As resident physicians, how many times have you waited until the last minute to get an assignment done? Be honest: How often do you skim through the requirements of a big project only to then turn on the TV to binge your favorite shows, or watch cat videos?

We’ve got unfortunate news for you: Not only does procrastination keep you from checking big to-do’s off your list, but it may also be linked to a series of poor health outcomes. In order to prevent procrastination from hijacking your health, residents may want to learn to adopt better emotional regulation skills.

 

Procrastination and health

A 2023 study published by JAMA Network Open looked at this link with the help of 3,525 students from eight Swedish universities between August 2019 and December 2021.

Johansson F, Rozental A, Edlund K, et al. Associations between procrastination and subsequent health outcomes among university students in sweden. JAMA Network Open. 2023;6(1):e2249346-e2249346.

Researchers followed up with the students a total of five times over the course of 1 year.

 

At baseline, the mean (SD) procrastination score was 12.9 (5.4). The study findings showed that an increase of 1 SD in procrastination was associated with worse mental health, including higher mean symptom levels of depression, stress, and anxiety.

The increase in procrastination score also correlated with lower sleep quality, having disabling pain in the upper extremities, and physical inactivity.

Finally, these same students expressed higher levels of loneliness and economic difficulty when compared with students who did not procrastinate as much.

In sum, mental health, physical well-being, and psychosocial health may all be influenced by procrastination, according to JAMA.

So, what drives students to put off their work?

 

Positive affect and pressure

A few key factors may explain why some people procrastinate more often than others,  according to a 2022 article published by the Journal of Business and Psychology.

Kühnel J, Bledow R, Kuonath A. Overcoming procrastination: time pressure and positive affect as compensatory routes to action. Journal of Business and Psychology. June 2022.

The investigators specifically looked at: 1) positive affect as a personal factor, and 2) time pressure as a situational factor.

 

Positive affect, the authors say, is marked by “frequent feelings of cheerfulness, enthusiasm, and energy.” 

For people who have low positive affect, however, time pressure can be particularly important. For example, one study found that when participants with low positive affect were under high day-specific time pressure, they procrastinated less.

The authors of the article stress the importance of these findings.

“For people who experience low positive affect, time pressure helped to overcome procrastination,” they wrote. “Future research may want to investigate long-term changes in time pressure and positive affect and their relationship.”

 

Regulating emotions

Now you know that procrastinating is associated with poor health. You also know that, if you tend to procrastinate, you may be able to use time pressure to your advantage.

What other strategies can you employ to stop pushing off your work?

According to a 2022 study published by Frontiers in Psychology, building up your emotional regulation skills may be top on the list.

Schuenemann L, Scherenberg V, von Salisch M, et al. “I’ll worry about it tomorrow” – fostering emotion regulation skills to overcome procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology. 2022;13.

 

The study looked at the effects of a 9-week online emotional regulation (ER) training course on university students’ tendency to procrastinate.

Researchers used the Emotion Regulation Skills Assessment Questionnaire (ERSQ) to assess nine ER skills at baseline and post-training. The nine ER skills consist of awareness, sensations, clarity, understanding, acceptance of aversive emotions, resilience, self-support in distressing situations, readiness to confront distressing situations, and modification.

Although further research is necessary to substantiate these findings, they indicate that, if you are a procrastinator, you may be able to turn to ER skills to help you avoid putting things off until tomorrow. In this way, you may prevent procrastination from getting in the way of your residency—and your health.