Don’t Put Off Your Health: Procrastination's Physical Health Consequences
Sundos Hejazi
Procrastination encourages feelings of exhaustion (1).
Most people are familiar with the endless cycle of postponing something until tomorrow even though it should have been done yesterday. Procrastination is a trap that is easy for people to fall into, and once the habit is adopted, it is difficult to drop. Most people are aware that delaying their responsibilities will not help them in the long run mentally, emotionally, or socially, but what about the physical consequences of procrastination? However, what a lot of people don’t realize is that procrastination can also affect the body’s physical health and well-being, beyond just its mental toll.
Why Do We Procrastinate?
While it is often easy to blame laziness or immaturity for procrastination, multiple psychological analyses view procrastination as a form of emotion regulation, specifically a way to avoid the negative emotions that may arise from attempting or completing a certain task (2). However, the
result of the delay is often the amplification of the same negative emotions the person is trying to avoid by pushing the task off. The delaying of an event or task only allows for more negative anticipation to arise, creating a cycle where postponing tasks increases negative emotions and the negative emotions encourage further postponing (3).
What Are the Impacts on Our Mental Health?
Procrastination can negatively affect mental health in different ways, such as hindering development and increasing the chances of risky behaviors. These consequences are especially observable in young adults because procrastination can more easily turn into a chronic habit when it is established during the crucial developmental stages of adolescence (4). Studies have even found a link between procrastination and increased feelings of loneliness in college students, signaling that the mental health impact of delaying tasks can extend to social health and emotional well-being (5).
How Does Procrastination Affect Physical Health?
Procrastination of tasks—whether academic, social, or other—can have significant impacts on a person’s physical health, affecting their body and its natural processes. For example, there is a correlation found between procrastination and a lack of necessary physical activity, a deficiency that can increase the risk of diseases and lower overall health and well-being (4). Additionally, college students who procrastinated reported physical pain in areas like the neck and back nine months later. Beyond the development of unhealthy lifestyle habits like substance abuse and poor sleep schedules, subjects also reported problems with their general health, demonstrating how procrastination can lead to physical pain, general discomfort, and behavioral changes (6).
How Can You Stop?
Fortunately, procrastination is not impossible to escape or unlearn. One of the most important steps in stopping procrastination before it can negatively affect a person’s health is changing their perceptions of the world, specifically the way they view completing tasks. Talk therapy is one example of a method that has been successful in helping procrastinators change their mindset by focusing on more than just themselves (5). Other popular approaches focus on regulating emotions to address the root of the problem, which is that procrastination often stems from the desire to avoid uncomfortable situations or feelings. By understanding those feelings better, procrastinators can better manage them, and as a result, stop turning to procrastination as a crutch (2).
Conclusion
The effects of procrastination are important to understand, as the habit can easily impact both mental and physical health. Knowing why procrastination happens in the first place, how it changes behaviors and overall health, and how it can be avoided is crucial in helping procrastinators find healthier methods of expressing their emotions than delaying tasks and responsibilities (2, 3).
References
1. Woznicki S. How to Stop Procrastinating When Things Feel Hard or Scary. Tiny Buddha [Internet]. 2021 Feb 9; Available from:
2. Sirois F. Speaking of Psychology: Why we procrastinate and what to do about it, with Fuschia Sirois, PhD [Internet]. Apa.org. 2022. Available from:
3. Schuenemann L, Scherenberg V, von Salisch M, Eckert M. “I’ll Worry About It Tomorrow” – Fostering Emotion Regulation Skills to Overcome Procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology. 2022 Mar 22;13. Available from:
4. Pérez-Jorge D, Ana Cristina Hernández-Henríquez, Roshan Melwani-Sadhwani, Anthony Fernando Gallo-Mendoza. Tomorrow Never Comes: The Risks of Procrastination for Adolescent Health. European Journal of Investigation in Health Psychology and Education. 2024 Jul 26;14(8):2140–56. Available from:
5. Procrastinators May Delay All the Way to Worse Health [Internet]. Powershealth.org. CHS; 2023. Available from:
https://www.powershealth.org/about-us/newsroom/health-library/2023/01/04/procrastinat ors-may-delay-all-the-way-to-worse-health
6. Johansson F, Rozental A, Edlund K, Côté P, Sundberg T, Onell C, et al. Associations Between Procrastination and Subsequent Health Outcomes Among University Students in Sweden. JAMA Network Open [Internet]. 2023 Jan 4;6(1). Available from: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800006
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