Recently, Prof Piers Steel, a Canadian academic came up with a mathematical equation to explain why people procrastinate.

The man has spent 10 years of his life studying why people put off until tomorrow what they could do today. Through his findings, he has arrived at the conclusion, that long held notions such as procrastinators are either perfectionists or just lazy, is entirely false. According to him, procrastinators actually suffer from a vice of their own - impulsiveness.  

He claims in his forthcoming book, The Procrastination Equation: Today's Trouble with Tomorrow, “Chronic procrastinators, who make up 20 per cent of the population, are more impulsive and erratic than other people and less conscientious about attention to detail and obligations to others.”

An equation for why people procrastinate, has also been formed by the psychologist, from the University of Calgary, which commenced by studying 250 college students.

The equation is U=EV/ID.

He explained, “The 'U' stands for utility, or the desire to complete a given task. It is equal to the product of E, the expectation of success, and V the value of completion, divided by the product of I, the immediacy of the task, and D, the personal sensitivity to delay.”

“Procrastination is becoming a bigger issue because many more jobs are self-structured, with people setting their own schedules,” he added.

This basically points that people complete those activities which offer immediate awards and postpone those which offer delayed awards.

Steel writes in his book, “Procrastinators tend to live for today rather than tomorrow, for short term gain for long term pain.”