Hayden Finch

So say you want to just fold your laundry.

You've had it done.

It's washed and dried, but it's not folded.

And it's been something you've been putting off.

There might be reasons for that.

There might be legitimate reasons.

There are other things that you've wanted to work on, other things you need to do, other things you want to do.

But the other part of that story is that just like, I don't want to like that feeling that like I'd rather not.

That feeling is a huge part of what ultimately motivates procrastination.

There is some truth to that, that a certain group of people does work better under pressure.

But by and large, almost everyone who believes that to be true about themselves is wrong.

If we test that out in a research lab, we find that people actually perform poorer.

They make more mistakes, for example, when they are under pressure versus when they have adequate time to really put some thought into it.

So that is a false assumption that a lot of us are making about ourselves.

Well, it's sort of not a problem unless it is a problem, right?

And we might not be aware of the problems that it's causing, which is the trouble.

Like, we have evidence that procrastination affects loneliness.

It affects economic difficulties.

It affects depression and anxiety.

And it sometimes is difficult to draw a straight line from my procrastination to my financial difficulties.