THE IMPACT OF PROCRASTINATION AMONG THE STUDENTS 

What is procrastination? 

Procrastination is the habit of delaying an important task, usually by focusing on less urgent,
more enjoyable, and easier activities instead. It is different from laziness, which is the
unwillingness to act. Procrastination can restrict your potential and undermine your career. And
now you ask what is a procrastinator? Well a procrastinator is someone who repeatedly and
unnecessarily postpones decisions or actions. For example, if a person repeatedly delays working
on assignments until right before their deadline for no reason, even though they know that it
would be better for them to start earlier, that person is a procrastinator, and some people say that
there are four main types of avoidance archetypes, or procrastinators: the performer, the self-
deprecator, the over booker, and the novelty seeker. Figuring out which group you're in can help
you break out of your procrastination patterns — and maybe even turn in something early.

This study examined correlates of academic procrastination and students’ grade goals in a
sample of 226 undergraduates from Singapore. Findings indicated that self-efficacy for self-
regulated learning was significantly and negatively related to procrastination. High self-efficacy
for self-regulated learning also predicted students’ expectations of doing well and low self-
efficacy for self-regulated learning predicted students’ expectations of not doing well
academically. Additionally, help-seeking predicted students’ expectations of doing well
academically while academic stress predicted students’ expectations of not doing well
academically. Implications for education and educational practice were discussed.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-008-9028-8

How to avoid/stop procrastination?

These are some research the shows how to stop procrastinating 

By Chris Bailey October (04/2017), Chances are that at this very moment you’re procrastinating
on something. Maybe you’re even reading this article to do so.

A while back, I took a year to experiment with every piece of personal productivity advice I
could find. In becoming hyperaware of how I spent my time, I noticed something: I
procrastinated a lot more often than I had originally thought. In one time log I kept, I found that
over the course of one week, I spent six hours putting off tasks and that’s just the procrastination
that was apparent from my time log.

This got me thinking: why do we procrastinate, even though we know it’s against our best
interests? How can we overcome it, preferably without hating ourselves or the techniques we use
in the process?

To answer these questions, I spoke to researchers, and spent time digging through dozens of
academic journal articles. The advice I gathered became the foundation for part of my book and,
fortunately, I discovered that a lot of it works.
Why we procrastinate
One of the first things I learned was that procrastination is a human condition. About 95% of
people admit to putting off work, according to Piers Steel, author of The Procrastination
Equation. And I’d argue the remaining 5% are lying.

As for the phenomenon of putting stuff off, it’s “a purely visceral, emotional reaction to
something we don’t want to do,” says Tim Pychyl, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle.
The more averse you find a task, the more likely you are to procrastinate.

In his research, Pychyl identifies a set of seven triggers that make a task seem more averse. Bring
to mind something you’re putting off right now you’ll probably find that task has many, if not
all, of the characteristics that Pychyl discovered makes a task procrastination-worthy: 
       •Boring
       •Frustrating
       •Difficult
       •Unstructured
       •Ambiguous
       •Not intrinsically rewarding
       •Lacking in personal meaning

On a neurological level, procrastination is not the slightest bit logical it’s the result of the
emotional part of your brain, your limbic system, strong-arming the reasonable, rational part of
your brain, your prefrontal cortex. The logical part of your brain surrenders the moment you
choose Facebook over work, or decide to binge another episode of House of Cards when you get
home.

But there’s a way you can give the logical side of your brain the upper hand. When you notice an
approaching showdown between logic and emotion, resist the impulse to procrastinate. Here are
the best ways I’ve discovered in my research to do that.

1. Reverse the procrastination triggers - Consider which of Pychyl’s seven procrastination

triggers are set off by an activity you’re dreading. Then try to think differently about the
task, making the idea of completing it more attractive.
2. Work within your resistant level - Let’s say you have to wade through a dense piece of
research for an upcoming project. To find your resistance level, consider the effort you
commit to that task along a sliding scale. For example, could you focus on reading for an
hour? No, that period of time still seems unpleasant. What about 30 minutes? Shorten the
amount of time until you find a period with which you’re no longer resistant to the task
and then do it.
3. Do something to get started - It’s easier to keep going with a task after you’ve overcome
the initial hump of starting it in the first place. That’s because the tasks that induce
procrastination are rarely as bad as we think. Getting started on something forces a
 subconscious reappraisal of that work, where we might find that the actual task sets off
fewer triggers than we originally anticipated.

Research suggests that we remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than

projects we’ve finished. It’s like listening to a catchy song, only to have it unexpectedly
cut off in the middle and then have it stuck in your head the rest of the day. Starting a
task means you’ll continue to process it and this makes you more likely to resume the
work later on. 

How common is procrastination among the students? 

Jenny Cartinella cleans her apartment. Cathy Webber does math puzzles. Matt Kressin checks
sports scores, and Carmen Ramirez Walker updates her Facebook page. All of them are
psychology students putting off other tasks they're supposed to be doing. Classic procrastination
in action.  
  
It's a tough habit to break, particularly these days when the Internet allows students to escape
dissertation-writing frustrations with the click of a mouse. A 2007 meta-analysis by University of
Calgary psychologist Piers Steel, PhD, reports that 80 percent to 95 percent of college students
procrastinate, particularly when it comes to doing their coursework (Psychological Bulletin, Vol.
133, No. 1). 
  
Graduate students may be better than undergrads at fighting off procrastination, but they're still
pretty good at putting things off. In a 1997 survey, University of Denver School of Education
professor Kathy Green, PhD, found that procrastination was one of the top reasons doctoral
students failed to complete their dissertations (New Directions for Higher Education Vol. 1,997,
No. 99). 
  
"Procrastination is a natural part of graduate school," says self-proclaimed postponer Kressin, a
clinical psychology student at the School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute in
Springfield, Mo. "It's so important to learn how to deal with it."   
  
Causes and consequences  
  
What triggers students to clean out closets or wax the car when it's time to work on their
statistics paper? Usually it's self-doubt, says procrastination researcher and Carleton University
psychology professor Timothy A. Pychyl, PhD.  
  
"As students, you're always being pushed out of your depths—that's what learning is," Pychyl
says.  
  
Graduate students worry about performing inadequately or fear their success may raise others'
expectations of them, he says. Other students may actually think they get a thrill out of delaying
their work and believe they work best under pressure, though that's not borne out in the
experimental data, says DePaul University psychology professor Joseph Ferrari, PhD. Several
studies in Steel's 2007 meta-analysis suggest procrastination is negatively related to overall GPA,
final exam scores and assignment grades. 
  
"Students seem to remember the one time that maybe waiting until the last minute did pay off
with a good grade, but they forget the other nine times when it didn't," Ferrari says.  
  
Procrastination can also take a toll on a student's mental health and well-being. In one 2007
study, Florida State University psychologists Dianne M. Tice, PhD, and Roy F. Baumeister,
PhD, examined procrastination among students in a health psychology class. They found that
early in the semester, procrastinators reported lower stress and less illness than non-
procrastinators, but that late in the term, procrastinators reported higher stress and more illness
(Psychological Science, Vol. 8, No. 6). 
  
Educational psychologist Bruce W. Tuckman, PhD, has devoted much of his career to helping
procrastinators learn how to get to work. As director and professor of the Ohio State University
W.E. Dennis Learning Center, Tuckman teaches a course on learning and motivation strategies
that 1,000 students attend each year. The course teaches students psychological principles and
theories about achievement, motivation, self-regulation and information processing. Students
also complete a questionnaire asking about which of 15 common rationalizations (see sidebar)
for procrastination they use most often. They then learn about the most common reasons for
procrastination, including a fear of failure, and several actions to take to ensure they meet their
deadlines (see sidebar). In a paper he presented at this year's American Educational Research
Association annual meeting, Tuckman provided evidence that the course may really work: Over
seven years, students who took the class ended up with higher grade point averages—typically
about 0.5 points higher in the semester after the course. They also reported higher college
retention and graduation rates than a control group of matched students who did not take the
course. 
  
"It really makes a significant difference," he says.

 Procrastination Issues

The dangers and negative effects of procrastination

Academic issues
For students, procrastination is associated with a wide range of academic issues, such as worse
exam scores, worse grades, increased course failures, increased course withdrawals, and an
increased likelihood of dropping out.

These issues are associated with the fact that procrastination tends to consume a lot of the
students’ time, as 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 video
games.

 
Employment and financial issues
Procrastination is associated with various employment and financial issues, such as earning a
lower salary, having shorter durations of employment, having a higher likelihood of being
unemployed or under-employed (as opposed to working full‐time), and engaging in problematic
financial behaviors (e.g., postponing paying bills or saving for retirement).

For example, a large-scale study found that an increase of a single point on a 5‐point scale
measuring the tendency to procrastinate is associated with approximately a $15,000 drop in
salary. Furthermore, the study also found that when people are split into two groups based on
how much they procrastinate, those who tend to procrastinate more comprise 57% of the
unemployed.

Procrastination is also problematic from the employer’s perspective, as it can reduce productivity
and performance among employees. For example, procrastination often means that employees
spend large portions of their day wasting time, and that they often rush to complete tasks right
before deadlines, which can lead to low-quality work. Furthermore, because procrastination can
make people more frustrated and stressed out at work, it can also make them more interested in
leaving their current employer for a different one. Finally, procrastination can cause other types
of issues for employers, for example when decisional procrastination among people in leadership
positions negatively impacts the innovation of their employees.

Interpersonal relationship issues

Procrastination can lead to various issues when it comes to interpersonal relationships. For
example:

Procrastination can lead to issues in relationships with coworkers, for instance if you always fail
to take care of your part of shared assignments on time.
Procrastination can lead to issues in relationships with friends and family, for instance if you
always show up late to events that you’re supposed to attend together.
Procrastination can lead to issues in relationships with romantic partners, for instance if you
always postpone taking care of household chores.
 

Reduced wellbeing
Procrastination can reduce people’s wellbeing and happiness, for example by causing them to
experience various negative emotions, such as guilt, shame, frustration, and sadness.

In one survey, for instance, 94% of people indicated that procrastination has a negative effect on
their happiness, and 18% indicated that this effect is extremely negative. Similarly, when
students were asked how they felt after procrastinating, over 80% of their responses were
categorized as negative.

 
Worse mental and physical health
Procrastination is associated with a wide range of mental health issues, such as stress, as well as
physical health issues, such as an increased rate of illness.

Furthermore, procrastination is also associated with issues when it comes to adjusting to and
properly dealing with health conditions. This can be due to various issues, such as poor habits
(e.g., in terms of nutrition and self-care), and poor adherence to necessary monitoring and
treatment.

In addition, specific types of procrastination are associated with specified types of health issues.
For example, bedtime procrastination, which involves unnecessarily delaying going to bed, is
associated with issues such as lack of sleep and increased fatigue.

Finally, procrastination is also associated with various disorders, such as depression and
insomnia, but it’s unclear whether these associations are correlational or causational, and if they
are causational, then in what direction, meaning that it’s unclear whether procrastination leads to
these issues directly.

Delay in getting help

Not only does procrastination lead to various issues, but it’s also associated with an increased
tendency to delay getting help for those issues, for example when it comes to seeking treatment
for problems with mental and physical health.

Furthermore, procrastinators may delay or avoid other behaviors that can help them deal with
their issues, as in the case of not exercising even though doing so could help them feel better
both mentally and physically.

Increased future procrastination

Procrastination can, in various ways, lead to an increased likelihood of future procrastination,
which can sometimes create a vicious self-perpetuating procrastination cycle.

For example, bedtime procrastination often leads to lack of sleep, which can lead to reduced
capacity for self-regulation, and consequently to increased procrastination, which can lead to
further lack of sleep, and so on.

Similarly, when someone repeatedly procrastinates on a certain task due to anxiety, this can
make them more anxious about dealing with it, which can increase the likelihood that they’ll
procrastinate on the task again in the future, as well as on related tasks.

Additional dangers
In addition to the main dangers outlined above, procrastination can also lead to various other
types of issues.

For example, procrastination can cause people to miss out on important opportunities, such as the
opportunity to apply for a prestigious scholarship, or the opportunity to ask out a potential
romantic partner.

Similarly, procrastination can delay people’s personal growth, for instance when it causes them
to postpone learning valuable skills that they’re interested in, such as programming, or when it
causes them to postpone developing useful habits that they’re interested in, such as reading.

Finally, procrastination is also associated with a wide range of other issues that can occur as a
result of unnecessary delay, such as increased clutter and increased regret.

Procrastination is a common problem

In addition to being associated with a wide range of dangers and negative effects, procrastination
is also a highly prevalent phenomenon.

For example, studies suggest that procrastination chronically affects 15%–20% of adults, and
that approximately 25% of adults consider procrastination to be a defining personality trait for
them.

Furthermore, many more people than that engage in various forms of procrastination in general.
For example, in a study on an adult sample, 74% of people who were surveyed indicated that
they go to bed later than they planned to at least once a week, with no external reason for doing
so.

Finally, procrastination is especially common among certain populations, such as students. For
example, studies show that approximately 80%–95% of college students engage in
procrastination to some degree, approximately 75% consider themselves to be procrastinators,
and approximately 50% say that they procrastinate in a consistent and problematic manner.
References/Resources :

•Procrastinators (an overview)

•Genetics of procrastination
•Types of procrastination
•Active and passive procrastination
•Productive procrastination (and structured •procrastination)
•Positive procrastination
•Academic procrastination
•Self-efficacy and procrastination
•Self-compassion and procrastination
•Time management and procrastination
•Emotion regulation and procrastination
•Theories explaining procrastination
 

Collections of information about procrastination

These are useful collections of information about procrastination:

•Procrastination signs & symptoms

•Procrastination dangers
•Procrastination benefits
•Procrastination facts
•Procrastination statistics
•Procrastination research
•Procrastination quotes
•Famous procrastinators