Page 105 - Hard Goals

96 HARD Goals

One day becomes two, two days become three, and three days
become years.
Putting off until tomorrow what you should be doing today
is a problem that keeps a lot of people from achieving their
goals. Three-quarters of college students consider themselves
1
procrastinators, and some estimates fi gure that 20 percent of
the adult population could be classifi ed as “chronic procrasti-
2
nators.” But as bad as these fi gures are, they understate the
problem when it comes to HARD Goals. For instance, in one of
our recent studies, 77 percent of people admitted to having put
off starting a diet. And, compared to non-procrastinators (you
know, the people who actually started their diets), the folks who
postponed their diets were eight times more likely to be unhappy
with their current weight.
Piers Steel at the University of Calgary, one of the great
procrastination researchers, in reviewing hundreds of studies,
overwhelmingly found that putting things off doesn’t create
3
happiness. In fact, a whopping 94 percent of people said pro-
crastination hurt their happiness. Additionally, employees who
procrastinate keep worrying about work long after they’ve left
the offi ce, and student procrastination is fi rmly related to lower
course grades, lower overall grades, and lower exam scores.
Procrastination is also strongly linked to poor health (that’s
what happens when you put off necessary medical tests) and
powerfully correlated to poorer fi nancial health.
Procrastination can also pose another fi nancial risk. Every
person in America intellectually knows that getting your taxes
done early can help you avoid errors made when rushing. And
yet, a 2002 survey by H&R Block found that waiting until the
last minute on taxes cost the average person $400 because the
process was rushed and mistakes were made. The net effect was
$473 million in overpayments across the country.