Drawing on the transactional model of stress, this research shows how a procrastination reminder—simply reminding one's procrastination behaviors—impacts individuals' subsequent action decisions in irrelevant contexts. Eight experiments, including a field study, support the procrastination reminder effect. That is, as a signal of one's self-regulatory failure, a procrastination reminder triggers the stress and coping process: it poses a self-threat to the individual, i.e., a loss of self-worth and control, which then triggers the need to escape the negative sense of self through self-enhancement. Consequently, the individual chooses a desirable but less feasible action over a more feasible but less desirable one in order to cope with the self-threat. We present eight experiments, including a field study and a preregistered study, that test the proposed framework. The first four studies (Studies 1A, 1B, 1C, and 2) demonstrate the robustness of the procrastination reminder effect by examining the effect in work-relevant, entertainment-relevant, time-relevant and money-relevant scenarios. The last four studies focus on the underlying mechanism. Study 3 provides direct evidence for the serial mediating roles of perceived self-threat in the loss of self-worth and control, and psychological motives, including need to escape through distraction and self-enhancement. Studies 4, 5, and 6 identify important moderators and demonstrate that the focal effect diminishes when individuals have been self-affirmed, when their desire to escape is already boosted, and when making decisions for the future, all supporting the proposed underlying mechanism through the process-by-moderation approach.