Move it slacker: procrastination makes you poor, fat and unhappy

"You're a slacker, McFly!" And, apparently, so is everyone else you know. A recent study by University of Calgary professor Piers Steel indicates that not only is procrastination is on the rise, it's making us poorer, fatter, and unhappier.

How has it come to this? According to Steel, it's because we have too many distractions. E-mail, games, iPods, cell phones -- it's so easy to do something else (read: something more fun), that we're far less likely to do actual work than our 1970s counterparts. "It's easier to procrastinate now than ever before. We have so many more temptations," says Steel. "It's never been harder to be self-disciplined in all of history than it is now."

And it's difficult to stop. Steel said he had more difficulty getting chronic procrastinators to quit delaying than he had getting alcoholics to quit drinking.

So what can we do about it? Um. Hold on. I've gotta check my emails -- I'll get back to you on that later.