The Harvard economist David Laibson has shown that seventy per cent of patients suffering from glaucoma risk blindness because they don’t use their eyedrops regularly.
Ian McEwan examines the mechanics of procrastination in his recent novel, Solar: “At moments of important decision-making, the mind could be considered as a parliament, a debating chamber. Different factions contended, short- and long-term interests were entrenched in mutual loathing. Not only were motions tabled and opposed, certain proposals were aired in order to mask others. Sessions could be devious as well as stormy.”
Similarly, Otto von Bismarck said, “Faust complained about having two souls in his breast, but I harbor a whole crowd of them and they quarrel. It is like being in a republic.” In that sense, the first step to dealing with procrastination isn’t admitting that you have a problem. It’s admitting that your you’s have a problem.
The recent crisis of the euro was exacerbated by the German government’s dithering, and the decline of the American auto industry, exemplified by the bankruptcy of G.M., was due in part to executives’ penchant for delaying tough decisions. As various scholars argue in The Thief of Time, edited by Chrisoula Andreou and Mark D. White (Oxford, $65) – a collection of essays on procrastination, ranging from the resolutely theoretical to the surprisingly practical – the tendency raises fundamental philosophical and psychological issues. The New Yorker (October 5) concludes that procrastination is a quintessential modern problem.
Piers Steel, professor of economics at the University of Calgary, defines procrastination as willingly deferring something even though you expect the delay to make you worse off. In other words, if you’re simply saying “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” you’re not really procrastinating. Knowingly delaying because you think that’s the most efficient use of your time doesn’t count, either. The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for the great psychic toll the habit takes on people. This is the perplexing thing about procrastination: although it seems to involve avoiding unpleasant tasks, indulging in it generally doesn’t make people happy.
So, unhappily, we will of course continue to do what we have always done and what comes naturally – procrastinate.
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
“Look before you leap” versus “He who hesitates is lost”.
No wonder we procrastinate.
Bismarck’s recognition of our multiple selves is very much to the point. Internally we’re each like the House of Commons: all the part(ie)s need to argue their case, so it takes time to reach consensus and take action.
There’s probably an evolutionary reason for human procrastination: it may slow down the execution of good acts, but equally it prevents the rash execution of destructive ones.
Why did I respond so quickly to this post? My constant procrastinatory tendency wasn’t powerful enough to counter my ever-present impulsivity!
Festina lente!
For those of you who did not go to the right schools this means: HURRY SLOWLY!
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65-6 BC) in his Epistles, I ii 40-45, wrote “dimidium facti qui coepit habet; sapere aude; incipe! qui recte vivendi prorogat horam, rusticus exspectat dum defluat amnis; at ille labitur in omne volubilis aevum.”
For those who didn’t go to the right schools, the Loeb Classical Library’s translation follows:
“Well begun is half done; dare to be wise; begin! He who puts off the hour of right living is like the bumpkin waiting for the river to run out: yet on it will glide, rolling its flood forever.”
I am guilty, but have no wise sayings.
eschew cunctation: festinate!