Reward timeliness. Ferrari insists that we need to do more to recognize society's early risers; the recognition, he says, can benefit everyone.

None of it's working? Get some professional cognitive therapy. Not every condition can be mastered on your own. Professional guidance may get you there faster.

"If you look at the abysmal results with the various diet programs, the hype about Pilates and Flexercise, and so on, and then look at the data, it doesn't support the conclusion that any of these methods are useful in general," says Knaus, who has written extensively on the topic of procrastination and who's now collaborating with Ferrari on a new book.

Many people just have a fundamental disconnect with how they live. They want to be thin, but they don't want to exercise every day. They want to be productive, but they don't want to work through a schedule.

"Most people don't think about doing anything different," says Knaus. "They just want the change."

He's not just talking about the daily illusion of living some ideal. More than half the people who suffer a major coronary event go back to the same unhealthy lifestyle that got them in the hospital in the first place - and it may well lead them on a return trip to the ER.

Confucius said a journey of 1,000 miles starts with a single step. For procrastinators, the trouble starts with that first step: They don't take it.

Rather than procrastinate, do a task for five minutes - or even for just a minute, says Knaus. For the majority, the act of doing one concrete thing will lead to doing the next, and so on, until a project is done. The key is breaking the mental logjam that is sucking up your time.