Since time began, it seems, people have been putting off till tomorrow what they could have done today - berating themselves and inconveniencing others in the process.

It wouldn't be a problem except that time eventually runs out. "You may delay, but time will not," said Benjamin Franklin.

At work, procrastination has "expensive and visible costs," said Rory Vaden, a corporate trainer, who points to research showing that the average employee admits to wasting two hours a day on nonwork tasks.

People know that procrastination hurts themselves, others and their work, so why do they do it? One answer is that they are overwhelmed, said Julie Morgenstern, a productivity consultant in New York and author of "Time Management From the Inside Out."

Since the recession, companies are asking their workers to be more innovative and creative - and more efficient. It's a recipe for paralysis.

Technology like e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, meanwhile, offers more distraction. Answering a trivial e-mail can provide a momentary sense of accomplishment, Ms. Morgenstern said.

Often, procrastinators are "extremely concerned about what other people think of them," said Joseph R. Ferrari, a psychology professor at DePaul University in Chicago and author of "Still Procrastinating? The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done."

The idea is: "If I never finish, I can never be judged," he said.

An accomplice of procrastination is perfectionism. Waiting until the last minute provides the perfect excuse: they just didn't have enough time, Ms. Morgenstern said.

"The most productive people tend to focus on progress over perfection," said Mr. Vaden, author of "Take the Stairs: 7 Steps to Achieving True Success." Remember, he said: "Success is messy."

People who procrastinate are often plagued by guilt, Ms. Morgenstern said, but feeling bad about it is not a solution. Identify the specific areas where you are procrastinating - say, writing, business development, networking or management duties - and map out the steps required to achieve your goal, she advises. The new world of work, with its inevitable interruptions, "requires the skill of breaking large projects into small, completable steps that are anywhere from half an hour to two hours - three hours tops," she said.

Time management techniques may work for some people, but they will probably be ineffective for the 20 percent of people who are chronic procrastinators, Professor Ferrari said. These people tend to put things off at home, at work, in relationships - in all areas of their lives, he said.

For these chronic "procs," as he calls them, sessions with a psychologist who focuses on cognitive behavior therapy may be the only path to bringing their time - and their lives - under control.

The New York Times

(China Daily 03/11/2012 page10)