Dianne Tice, PhD, and Roy Baumeister, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University, examined the tendency to dawdle in college students and found that, although procrastinating provided short-term benefits, including periods of low stress, it had long-term costs, including poor health and grades. Their findings appear in the November issue of Psychological Science (Vol. 8, No.6, p. 454?458).

Two studies evaluated procrastination tendencies, stress and general health among students taking a health psychology course?44 students participated in the first study and 60 in the second. The researchers also had access to students? course grades and the date that each student turned in a term paper assigned the first day of class.

Confirming the validity of the procrastination measure, students in both studies who scored high on procrastination turned in their term papers significantly later than those who scored low on procrastination.

Procrastinators also received significantly lower grades on their term papers and on the two exams given during the semester, the researchers find.

As for health, the procrastinators appear to start the semester with an advantage: Early in the semester, they reported less stress and fewer health problems than students who scored low on procrastination. However, by the end of the semester, procrastinators reported more health-related symptoms, more stress and more visits to health-care professionals than nonprocrastinators.

?Procrastinators may enjoy a healthy, stress-free life when deadlines are far off, but they suffer more than other people when deadlines are imminent,? write the researchers.