Why do kitchens need to be cleaned the night before the final exams? Why does the arrival of a new email suddenly seem more important than a crucial sales pitch? And why does a healthy diet always start tomorrow?

Writing with a combination of humour, humanity and solid scientific research, Piers Steel explains why we procrastinate— why we knowingly and willingly put off a course of action despite recognising we'll be worse off for it. hat's more, his study shows that despite procrastination making us poorer, fatter and unhappier, we're putting things off like never before—with new distractions such as Facebook and Twitter now in our lives, procrastination is on the rise. Some of the questions this book addresses are: - What are the main types of procrastination? Why is our brain wired for procrastination? How has procrastination played out through history? What is the price of procrastination? How to we fix our procrastinating ways?

Piers Steel has spent the last ten years of his life devoted to studying procrastination, and the decades before that embodying it. He knows his subject both as a practitioner and as a scientist, and offers accessible techniques for controlling and improving motivation. Everyone from the dithering student to the dallying employee will recognise something of themselves in this engaging and insightful book.