Why do many physicians procrastinate? In this 3-week series, we will work through procrastination’s most common causes and tips for leaving procrastination behind.

Let’s start by defining procrastination. It's described as an act of delaying or postponing something.  Note the word action. It’s an action, a behavior, not a personality trait. The reason I make that point is too many physicians define themselves by an action. Defining yourself by a negative behavior...

Let’s talk guilt.  Many in medicine excel in this emotion, especially residents. Mom guilt. Partner guilt. Friend guilt. Doctor guilt.  Food guilt. Work-out guilt. It stems from a couple of places. 

One root is that many of us high achievers are wracked with unhealthy perfectionism.  We want to be perfect as a physician – and for family medicine, that means cradle to grave, inpatient, outpatient, prenatal care and labor and delivery, rural and...