What Is Procrastination, & How Can We Beat It?

Even with these fascinating applications of technology, I think the future of procrastination lies in advances regarding our understanding of the human experience. I envision a larger societal trend in which procrastination becomes less of a stigmatized habit and more of a response to the world around us. In the future, we will consider procrastination as a way to savor our time rather than wasting it away. Time is, after all, our greatest personal asset. We have to ensure that every moment counts and resist its commoditization by the socioeconomic systems we live in.

There’s one last wrinkle I want to mention as I finish this rheumination. I confess that I was supposed to write five clinic notes today. Instead, I finally finished this column. That, my friends, is the real secret of how I overcame procrastination—I just procrastinated something else.

Bharat Kumar, MD, MME, FACP, FAAAAI, RhMSUS, is the director of the rheumatology fellowship training program at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, and the physician editor of The Rheumatologist. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @BharatKumarMD.

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