Procrastination and Stress

Has this ever happened to you? 

You find yourself putting something off and initially you feel elated, maybe even euphoric. You don’t have to deal with a situation or task at this moment in time. Whew! But, for most of these situations, there will come a time when it needs to get done. The feeling of elation turns to panic. Then panic becomes a rush to figure out ways to handle the situation. 

When you compare this to people who don’t procrastinate, they may not get that initial surge of elation. However, they also don’t have to worry about the panic setting in. All things being equal, these non-procrastinators will not be as stressed out.

It’s proven that stress can lead to disease. The resources that your body needs to fend off disease will be diverted to handling your stress. Short-term stress is not likely to impact health as much as stress that is constant. However, people who procrastinate do it with all (or most of) their tasks. Therefore, they are likely to be stressed out longer term. They are the ones more at risk of getting stress related disorders.

Procrastination can often impact others in the procrastinator’s social circle as well. For instance, your kids may be depending on you to fill out a form for them to go to away camp. If you miss the deadline, your kids won’t be able to go to camp. Most kids will not be happy with this outcome and will question whether they can trust you.

If you don’t learn to overcome procrastination at work, it could impact others in the organization. For example, if you are responsible for a certain aspect of a project and miss the deadline, it may cause others on the team to miss their deadlines. Be aware they'll know you're the bottleneck. This puts you in an awkward position that could eventually lead to your dismissal.

Procrastination can cause you some financial pain. You may wait to the last minute to file your taxes. But, when you do so, you may not find the necessary information needed to reduce your tax liabilities. You could end up paying more than if you had taken the time to look for all your legitimate deductions, etc.

Moral of the story? Procrastination leads to stress. Stress leads to illness. Illness can lead to death. Don't die early!