Why do kitchens need to be cleaned the night before final exams? How come the arrival of a new email suddenly seems more important than a crucial sales pitch? And why does a healthy diet always start tomorrow? The Procrastination Equation tells us why we do what we do—or in this case, don’t.

Procrastination has troubled us for a long time: Mark Antony, St. Augustine, even Krishna spoke about it. Writing with the humour, humanity and solid scientific research reminiscent of Stumbling on Happiness and Freakonomics, Dr. Piers Steel explains why we procrastinate—why we knowingly and willingly put off a course of action despite recognizing we’ll be worse off for it. What’s more, his study shows that despite procrastination making us poorer, fatter and unhappier, we’re putting things off like never before— procrastination is on the rise.

Dr. 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 recognize something of themselves in this engaging and insightful book.