[00:01.467]You really should finish compiling that boring spreadsheet,
[00:04.482]but you just can't bring yourself to do it.
[00:07.534]Maybe it can wait a little longer.
[00:10.131]Or it might just disappear if you ignore it long enough.
[00:14.245]You know the feeling.
[00:15.443]According to Professor Piers Steel,
[00:18.150]of the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary,Piers Steel
[00:21.830]95% of people postpone important tasks at some point.95％
[00:26.843]But for some, procrastination isn't occasional,
[00:30.393]but incessant and disruptive.
[00:33.352]Professor Joseph Ferrari, of DePaul University Chicago,
[00:36.734]found that 20% of the population of the world are chronic procrastinators.
[00:42.724]Sadly, delaying our duties isn't very good for us:
[00:46.481]task-avoiders are less happy, less healthy and less wealthy
[00:50.832]than people who tackle tasks immediately.
[00:54.778]We like to tell ourselves that we work better under pressure,
[00:58.013]when a deadline is looming.
[01:00.098]But the truth is that working at the last minute is counterproductive:
[01:04.329]we make more mistakes, our behaviour annoys other people
[01:07.842]and we end up feeling guilty and ashamed.
[01:11.410]Worse still, we risk wasting a significant portion of our life
[01:15.180]putting off tasks that will only come back to haunt us later.
[01:19.169]As the poet Edward Young wrote:
[01:21.375]"Procrastination is the thief of time".“
[01:24.806]Piers Steel gives us some advice to help us confront important tasks. Piers Steel
[01:29.083]He suggests breaking it into smaller chunks
[01:32.517]and taking baby steps until the task at hand has been completed.
[01:37.634]Or you could give a friend ￡50
[01:40.041]and tell them that if you don't go through with it,
[01:42.836]they can give it away to a cause or a political party you dislike.
[01:48.172]Those who are highly-organised and efficient
[01:50.137]won't need to take heed of this advice.
[01:53.266]For everyone else:
[01:54.585]will you start following these tips
[01:57.303]and confront those urgent tasks that await you today?
[01:59.670]Or will you stop procrastinating tomorrow... or perhaps the day after?