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Miranda Montoya

Engl 1302-228

Professor Briones

March 1, 2024

Procrastination

Procrastination is a universal experience. Despite it being one of the biggest problems in

an academic career, the reason why individuals do it still has yet to be answered, from students

postponing their essays until the last minute to professionals delaying important tasks until

deadlines. In this review, they are looking into different articles that explain the harmful effects

of procrastination, as well as the positive, and what reasons contribute to procrastination.

Everyone knows that waiting until the last minute to do something is never a good idea.

However, there will be times when the work one is expected to turn in comes out better when

they have been ignoring it than if they finished in an orderly fashion. In Chu and Choi's article,

they express that there are two types of procrastinators: passive and active. While passive

procrastinators are more traditional in the sense that they do not intend to procrastinate, they

cannot help but make decisions quickly. Active procrastinators deliberately suspend their actions

and focus on other important tasks, even though they can act on their decisions promptly. In

Chauhan’s article, they refer to procrastination as a functional delay. This is because it can

facilitate information gathering and evidence building when it comes to making important

decisions or completing tasks. Once completing a task, procrastinators are likely to feel increased

relief, which can help regulate negative emotions by helping individuals feel better about the

tasks. This proves that procrastination may be beneficial to emotional and health-related factors.
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Procrastination yields less short-term stress. Despite the few positive effects of procrastination,

the negative overpowers the good in it.

One of the severe impacts procrastination can have on individuals is low self-esteem.

Because of the tendency to avoid difficult tasks may lead to low self-confidence in the

individual's work. Where there is procrastination, there is also poor self-control. This can be due

to many reasons. One reason Liu, Lizhong, Tianyi Zhang, and Xiaochun Xie mention are

negative life events in adolescents. Due to “unfavorable expectancy assessments,” this can lead

to form a goal of withdrawal or abandonment. The results of procrastination have to do alot with

the contributions of it.

Kavun and Varnavskaya's research shows that there can be two types of factors that can

affect a student's severity of procrastination and their coping strategies for different learning

formats—the academic level of procrastination, there are high-performing students and low. The

severity of procrastination differs between both groups. The group with low academic

performance had a higher procrastination score than the high academic performance group.

Correlated with the results, the more often a person resorts to jokes and laughter about a stressful

situation, the lower their academic performance. One with a higher academic performance copes

by seeking emotional and moral support, sympathy, and understanding, like turning to the help of

god, faith, or religion to help overcome the stressful experience.

A common statement throughout all of the articles was that procrastination is a

self-handicapping behavior and an act of unnecessarily delaying a task, which more often than

not will cause personal subjective discomfort. Through this review, the researchers allow the

readers to gain a better understanding of procrastination and its potential benefits, harmful

effects, and underlying reasons.

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Works Cited

Chun Chu, Angela Hsin, and Jin Nam Choi. “Rethinking Procrastination: Positive Effects of
‘Active’ Procrastination Behavior on Attitudes and Performance.” The Journal of social
psychology 145.3 (2005): 245–264. Web.

Chauhan, Rahul Singh et al. “Better Late than Early? Reviewing Procrastination in
Organizations.” Management research news 43.10 (2020): 1289–1308. Web.

Liu, Lizhong, Tianyi Zhang, and Xiaochun Xie. “Negative Life Events and Procrastination
among Adolescents: The Roles of Negative Emotions and Rumination, as Well as the
Potential Gender Differences.” Behavioral sciences 13.2 (2023): 176-. Web.

Zhang, Yan, Xinwen Bai, and Wanyi Yang. “The Chain Mediating Effect of Negative
Perfectionism on Procrastination: An Ego Depletion Perspective.” International journal
of environmental research and public health 19.15 (2022): 9355-. Web.

Kavun, LiudmilaV, and AnastasiaV Varnavskaya. “Academic Performance in Different Learning

Formats: Contribution of Procrastination and Coping Strategies.” ARPHA Proceedings 5
(2022): 775–790. Web.