SINCE time began, it seems, people have been putting off till tomorrow what they could have done today — berating themselves and inconveniencing others in the process.

It wouldn’t be a problem except that time eventually runs out. “You may delay, but time will not,” said Benjamin Franklin.

In the world of work, procrastination has “expensive and visible costs,” said Rory Vaden, a corporate trainer, who points to research showing that the average employee admits to wasting two hours a day on nonwork tasks.

People know that procrastination hurts themselves, others and their work, so why do they do it? One answer, especially in these times, is that they are overwhelmed, said Julie Morgenstern, a productivity consultant in New York and author of “Time Management From the Inside Out.”