Procrastination

Slate is running a series on procrastination. In a story about slacking helping the economy, Daniel Gross writes:

It may even be a good investment: Recent research suggests that procrastination is on the rise—30 years ago, just 5 percent of Americans were self-described "chronic procrastinators"; today that number is up to 26 percent.

The question arises of whether more of us really are procrastinating or more of us just think we are procrastinating. It has been well-documented that the pace of our lives has been quickening for some time. So isn't it possible that procrastinating today means waiting for an hour to do something, whereas 20 years ago it might have meant waiting days?

I certainly don't have any evidence to suggest either, but I am going with the second explanation. I'd rather we didn't come to any conclusions that say we need to increase the breakneck pace we have come to set for ourselves already.