LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF PROCRASTINATION , PERFORMANCE , STRESS , AND HEALTH : The Costs and Benefits of Dawdling

Procrasttnatton ts variously descnbed a? harmful, tnnocuous, or even beneficial Two longitudinal studies examined procrastination among students Procrasttnators reported lower stress and less illness than nonprocrasttnators early in the semester, but they reported higher stress and more illness late in the term, and overall they were sicker Procrastinators also received lower grades on atl assignment's Procrasttnatton thus appears to be a self-defeating behavior pattem marked by short-term benefits and long-term costs Doing one's work and fulfilling other obligations in a timely fashion seem like integral parts of rational, proper adult funcuoning Yet a majonty of the population admits to procrastinating at least sometimes, and substantial minonties admit to significant personal, occupational, or financial difficulties resulting from their dilatory behavior (Ferran, Johnson, & McCown, 1995) Procrastinauon is often condemned, particularly by people who do not think themselves guilty of it (Burka & Yuen, 1983, Ferran et dl, 1995) Cntics of procrastination depict it as a lazy self-indulgent habit of putting things off for no reason They say it is self-defeating m that It lowers the quality of performance, because one ends up with less time to work (Baumeister & Scher, 1988, Ellis & Knaus, 1977) Others depict it as a destructive strategy of self-handicappmg (Jones & Berglas, 1978), such a,s when people postpone or withhold effort so as to give themselves an excuse for anticipated poor performance (Tice, 1991, Tice & Baumeister, 1990) People who finish their tasks and assignments early may point self-nghteously to the stress suffered by procrastinators at the last minute and say that putting things off is bad for one's physical or mental health (see Boice, 1989, 1996, Rothblum, Solomon, & Murakami, 1986 Solomon & Rothblum, 1984) On the other hand, some procrastinators defend their practice They point out correctly that if one puts in the same amount of work on the project, it does not matter whether this is done early or late Some even say that procrastination improves perfonnance, because the imminent deadline creates excitement and pressure that elicit peak performance "I do my best work under pressure," in the standard phrase (Ferran, 1992, Ferran et al , 1995, Uy, 1995) Even if it were true that stress and illness are higher for people who leave things unul the last minute—and research has not yet provided clear evidence that in fact they both are higher—this might be offset by the enjoyment of carefree times earlier (see Ainslie, 1992) The present investigation involved a longitudinal study of the effects of procrastination on quality of performance, stress, and illness Early in the semester, students were given an assignment with a deadline Procrastinators were identified usmg Lay's (1986) scale Students' well-being was assessed with self-reports of stress and illAddress correspondence Case Western Reserve Unive 7123, e-mail dxt2@po cwiu o Dianne M Tice Department of Psychology, sity 10900 Euclid Ave Cleveland OH 44106ness The validity of the scale was checked by ascertaining whethtr students tumed in the assignment early, on time, or late Finally, task performance was assessed by consulting the grades received Competing predictions could be made