Procrastination is especially common among students and younger people, with 14-to-29-year-olds showing the highest incidence. Surveys find that 80-95% of college students and about 86% of high school students admit to delaying tasks intentionally. Academic performance suffers: procrastinators tend to perform worse, score lower, and even face higher likelihood of dropping out.

The habit brings short-term relief, but long-term costs increased stress, illness, lower well-being. Interestingly, animals like pigeons have shown delay behaviours in experiments, preferring to wait before acting even when that means more work.

On the plus side, a mild amount of delay can aid creativity letting ideas gestate, allowing fresh insights. Also, as people grow older, procrastination tends to decrease, likely due to life experience, maturity and better self-regulation.