Is procrastination a total waste of time or can it be productive? If you have something important to do, you should really spend the next 25 minutes listening to us discuss the topic.

In this podcast we discuss why we feel the urge to procrastinate, and whether it reduces or increases stress in the long run. We also consider the nature of tasks we like to avoid and what the potential benefits of time wasting activities might be.

A few things we mentioned in this podcast:

- Why procrastinators procrastinate
- Svartdal et al, Behavioural Delay in Real-Time Settings
- The science behind procrastination
- Westgate et al, Productive Procrastination
- NYT on why procrastination is an emotional problem
- Professor Tim Pychyl’s talk on procrastination

Find more Cognitive Engineering episodes here