What you can learn from 1,000 studies on procrastination.

There have been over 1,000 published studies on interventions to overcome procrastination. I've read an enormous number of them. Of all the research on procrastination, there are 35 large-scale randomized controlled trials on specific interventions. If you don't know what a randomized controlled trial is, that doesn't really matter. All you need to know is that it is the strongest form of evidence in science! So what's the verdict?

The main finding (to my surprise) is that many of the interventions actually work. Cognitive-behavior therapy techniques showed the largest reduction in procrastination. After basic training, follow-up measurements showed that changes in procrastination persisted for over 365 days. Even more surprisingly, people actually improved over time! Their procrastination scores went down over time after CBT training.

Based on all of that, I'm convinced it's worth trying to change procrastination habits provided you use the right approach.