In today’s world, many people in all walks of life can be guilty of procrastination. Some people may deny procrastinating, others may fully embrace it. But it is something everyone has experienced at least once in some form or another. One thing people never stop and think about, however, is “Why do we procrastinate?”. Many people believe that they perform better under pressure, and give this as a reason for their poor time management skills. The question we should address is “Why do we believe that procrastination makes us perform better?”.

In order to explore why some people believe that procrastination is beneficial to their work, we must first discuss why we procrastinate, to begin with. There are many reasons why we procrastinate, but three common reasons include uncertainty, fear of failure, and a disconnect from the future. Though these reasons are all different, they do tie together to explain the cause of procrastination for many people, including college students, college employees, and even the general population.

The first reason, uncertainty, can cause someone to delay starting a task. In order to begin a task, a certain amount of energy must be spent to focus and complete the task at hand. This can take many shapes and forms for different people. For example, a student trying to write a research essay (perhaps one similar to this), may be uncertain of how to begin the assignment, and thus could enter, what Robert Stonebraker, a professor at Winthrop University, called a “frozen stupor” (212). Another example may be a University professor putting off the grading of their student’s papers, simply because they are unsure of the amount of time needed to completely grade the assignment. An individual may underestimate the amount of energy needed to begin a task, and therefore continually put off this task as beginning may seem overwhelming. Procrastination may not only stem from uncertainty, but also from a fear of failure.

Someone may have a fear of failure, or lack of self-confidence (Heshmat), that is causing them to put off a task. There are many people that procrastinate when making major life-changing decisions. These people tend to be procrastinating because they do not want to make the wrong choice Stonebraker states that “Even Harvard Professors fall prey to this” (Stonebraker 212). Harvard contributes to the retirement funds of its employees, but there is also interest that can accumulate. In order to start to gain this interest, there is paperwork that must be filled out by the employee, to select the plan they would like. The problem arises with the fact that many of the Junior Staff wait until the very end of their employment at Harvard to finally complete the paperwork, thus losing out on a sizable amount of interest payments they could have obtained, had they filled out the correct paperwork. Building upon this, a family member who is caring for a loved one with a terminal illness may put off a decision to either keep the family member alive or one that would allow the loved one to pass without pain. In today’s society, everyone wants to always be right, and it is sometimes extremely hard to do, so instead of making a decision or taking action when it is most beneficial, the task is continually put off so the person does not have to immediately deal with the issue at hand. People may not only be unsure about decisions affecting the future but may also feel separated from the future.

The issues that affect many may not always be in the present, but they may be in the future as well. Studies conducted by Hal Hershfield, a psychologist at UCLA Anderson School of Management, conducted a study where fMRI scans were taken of people being asked to describe themselves, their future selves, and a celebrity (Hershfield). There was found to be a discrepancy between the brain activity when asked about their present selves, and being asked about their future selves. When the participants described themselves in future, their brain activity had a higher match to when they were asked to describe a celebrity, than when asked to describe their present selves. This shows that the participants had a disconnect between their present and future selves.Adding proof to this claim, there was another study conducted by Hershfield in 2011, where a group of study participants were shown digitally aged photos of themselves in a Virtual Reality environment. There was another group (a control group) that did not see virtually aged photos of themselves. Both groups were asked how they would spend one thousand dollars if they were hypothetically given it. The participants could spend this money on a variety of categories, such as a gift for themselves, a vacation, or retirement, for example. The results of the study found that the group shown the digitally aged photos invested twice as much towards retirement, as the group that did not age the photos. This further proving that there is a rather large disconnect between people’s perceptions of their present, and future selves. 

After discussing the common causes of procrastination, such as a lack of self-confidence/fear of failure, uncertainty, and a disconnect with the future, it is now possible to explore why people believe that procrastination is beneficial to some. Before beginning to explain why procrastination is not beneficial, it would only be fair to represent both viewpoints on the issue of procrastination.

There are some that believe, and have researched benefits of procrastination among students. Sowon Kim, an Assistant Professor of Human Resources, and Organizational Behavior at Ecole Hôtelière De Lausanne, in Switzerland, conducted a study over students and the effects of procrastination on their GPA. Kim states that, “In particular, students who voluntarily procrastinate and prefer to work under time constraints perform well scholastically.” (Kim 156). Because of the self-imposed dead-line, the students have it pre-conceived in their minds that they plan to finish the task at hand. This shows that students who knowingly put off a task to give themselves a time limit, preformed much better than students who procrastinated on a more sub-conscious level. Another possible benefit of procrastination is the reduced amount of stress a person may feel over the task they have been assigned. To elaborate, someone who plans to spread an assignment out over a longer period of time may experience more stress over it than a person who sets aside the task until the very end. The reason being for this is that the person who spreads out the work, may feel stress over it all the way up until the task is completed. Whereas on the other hand, the person who sets aside the task until the last minute will only have to deal with the stress of the situation for a shorter period of time. Another benefit of waiting to start/complete a task is the need for a deadline. Some people may have a challenging time finding motivation to begin a task if there is no deadline or sense of urgency to complete the task. While it would appear that there are some benefits to procrastinating, the negatives and costs of procrastination far outweigh the benefits.

There have been many studies conducted that show the disadvantages of procrastination, ranging from studies that take place in the work place to ones conducted in Universities. For example, Brenda Nguyen is stated as saying, “With respect to income, procrastinators showed a negative correlation of −.26 with self-reported financial success…” (Nguyen 389) Nguyen also found procrastination to be a symptom of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). It was found that “ADHD reduces earnings by approximately 30%.” (Nguyen 389). This study shows that because of employee’s procrastination, they lost a large percent of their earnings due to procrastination. This example can be related to the one made earlier when discussing the general causes of procrastination. In the same way that the junior staff at Harvard lost out on potential interest accumulating on their retirement funds because of procrastination, it would also seem that the employees polled in this study lost 30% of the earnings, also due to procrastination. 

The consequences of procrastination are not only limited to the workplace, however. As said by Tice, “Procrastination has been linked to a variety of negative mental health variables” (Tice 454). The mental issues that Tice lists include depression, irrational beliefs, low self-esteem, anxiety, and poor study habits, among others. Students who procrastinated studying for an exam were found to have much higher stress levels than those of students who did study in a timely manner for the same exam. This result goes to prove that procrastination can lead to anxiety in the people that practice it. 

Another ill effect of procrastination is the loss of effort put into a task. For example, if you were assigned a paper that was due in two weeks, and you continuously procrastinated getting started on the paper until the night before, there is going to be a significantly reduced amount of effort going into the paper. With the extreme loss and amount of time left to complete the assignment, there is undoubtable going to be a loss in the quality of work put into the paper. If you had started earlier on the assignment, there would have been more time to space out the work required to complete the paper. Building upon this, there are some procrastinators that believe that they can improve their time management, and work ethic by proponing their work. There is very little evidence to support the notion that procrastination is beneficial to work ethic. There is evidence, however, that shows that procrastinators suffer from a low amount of self-control. Someone may have enough self-restraint to put off a task, even though they may have ample time to start sooner, but not enough self-discipline to start as soon as possible. Overall, procrastinators may feel more at ease the father away the deadline is, but that is only a false sense of security, because they will eventually reach the deadline, no matter what.

Procrastination has also been shown to have a negative effect on student’s GPAs. A study was conducted of university students, with results showing that, “procrastination is detrimental to students' GPA” (Kim 156). Relating back to the previous example; when students procrastinate, they tend to not put their full effort into their assignments. The students will end up waiting until the night before the assignment is due, and rush to complete it, sometimes even staying up all night to finish the assignment. This mad dash to finish the work will affect the overall quality of it, causing the student to get a lower grade than if they had started working on it sooner, and prepared better. Tice is quoted as saying, “Procrastinators received significantly lower grades than non-procrastinators both on the term paper…and on the two exams” (Tice 455). This lower grade on the assignment then leads to the decrease in GPA that has been found in multiple studies.

Many procrastinators believe that they produce better work when under pressure, but studies conducted prove otherwise. Tice stated, “procrastinators end up producing inferior work. The present studies found no support for the claim that procrastinators do better work because of motivational or other consequences of deadline pressure” (Tice 457). In addition to this, the notion that procrastinators experience less stress overall during an assignment, is also false, as explained by Tice, “The stress and health benefits of procrastination are reversed as time goes by. Toward the end of the project period, procrastinators reported greater stress and more illness than non-procrastinators. Thus, although procrastination may produce initial benefits, it produces significant costs later on, as the deadline approaches.” (Tice 457).

Overall, there are many disadvantages to procrastination that outweigh the benefits. Among the ones mentioned previously are stress, poor time management skills, anxiety, and a decrease in work quality. Some people may argue that procrastination/pressure works for them, and that may be true in very select cases. However, the majority of studies finds no correlation between procrastination, and positive results, as far as work and mental health are concerned. There is the previously mentioned short term benefit of a relief of stress, as the procrastinator is not working/worrying about the task the have to complete. But as stated previously, this relief is only temporary, as the deadline will always be getting closer, causing the person to become more and more stressed, as they have a continually shrinking amount of time left to complete the assignment that they need.

In conclusion, after examining all of the sources present in the argument, it is clear that in no way, shape, or form, is procrastination beneficial. Both sides of the argument have been examined, and backed up with credible, peer reviewed sources. It is apparent, however, that the only benefits that procrastination presents, is those in the short term. There are no long-term benefits to procrastination, only long-term consequences, as it is only putting off the work that will need to be completed eventually. Procrastination is something that many people may not even realize they do, but none the less it is something that many people today could work to better themselves of. By reducing the amount that people procrastinate, they can not only improve their own quality of life, but the quality of life of those around them. This could help some reduce not only their levels of anxiety, but their stress levels as well.
