I've pondered recently the true impact of procrastination and come to realize the real problem isn't that you get less done by procrastinating, it's that you're less happy during the time you spend avoiding doing something unpleasant.

Consider for a moment the prospect of going to the gym. Few of us actually look forward to going. It's uncomfortable and quite frankly, boring. Promise yourself you'll go in the evening, and you'll spend most of the day dreading the thought of actually going. Your mind will wander, you'll complain to other people and wind up being less happy throughout the day than you might otherwise have been.

The same applies to most anything unpleasant. Filing a tax return, having an uncomfortable conversation, doing the dishes, finishing an assignment and so on. There's no doubt you'll wind up doing all of these things anyway, you'll just make yourself unhappy thinking about it beforehand. 

And that's the huge irony. Those who procrastinate inevitably wind up investing exactly the same amount of time doing something unpleasant compared to those who don't. Tax returns take the same amount of time to file no matter when you file them. The difference being those who file early won't worry about it while they're suppose to be enjoying a night off. 

As someone who's always asked for the good news before the bad, I think I've finally woken up to how the other half live.