Have you ever realized that you have waited until the last minute to get things done, even though you have time to do it before? Procrastination is something that most people have ever lived with. No matter how well organized and engaged you are, chances are you’ve wasted hours on trivial activities (watching TV, updating your Facebook status, shopping online) when you should have spent that time at work or doing other more productive things.

Whether you put off work, avoid chores, or want to ignore chores, procrastination can have a huge negative impact on your life.

Why do you wait until the last minute

We all postpone one time or another, this can be a problem especially for students who up to 75% of them postpone their academic work. Students tend to:

• • Overestimating how much time they have left to complete tasks .

• • Overestimating how motivated they will be in the future.

• • Underestimating how long certain activities will take to complete.

• Let’s wrongly assume that they must be in the right frame of mind to work on a project.

It is possible that as you read the list, you are remembering a few times that you have been through these moments. Do you remember how long you thought you had a week left to finish a project that you had to deliver the next day? Or the times you haven’t cleaned your house because you didn’t feel like doing it at the time?

We often assume that projects won’t take as long to finish as they actually will, which can lead to a false sense of security when we think we still have a lot of time to complete these tasks. One of the biggest contributing factors to procrastination is the idea that we should feel inspired or motivated to work on a task at a certain time.

The reality is that if you wait until you are in the right frame of mind to perform certain tasks (especially the undesirable ones), you will likely find that the time is never right and that the task is never completed. Doubt can also play an important role. When you are unsure of how to tackle a project or are unsure of your skills, you may put it off to work on other things.

The negative impact of procrastination

About 20% of adults procrastinate regularly … that is, this is not just a student problem. These people not only procrastinate from time to time, it is a regular part of their lifestyle. They pay their bills late, don’t start work on big projects until the night before the deadline, delay holiday purchases until Christmas Eve, and even file their income tax returns late.

Unfortunately, this procrastination can have a serious impact on several areas of life, including a person’s mental health. In a 2007 study, researchers found that at the beginning of the semester, students who were procrastinators reported fewer illnesses and lower stress levels than those who were not. This changed dramatically at the end of the term when procrastinators reported higher levels of stress and illness.

Procrastination can not only have a negative impact on your health, it can also damage your social relationships. By procrastinating, you are putting a burden on the people around you. If you routinely turn in projects late or stay at the last minute, people who depend on you – like your friends , family, co-workers, and fellow students – may feel resentful.

Reasons why they happen to you

In addition to the reasons we procrastinate, we often come up with various excuses or rationalizations to justify our behavior . These are some of them:

• • Not knowing what to do.

• • Not knowing how to do something.

• • Not wanting to do something.

• • It does not matter if it is done or not.

• • It doesn’t matter when something is done.

• • Not feeling like doing it.

• • Get in the habit of waiting until the last minute.

• • Believe that you work better under pressure .

• • Thinking that you can finish it at the last minute.

• • The initiative to start is lacking.

• • Being forgetful.

• • Guilt of illness or ill health.

• • Witing for the right moment.

• • Needing time to think about homework.

• Delaying one task to work on another.