The Hefty Cost of Procrastination

Vladimir Elie
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

At first, procrastination feels good. You have a task to do (or decision to make), but for various reasons, you don’t feel like doing it at the moment. To ease your discomfort, you postpone the task — more specifically, you convince yourself that tackling the task later is a better option than tackling it now.

At the surface, all seem good and dandy, but when you look a little deeper, you realize that the temporary relief gained by procrastinating comes at a hefty cost.

Procrastination isn’t free. There’s a price tag attached to it.

Wasted Time

This is perhaps the most obvious cost of procrastination: procrastination makes you waste time. It pushes you to waste time, running away from tasks (and decisions) that, in the end, you’re going to have to handle anyway (or suffer the consequences for not handling them).

Procrastination translates into months — perhaps years — passing by before the completion of a task you could have completed in days.

This is a tragedy because your time is your most precious asset. Costly.

Missed Opportunities

When you delay taking action or making a decision, you miss opportunities. You keep pushing the time when you’re going to make a move, and at one point, it becomes too late; the opportunity is missed.

The organizer wanted you to be a speaker at their event, but because you took so long to make a decision and give them an answer, they chose someone else.

You would have been the perfect candidate for the job opportunity, but because you procrastinated, you missed the deadline for submitting your resume. Costly.

Damaged Health

Procrastinating induces stress. And stress is damaging to your health.

Procrastination creates many open loops in your life, which can become a source of stress. Until those loops are closed, they linger in the back of your mind, producing unnecessary stress on you.

Furthermore, the last minute “mad-dash” associated with procrastination doesn’t help. It puts you under considerable stress as you try to meet the impending deadline. Costly.

Inferior Performance

Contrary to the belief of some procrastinators, procrastination isn’t a performance enhancer; it decreases the time you have to complete a task. It delays the time at which you achieve your desired result as well as the time when you can pursue bigger and greater goals.

Procrastination doesn’t help you achieve your goals and dreams. It doesn’t help you progress in the direction of your vision. Thus, it keeps you in the jail of low achievement. Costly.

Unrealized Potential

You have the potential to achieve great goals in your life. But to tap into that potential, you must do the work associated with those goals.

As it turns out, procrastination loathes work, in particular, important work. Without doing the work, your potential goes untapped.

You can do far more than what you’ve done so far. There’s so much more in you. But no one will ever see your greatness (at least not in its fullness) if you continually give in to the enticements of procrastination. Costly.

Procrastination is a thief. It robs you of your time, your opportunities, your health, your results, your potential, and much more. And this is costing you a lot. Procrastination is never a good strategy. It’s a bad habit that must be broken, lest it ruins your life.


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Vladimir Elie

Written by

Practical Insights for people doing great work in the world. Topics: 🔹Productivity 🔹Goals 🔹Mindset 🔹Personal Growth 🔹Leadership ResultsEmpowerment.com

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