Procrastination is a fascinating, highly complex human phenomenon for
which the time has come for systematic theoretical and therapeutic
effort. The present volume reflects this effort. It was a labor of love
to read this scholarly, timely book-the first of its kind on the topic.
It was especially encouraging to find that its authors are remarkably
free of the phenomenon they have been investigating. One might have
expected the opposite. It has often been argued that people select
topics that trouble them and come to understand their problems better by
studying or treating them in others. This does not appear to be true of
the procrastination researchers represented in this book. I base this
conclusion on two simple observations. First, the work is replete with
recent refer- ences and the book itself has reached the reader scarcely
a year following its completion. Second, when one considers the
remarkable pace of pro- grammatic research by these contributors during
the past decade, it is clear that they are at the healthy end of the
procrastination continuum. The fascinating history of the term
procrastination is well documented in this book. The term continues to
conjure up contrasting, eloquent images-especially for poets. When
Edward Young wrote in 1742, "Pro- crastination is the Thief of Time," he
was condemning the waste of the most precious of human commodities.