so funny? When we take a look at the real effects of procrastination, things suddenly get serious. This isn’t light-hearted stuff at all.
The Effects of Procrastination
We have established that procrastination is an age-old problem and that it’s not, as many would have you believe, a symptom of modern life. When we take a curious dig into the past, many influencers of their time (yes, I’m talking about you, Cicero) lamented long and hard about the dangers lurking behind this seemingly innocuous behavior.
In more recent times, researchers have invested their energies into tracking down the causes and the effects of procrastination. Let’s take a moment to consider the more serious side of procrastination and why beating it is indeed great for your health.
Procrastination Impacts on Your Physical Health
Procrastinators have higher levels of stress and a diminished sense of wellbeing. Psychologist Dr. Fuscia M. Sirios, previously of Bishop’s University in Quebec, now of the University of Sheffield, has studied procrastination extensively as part of her research looking at the interplay between psychological factors and physical health.
Studies have shown that procrastination can be a contributing factor in several physical conditions ranging from headaches, digestive issues, and insomnia, to name a few.
Procrastination is a factor in its effective management of physical health conditions. It was identified as a vulnerability factor in a 2015 study conducted by Sirios, looking at hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
In other words, procrastinators put things off. They are synonymously bad at going to the doctors or actively seeking medical advice. When you’ve got a chronic health condition, this is not a good thing.
Similarly, many procrastinators struggle to prioritize daily exercise, eating healthily, and getting enough sleep. Once in a while, it’s pretty harmless, but several decades of this kind of behavior can have devastating consequences.
Procrastination Affects Your Financial Wellbeing
To the procrastinator, there’s always something better to do than trawl through the bank statement. It can forever wait until tomorrow. There is a never-ending list of more amusing alternatives to spend your hard-earned cash on than saving for a retirement that’s 40 years away. Didn’t somebody say the Galapagos are fabulous at this time of year? And, when you’re fit and healthy, who needs health insurance?! Don’t even get me started on filing your taxes.
The reality is that this avoidance has some reasonably hefty consequences. Over an artisan gin and tonic at the club, everything is hunky-dory, but when you’re staring down the barrel of specialist medical care bill, it’s a whole different ball of wax.
It Erodes Your Relationship with the Most Important Person of All: Yourself
Ironically, the art of delaying to avoid stress and unpleasantness causes exactly that: stress and unpleasantness.
Procrastinators castigate themselves. If it were the 15th century, we’d be enlisting the help of some pretty scary instruments of torture right now. Thankfully it’s not, but procrastinators still haul themselves over the coals. They self-blame, immerse themselves in guilt and shame, and punish themselves for being useless. Procrastination and depression make for a standard, yet miserable, pairing.
It’s doubly ironic that the kindest way to treat a procrastinator is to encourage them to be self-compassionate. A skill that doesn’t always come easy.
The Effects of Procrastination Are Deep ….. It Harms Your Relationships With Others
There is a limit to how many times we can let down a loved one or a colleague.
Professionally, it’s hard to respect a chronic procrastinator who lives in the shadow of fear and never gets things done. The delaying boss doesn’t exactly fill the team with confidence. The parent who fails to be home in time for dinner, despite promising for the twentieth time, silently communicates a message to their child: you’re not important.
It Inhibits Our Success
Face facts, procrastination is all about wasting time, and no more does this impact than on our personal outturn, our bottom-line – how successful we are.
Students who procrastinate cobble something together at the last minute to scrape by. Workers across all sectors produce sub-standard work. Entrepreneurs take twice as long (if at all) to start making a decent living and achieve the freedom they are searching for.
Procrastinators are the architects of their personal prison.
Can We Manage the Effects of Procrastination?
Thankfully it is possible to build a bridge between intention and action. Like anything, it has to be built brick by brick, but if you keep on moving, progress can be relatively swift and we can reduce the negative effects of procrastination.
Further reading from The Rediscovery of Me
What Is Procrastination? Why Can’t I Get Things Done?
Why Do I Procrastinate (Even Though I Know It’s Crazy)?
