Is Procrastination Bad For Your Health?

(Photo : Jan Vašek )

As a student, you may have encountered this word countless times: Procrastination. While this word is commonly used by students during their winter breaks when they will do all their schoolwork on the last day of their vacation to submit them the following day, procrastination is a struggle for both college kids and adults.

Procrastination does not mean schoolwork all the time, most of the time, professionals do it too. Procrastination and deadlines go hand in hand whenever there is a target date given by your superiors to comply and present a job well-done performance for your work.

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However, with the abrupt shift of the workplace or environment, everyone became at risk for procrastination. Work from home set up makes a student or a worker susceptible to slacking off and do their work and make less product or outcomes less.

According to Stylist, without the physical work environment to keep people on track, many people have been found slipping into procrastination mode when given a stressful or overwhelming task. It's okay to lose focus once in a while, but when this happens most of the time to the point that your work is always affected, then it is alarming. But did you know that procrastination can affect your overall health?

What is Procrastination

According to Good Therapy, procrastination is the tendency to avoid unpleasant or stressful tasks and replace them with less stressful and less important tasks. The stylist added that procrastination cannot be explained by poor time management or lack of motivation.

Good therapy furthers that chronic procrastination is demonstrated by some research to be a coping mechanism of an individual to stress through regulating emotions and stress management. They added that this happens because procrastination may stem partly from an inability to cope with tough emotions due to fearing of unable to cope with negative emotions.

The stylist also noted that the use of procrastination may merit an individual of a short-term mood booster; however, eventually, individuals will have to face the stress of doing the avoided task.

Procrastination, Mental, and Overall Health

Good therapy mentions that psychological studies often link procrastination to the diminishing of mental health, higher levels of stress (which can lead to different complications on the body), and lower levels of well-being. Association for Psychological Science (APS) mentions a study from Bishop's University that demonstrates the link of procrastination and hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, even after controlling the effects of race, age, educational level, and other personality factors.

Speaker and CEO Camille Preston mentions in Thrive Global also mentions a study that demonstrates the link of procrastination to poorer mental health. She also mentioned a study showing the effect of procrastination on physical health because it affects some health conditions.

Can I Overcome It?

The stylist suggests some of the steps that can help you overcome procrastination. According to them splitting work into smaller blocks can help you ease the stress of a big task. They added that setting an alarm and working yourself out before the alarm rings will maximize the concentration you have established.

An expert told Stylist that scheduling the tasks individuals hate will also help in setting the task aside or bailing most of the time. Concentration can sometimes be challenging to get a hold of, but with the current situation we are facing, it is much safer to stay indoors and do our works inside the comfort of our homes. Remember that making it a habit will have a negative impact on our overall health.

Check out more news and information on Procrastination on MD News Daily.