Want to Know Why You Procrastinate?

By Dov Michaeli, MD, PhD

Since my days in primary school, I was always in awe of the kids who did their homework immediately when it was assigned, regardless of whether it was due the next day or the next week. For the assignment that is due the next day, I would finally force myself to do it late in the evening, when there was no more alternative. For the one due the next week, ditto -the night before it came due. I knew that it was a bad habit, but just like an addict who is trying to kick the habit, I couldn’t help myself. As the famous procrastinator, the Dalai Lama admitted,

“Only in the face of a difficult challenge or an urgent deadline would I study and work without laziness.”

I was in good company. Cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless. Even when I was at the university, as long as there was no sense of urgency such as the paper being due the next day, I would do a million other easy tasks that could be accomplished quickly and that all of a sudden seemed very important, like washing the dishes that piled up for days in the kitchen sink, rather than sit down and write the damn paper. And yet, I knew it was not mental laziness. Many of my fellow scientists confided in me that they were no paragons of efficiency themselves, given to daydreaming and afflicted with the same ‘malady’ of procrastination. Believe me, it would be…