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Impacts of Procrastination on Students

Damchoe Wangchuk (02210018)

Civil Department, College of Science and Technology

ACS101: Academic Essay

Karma Yangdon

May 20, 2022

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Impacts of Procrastination on Students

Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing

something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so. Felkner and

Falkner (2012) found that assignment submission patterns could be an indicator for identifying

at-risk students and increased rate of course withdrawals at an institution. Several studies show a

correlation between student procrastination and academic performance (Nordby et al., 2017).

Procrastination can lead to missed classes, assignments, time management and result in lower

grades. Additionally, the quality and accuracy of work can be reduced due to the pressure

associated with completing an assignment.

Procrastination of homework and assignment will give poor academic performance and

more likely to fail to complete assignment with a mind set of completing later which will

automatically result in late submission. So, basically late submission led to poor grades (Tyacke,

1998). Moreover, procrastination of work would make one to complete one’s assignment at last

moment with a work without proper content. The content would not be in a proper way as the

requirement because they will be completing work in hurry. So, when the content is not up to the

expectation than the professor would give low grades which can hamper their academic

performance.

In terms of time management, procrastination can take up a considerable amount of time,

and students often report that procrastination occupies over a third of their daily activities,

usually in the form of behaviors such as sleeping, watching TV, or playing games. It can also

cause them to experience other time-management related issues, such as missing important
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deadlines, or rushing to complete assignments without enough time (Brown, 2017). In the field

of academic performance, procrastination can lead to various issues, including worse exam

scores, worse grades, more course failures, and more course withdrawals (Horwitz, Horwitz, &

Cope, 1986, as cited in Frantzen & Magnan, 2016). Many of these issues can be attributed to

issues that procrastination causes in terms of time management. For example, if students fail to

manage their time by continually putting off studying for an important test, they will likely end

up unprepared, and get poor grade.

Procrastination can lead to various negative emotions, such as guilt, shame, and sadness

thereby it has negative impact on a person’s emotion. Without proper emotional stability, it will

hamper one’s health leading in worsening of academic performance (Harmer, 2020). So,

procrastinating of academic works can proportionally affect the emotional wellbeing resulting in

chaos. Procrastinating of academic works can really lead to anxiety and guilt which later on be a

problem for the student. So, basically if a student is not happy or going through anxiety than

he/she would probably would not be able to study and score good grades. With this, one can also

say that the student would be keeping a mind set to complete the work time rather than

procrastinating it and in near future one may able to do their work on time without any failure.

Academic procrastination transpires when students without cause delay the completion of

school projects, assignments, or academic-based activities. Academic procrastination correlates

with reduced academic grades, high-stress levels, and poor well-being. Some of the studies have

demonstrated that academic procrastination positively aligns with both anxiety and depression

propelled by negative beliefs on self-worth (Klassen, Krawchuk, and Rajani 915). Solomon and

Rothblum pioneering study on procrastination examine the incidence of academic procrastination

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among university students and evaluated the extent to which students view it as a problem. The

study also examines the motives for procrastination to better comprehend the cognitions that

contribute towards the behavioral pattern.

Lastly, Solomon and Rothblum compare the self-report of procrastination to behavioral and

cognitive measures of procrastination such as depression, anxiety, and self-esteem (Klassen,

Krawchuk, and Rajani 916). The research study has unearthed that procrastination stemming

from task averseness correlates with the study habits, as well as cognitive and affective

components. Consequently, procrastination should be considered as a behavioral, emotional, and

cognitive phenomenon which can affect the grades of academic in a grate way.

References
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Flanker, A. (2012). Dealing with different learning styles. In Richards, J. C. Ed., Teaching in Action:

Case studies from second language classrooms (pp. 176-179). Illinois: Pantagraph Printing.

Horwitz, H. D. (1985). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy(3 rd ed.).

New York: Pearson Longman.

Frantzen, D., & Magnan, S. S. (2017). Anxiety and the true beginner–false beginner dynamic in

beginning French and Spanish classes. English Language Annals, 38 (2), 171.

Harmer, J. (2020). The practice of English language teaching (4 th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Longman.

King-Shaver, B., & Hunter, A. (2016). Differentiated instruction in the English classroom: Content,

process, product and assessment. Porsmouth: Heinmann.

Swain, H. (2013, November 19). Film can have a leading role in education. The Guardian. Retrieved from

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2013/nov/19/filmeducation-learning-tool-inclusion

Tyacke, M. (1998). Learning style diversity and the reading class: Curriculum design and assessment. In

Joy M. Reid, Ed., Understanding Learning Styles in the Second Language Classroom (pp. 34-45). New

Jersey: Prentice Hall Regents.

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