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What Is Procrastination?

Why we keep putting things off, despite the consequences

• Common Justifications

Types of Procrastination

• The Negative Impact
• Strategies to Stop

It's tempting to keep putting off the tasks we don't enjoy. Even though we know it will lead to more stress later, it's common to avoid starting or finishing things we don't really want to do.

Procrastination is the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute or past their deadline. It's not just a time management problem. Researchers suggest that it's a failure in self-regulation that leads us to act irrationally. We put things off, even though we know this delay will lead to negative consequences.

How Common Is Procrastination?

While some people are better at motivating themselves to tackle unpleasant tasks, procrastination is a highly prevalent problem. Among college students, nearly all admitted to procrastinating sometimes, while 75% described themselves as habitual procrastinators.

No matter how well-organized and committed you are, chances are you have found yourself frittering away hours on trivial pursuits (watching TV, scrolling through your Facebook feed, shopping online, etc.) when you should have been spending that time on work or school-related projects.

At a Glance

Whether you're putting off finishing a project for work, avoiding homework assignments, or ignoring household chores, procrastination can have a major impact on your job, grades, and life. In most cases, procrastination is not a sign of a serious problem. It's a common tendency that most people resort to at some point. Let's take a closer look at why it happens, its impact, and what you can do to stop procrastinating.

What Causes Procrastination?

Remember that time that you thought you had a week left to finish a project that was really due the next day? How about the time you decided not to clean up your apartment because you "didn't feel like doing it right now?"

We often assume that projects won't take as long to finish as they really will, which can lead to a false sense of security when we believe that we still have plenty of time to complete these tasks.

One of the biggest factors contributing to procrastination is the notion that we have to feel inspired or motivated to work on a task at a particular moment.

The reality is that if you wait until you're in the right frame of mind to do certain tasks (especially undesirable ones), you will probably find that the right time simply never comes along and the task never gets completed.

Waiting for motivation isn't the only problem that contributes to procrastination, however. The following are a few other factors that can play a role.

Researchers suggest that procrastination can be particularly pronounced among students. An estimated 75% of students procrastinate regularly, and around half of these students feel that this behavior is a persistent problem.

According to researchers, some major cognitive distortions lead to academic procrastination. Students tend to:

• Overestimate how much time they have left to perform tasks
• Overestimate how motivated they will be in the future
• Underestimate how long certain activities will take to complete
• Mistakenly assume that they need to be in the right frame of mind to work on a project

Present Bias

The present bias is a phenomenon observed in human behavior that may result in procrastination. The present bias means that we tend to be motivated more by immediate gratification or rewards than we are by long-term rewards. This is why it feels good in the moment to procrastinate.

For example, the immediate reward of staying in bed and watching TV is more appealing than the long-term reward of publishing a blog post, which would take much longer to accomplish.

Procrastination can also be a result of depression . Feelings of hopelessness , helplessness, and a lack of energy can make it difficult to start (and finish) the simplest task. Depression can also lead to self-doubt . When you can't figure out how to tackle a project or feel insecure about your abilities, you might find it easier to put it off.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Procrastination is also pretty common in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder . One reason is that OCD is often linked with maladaptive perfectionism, which causes fears about making new mistakes, doubts about whether you are doing something correctly, and worry over others' expectations of you.

People with OCD also often have a propensity toward indecision, causing them to procrastinate rather than make a decision.

Many adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) struggle with procrastination. When you're so distracted by outside stimuli, as well as internal thoughts, it can be hard to get started on a task, especially if that task is difficult or not interesting to you.

Is Procrastination a Mental Illness?

Procrastination itself is not a mental illness. But in some cases, it may be characteristic of an underlying mental health condition such as depression, OCD, or ADHD.

Why Do You Procrastinate?

We often come up with several excuses or rationalizations to justify our behavior. The following are just a few of the common reasons why people tend to procrastinate:

• Not knowing what needs to be done
• Not knowing how to do something
• Not wanting to do something
• Not caring if it gets done or not
• Not caring when something gets done
• Not feeling in the mood to do it
• Being in the habit of waiting until the last minute
• Believing that you work better under pressure
• Thinking that you can finish it at the last minute
• Lacking the initiative to get started
• Blaming sickness or poor health
• Waiting for the right moment
• Needing time to think about the task
• Delaying one task in favor of working on another

Press Play for Advice On Completing Tasks

Hosted by therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares how to get tasks done with a science-backed trick known as 'temptation bundling.' Click below to listen now.

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Some researchers classify two types of procrastinators: passive and active procrastinators.

• Passive procrastinators : Delay the task because they have trouble making decisions and acting on them
• Active procrastinators : Delay the task purposefully because working under pressure allows them to "feel challenged and motivated"

Others define the types of procrastinators based on different behavioral styles of procrastination, including:

• Perfectionist : Puts off tasks out of the fear of not being able to complete a task perfectly
• Dreamer : Puts off tasks because they are not good at paying attention to detail
• Defier : Doesn't believe someone should dictate their time schedule
• Worrier : Puts off tasks out of fear of change or leaving the comfort of "the known"
• Crisis-maker : Puts off tasks because they like working under pressure
• Overdoer : Takes on too much and struggles with finding time to start and complete task

Procrastinators vs. Non-Procrastinators

If you tend to put things off, you might wonder exactly what makes non-procrastinators different. According to the American Psychological Association, people who don't procrastinate tend to focus more on the task itself. Rather than worrying about how other people see them, they are more concerned with how they see themselves.

People who don't procrastinate also tend to be high in the personality trait known as conscientiousness , one of the broad dispositions identified by the Big Five personality theory. People with high conscientiousness also tend to be high in other areas, including self-discipline, persistence, and personal responsibility.

The Negative Impact of Procrastination

It becomes a more serious issue when procrastination is chronic and begins to impact a person's daily life seriously. In such instances, it's not just a matter of poor time management skills; it's a major part of their lifestyle.

Perhaps they pay their bills late, don't start work on big projects until the night before the deadline, delay gift shopping until the day before a birthday, and even file their income tax returns late.

Unfortunately, this procrastination can have a serious impact on many life areas, including a person's mental health and social, professional, and financial well-being:

• Higher levels of stress and illness
• Increased burden placed on social relationships
• Resentment from friends, family, co-workers, and fellow students
• Consequences of delinquent bills and income tax returns

How to Overcome Procrastination

You might find yourself wondering, How can I stop procrastinating?

Fortunately, there are a number of different things you can do to fight procrastination and start getting things done on time. Consider these your procrastination exercises:

• Make a to-do list : To help keep you on track, consider placing a due date next to each item.
• Take baby steps : Break down the items on your list into small, manageable steps so that your tasks don’t seem so overwhelming.
• Recognize the warning signs : Pay attention to any thoughts of procrastination and do your best to resist the urge. If you begin to think about procrastinating, force yourself to spend a few minutes working on your task.
• Eliminate distraction : Ask yourself what pulls your attention away the most—whether it's Instagram, Facebook updates, or the local news—and turn off those sources of distraction.
• Pat yourself on the back : When you finish an item on your to-do list on time, congratulate yourself and reward yourself by indulging in something you find fun.    

If you put things off sometimes, don't worry; it happens to all of us. It's often the tasks we dislike the most that get pushed off until the last minute. While common, it is important to remember that this behavior can have serious consequences, including hurting your relationships, your personal achievements, and your ability to succeed at work and school.

Fortunately, you can do things to reduce that urge to stall. Understanding why you're struggling to get started can help. Remember to create a to-do list of things that need to be done and start small. When you feel the urge to procrastinate, force yourself to do just one small thing. Sometimes, just getting started is half the battle.

Prem R, Scheel TE, Weigelt O, Hoffmann K, Korunka C. Procrastination in daily working life: A diary study on within-person processes that link work characteristics to workplace procrastination . Front Psychol . 2018;9:1087. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01087

Rozental A, Forsström D, Hussoon A, Klingsieck KB. Procrastination among university students: differentiating severe cases in need of support from less severe cases . Front Psychol . 2022;13:783570. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.783570

Bisin A, Hyndman K. Present-bias, procrastination and deadlines in a field experiment . Games and Economic Behavior. 2020;119:339-357. doi:10.1016/j.geb.2019.11.010

Rogowska AM, Cincio A. Procrastination mediates the relationship between problematic TikTok use and depression among young adults .  J Clin Med . 2024;13(5):1247. doi:10.3390/jcm13051247

Beutel ME, Klein EM, Aufenanger S, et al. Procrastination, distress and life satisfaction across the age range - A German representative community study .  PLoS One . 2016;11(2):e0148054. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0148054

Limburg K, Watson HJ, Hagger MS, Egan SJ.  The relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology: A meta-analysis .  J Clin Psychol.  2017;73(10):1301-1326. doi:10.1002/jclp.22435

Altgassen M, Scheres A, Edel MA.  Prospective memory (partially) mediates the link between ADHD symptoms and procrastination .  Atten Defic Hyperact Disord . 2019;11(1):59-71. doi:10.1007/s12402-018-0273-x

Yan B, Zhang X. What research has been conducted on procrastination? Evidence from a systematical bibliometric analysis .  Front Psychol . 2022;13:809044. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809044

Zohar AH, Shimone LP, Hen M. Active and passive procrastination in terms of temperament and character .  PeerJ . 2019;7:e6988. doi:10.7717/peerj.6988

American Psychological Association. The first step to overcoming procrastination: Know thyself .

American Psychological Association. The psychology of procrastination: Why people put off important tasks until the last minute .

Gao K, Zhang R, Xu T, Zhou F, Feng T. The effect of conscientiousness on procrastination: The interaction between the self-control and motivation neural pathways .  Hum Brain Mapp . 2021;42(6):1829-1844. doi:10.1002/hbm.25333

Svartdal F, Nemtcan E. Past negative consequences of unnecessary delay as a marker of procrastination . Front Psychol. 2022;13. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.787337

Schrager S, Sadowski E. Getting more done: Strategies to increase scholarly productivity .  J Grad Med Educ . 2016;8(1):10-13. doi:10.4300/JGME-D-15-00165.1

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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5 Research-Based Strategies for Overcoming Procrastination

• Chris Bailey

Understanding why you put off certain tasks.

Why do we procrastinate, even though we know it’s against our best interests? And how can we overcome it? A careful look at the science behind procrastination reveals five tips. First, figure out which of seven triggers are set off by the task you want to avoid. Is it boring, frustrating, or difficult? Or perhaps it’s not personally meaningful to you? Then, try to reverse those triggers. If it’s boring, find a way to make getting it done fun. If it’s unstructured, create a detailed plan for completing it. Then, only spend as much time working on the task as you can muster. Since it’s easier to pick up an in-progress project, be sure to get it started as soon as you can. List the costs of not getting it done. And, lastly, get rid of distractions, especially digital ones.

Chances are that at this very moment you’re procrastinating on something. Maybe you’re even reading this article to do so.

• CB Chris Bailey is an author who explores the science behind living a deeper, more intentional life. His latest book, How to Calm Your Mind (Viking), is about the productivity benefits of a calm state of mind. Also the author of Hyperfocus (Viking) and The Productivity Project (Currency), Bailey’s books have been published in 35 languages. He writes a regular column at ChrisBailey.com and speaks to audiences around the world about becoming more productive without hating the process.

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Procrastination

The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. —Mary Heaton Vorse

What this handout is about

This handout will help you understand why you procrastinate and offer strategies to combat this common writer’s ailment.

Introduction

Everyone procrastinates. We put things off because we don’t want to do them, or because we have too many other things on our plates. Putting things off—big or small—is part of being human. If you are reading this handout, however, it is likely that your procrastination is troubling you. You suspect that you could be a much better writer if only you didn’t put off writing projects until the last minute. You find that just when you have really gotten going on a paper, it’s time to turn it in; so, you never really have time to revise or proofread carefully. You love the rush of adrenaline you get when you finish a paper ten minutes before it’s due, but you (and your body) are getting tired of pulling all-nighters. You feel okay about procrastinating while in college, but you worry that this habit will follow you into your working life.

You can tell whether or not you need to do something about your procrastination by examining its consequences. Procrastination can have external consequences (you get a zero on the paper because you never turned it in) or internal consequences (you feel anxious much of the time, even when you are doing something that you enjoy). If you put off washing the dishes, but the dishes don’t bother you, who cares? When your procrastination leaves you feeling discouraged and overburdened, however, it is time to take action.

Is there hope?

If you think you are a hopeless procrastinator, take heart! No one is beyond help. The fact that you procrastinate does not mean that you are inherently lazy or inefficient. Your procrastination is not an untamable beast. It is a habit that has some specific origin, and it is a habit that you can overcome. This handout will help you begin to understand why you procrastinate and give you some strategies for turning things around. For most procrastinators, however, there are no quick fixes. You aren’t going to wake up tomorrow and never procrastinate again. But you might wake up tomorrow and do one or two simple things that will help you finish that draft a little earlier or with less stress.

You may not be surprised to learn that procrastinators tend to be self-critical. So, as you consider your procrastination and struggle to develop different work habits, try to be gentle with yourself. Punishing yourself every time you realize you have put something off won’t help you change. Rewarding yourself when you make progress will.

If you don’t care why you procrastinate—you just want to know what to do about it—then you might as well skip the next section of this handout and go right to the section labeled “What to do about it.” If you skip to the strategies, however, you may only end up more frustrated. Taking the time to learn about why you procrastinate may help you avoid the cycle whereby you swear up and down that you will never procrastinate again, only to find that the next time you have a paper due, you are up until 3 a.m. trying to complete the first (and only) draft—without knowing why or how you got there.

Why we do it

In order to stop putting off your writing assignments, it is important to understand why you tend to do so in the first place. Some of the reasons that people procrastinate include the following:

Because we are afraid

• Fear of failure: If you are scared that a particular piece of writing isn’t going to turn out well, then you may avoid working on it in order to avoid feeling the fear.
• Fear of success: Some procrastinators (the author of this handout included) fear that if they start working at their full capacity, they will turn into workaholics. Since we procrastinate compulsively, we assume that we will also write compulsively; we envision ourselves locked in a library carrel, hunched over the computer, barely eating and sleeping and never seeing friends or going out. The procrastinator who fears success may also assume that if they work too hard, they will become mean and cold to the people around them, thus losing their capacity to be friendly and to have fun. Finally, this type of procrastinator may think that if they stop procrastinating, then they will start writing better, which will increase other people’s expectations, thus ultimately increasing the amount of pressure they experience.
• Fear of losing autonomy: Some people delay writing projects as a way of maintaining their independence. When they receive a writing assignment, they procrastinate as a way of saying, “You can’t make me do this. I am my own person.” Procrastinating helps them feel more in control of situations (such as college) in which they believe that other people have authority.
• Fear of being alone: Other writers procrastinate because they want to feel constantly connected to other people. For instance, you may procrastinate until you are in such a bind that someone has to come and rescue you. Procrastination therefore ensures that other people will be involved in your life. You may also put off writing because you don’t want to be alone, and writing is oftentimes a solitary activity. In its worst form, procrastination itself can become a companion, constantly reminding you of all that you have to do.
• Fear of attachment: Rather than fearing separation, some people procrastinate in order to create a barrier between themselves and others. They may delay in order to create chaos in their lives, believing that the chaos will keep other people away.

Whether these fears appear in our conscious or subconscious minds, they paralyze us and keep us from taking action, until discomfort and anxiety overwhelms us and forces us to either a) get the piece of writing done or b) give up. (The preceding is a summary of Chapters 2-4 of Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen’s Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It.)

Because we expect ourselves to be perfect

Procrastination and perfectionism often go hand in hand. Perfectionists tend to procrastinate because they expect so much of themselves, and they are scared about whether or not they can meet those high standards. Perfectionists sometimes think that it is better to give a half-hearted effort and maintain the belief that they could have written a great paper, than to give a full effort and risk writing a mediocre paper. Procrastinating guarantees failure, but it helps perfectionists maintain their belief that they could have excelled if they had tried harder. Another pitfall for perfectionists is that they tend to ignore progress toward a goal. As long as the writing project is incomplete, they feel as though they aren’t getting anywhere, rather than recognizing that each paragraph moves them closer to a finished product.

Because we don’t like our writing

You may procrastinate on writing because you don’t like to re-read what you have written; you hate writing a first draft and then being forced to evaluate it, in all its imperfection. By procrastinating, you ensure that you don’t have time to read over your work, thus avoiding that uncomfortable moment.

Because we’re too busy

Practical concerns: jobs, other classes, etc.

Because it works

Unfortunately, procrastination helps reinforce itself. When we avoid doing something we dread (like writing) by doing something we enjoy (such as watching TV, hanging out with friends, etc.), we escape the dreaded task. Given such a choice, it’s no wonder that many of us choose to procrastinate. When we write a paper at the last minute and still manage to get a good grade, we feel all the more compelled to procrastinate next time around.

What to do about it

Now that you know a little bit about why you may have procrastinated in the past, let’s explore some of the strategies you might use to combat your procrastination tendencies, now and in the future. Experiment with whichever of these strategies appeals to you; if you try something and it doesn’t work, try something else! Be patient; improvement will come with practice.

Take an inventory

Figuring out exactly when and how you procrastinate can help you stop the behavior. It can be difficult to tell when you are procrastinating. Think about the clues that tell you that’s what you’re doing: for example, a nagging voice in your head, a visual image of what you are avoiding or the consequences of not doing it, physical ailments (stomach tightness, headaches, muscle tension), inability to concentrate, inability to enjoy what you are doing.

How do you procrastinate?

• Try to ignore the task, hoping against hope that it will go away?
• Over- or under-estimate the degree of difficulty that the task involves?
• Minimize the impact that your performance now may have on your future?
• Substitute something important for something really important? (For example, cleaning instead of writing your paper.)
• Let a short break become a long one, or an evening in which you do no work at all? (For example, claiming that you are going to watch TV for ½ hour, then watching it all night.)
• Focus on one part of the task, at the expense of the rest? (For example, keep working on the introduction, while putting off writing the body and conclusion).
• Spend too much time researching or choosing a topic

Once you better understand how you procrastinate, you will be better able to catch yourself doing it. Too often, we don’t even realize that we are procrastinating—until it’s too late.

Create a productive environment

If you have made the decision to stop delaying on a particular writing project, it is critical that you find a place to work where you have at least half a chance of actually getting some writing done. Your dorm room may not be the place where you are most productive. Ditto the computer lab. If you have a laptop computer, try going someplace where you can’t connect to the Internet (e-mail and the Web are the bane of the procrastinator’s existence—as you probably already know). If you are a procrastinator, then chances are you are already pretty exasperated; don’t risk frustrating yourself even more by trying to write in an environment that doesn’t meet your needs.

CAUTION: The most skilled procrastinators will be tempted to take this suggestion too far, spending an inordinate amount of time “creating a productive environment” (cleaning, filing, etc.) and not nearly enough time actually writing. Don’t fall into that trap! While cleaning and filing are indeed worthy and necessary activities, if you only do this when you have an approaching writing deadline, then you are procrastinating.

While you are thinking about where to write, consider also when you will write. When are you most alert? Is it at 8 a.m., mid-morning, mid-afternoon, early evening, or late at night? Try to schedule writing time when you know you will be at your best. Don’t worry about when you “should” be able to write; just focus on when you are able to write.

Challenge your myths

In order to break the procrastination habit, we need to get past the idea that in order to write, we must have all the information pertaining to the topic, and we must have optimal writing conditions. In reality, writers never have all the information, and conditions are never optimal.

Think of a writing project that you are currently putting off. On one side of a piece of paper, write down all the reasons for your delay. On the other side, argue (as convincingly as possible!) against the delay.

Myth #1: “I can’t function in a messy environment. I can’t possibly write this paper until I have cleaned my apartment.”

Challenge: There are no conditions that are necessary in order for you to write, save two: 1) You must have a writing implement (e.g., a keyboard or a pen) and 2) you must have someplace for writing to go, such as into a computer or onto a piece of paper. If, when faced with a writing project, you start piling up prerequisites for all the things you must do before you can possibly start writing, consider whether you might in fact be making excuses—in other words, procrastinating.

Myth #2: “I know it’s time for me to start writing, but I just haven’t done enough research yet. I’ll spend one more night at the library, and then I’ll start writing my paper.”

Challenge: Truth be told, you will never collect all the information you possibly could for your paper. Better to write a tightly-crafted argument with the information you have NOW, AT THIS VERY MOMENT, than to keep doing research and risk throwing your paper together at the last minute.

Myth #3: “I do my best work under pressure.”

Challenge: There are lots of other ways to create pressure for yourself, besides waiting until the night before the paper is due to start writing it. You can set a time limit for yourself—for example, “I will write this paragraph in ½ hour”—or you can pretend that the paper is a timed essay exam. If you do this a week or two before the paper is due, you’ll have a draft in plenty of time to revise and edit it.

Myth #4: “In order to work on my paper, I must have six uninterrupted hours.”

Challenge: You can and should work on a paper in one hour blocks (or shorter). This will help you break the writing task down into smaller pieces, thereby making it seem more manageable. If you know that you can work on one part of the paper for one hour, then it won’t seem so daunting, and you will be less likely to procrastinate.

Some writers find, however, that they do need longer blocks of time in order to really produce anything. Therefore, like all of the strategies outlined here, if this one doesn’t work for you, throw it out and try something else. You might still find, however, that you are more productive when you plan to write “all morning” rather than “all day.”

Myth #5 : “What I write has to be perfect, ” AND/OR “I can’t write anything until I have a perfect thesis statement/intro.”

Challenge: A first draft (or a second, or a third, or even—egad!—the final product) does not have to be perfect. When we write an early draft, we need to turn off our internal critic and just get some words down on the page. The great thing about starting early on a writing project is that it leaves us plenty of time for revision, editing, and proofreading; so, we can set ourselves free to just let our writing flow, without worrying about sentence-level concerns such as grammar, punctuation, and style. You’ll find some other thoughts on editing in our video on proofreading and our handout on revision .

Break it down

The day you get the paper assignment (ideally), or shortly thereafter, break the writing assignment up into the smallest possible chunks. By doing this, the paper never has a chance to take on gargantuan proportions in your mind. You can say to yourself, “Right now, I’m going to write the introduction. That’s all, just the introduction!” And you may be more likely to sit down and do that, than you will to sit down and “write the paper.”

Get a new attitude

We shoot ourselves in the foot, to begin with, by telling ourselves how horrible a particular writing assignment is. Changing our attitude toward the task, when possible, may go a long way toward keeping us from procrastinating. Tell yourself that the task isn’t so bad or difficult, that you either know how to do it, or that you can learn how while you’re doing it. You may find, too, that if you start early on a particular assignment, your attitude never has a chance to get very negative in the first place! Simply starting to write can often help us feel more positive about writing.

Ask for help

• Get an anti-procrastination coach. If you are really determined not to procrastinate, then get help from the supportive people in your life. Tell someone about your writing goal and timeline, and ask them to help you determine whether or not your plan is realistic. Once or twice a week, email with a friend, relative, or mentor, in order to report (admit?) on your progress, and declare your promise for the next week (or few days). If, despite your very good intentions, you start procrastinating again, do not think, “All is lost!” Instead, talk to someone about it. They may be able to help you put your slip into perspective and get back on track.
• Get a buddy. See if you can find a friend to work alongside you. They don’t have to be writing a paper; in fact, they can be playing Solitaire, for all you care. What matters is that you arrange to meet them at the library (or wherever you have decided to write) at a particular time and stay there for a specific period of time, thus creating accountability.
• Get help with your writing. If you are procrastinating because you think you are a weak writer, then ask someone (a Writing Center writing coach, a current or former professor or teaching assistant, a friend) to help you improve.
• Form a writing group. A writing group is a great way for undergraduate and more advanced writers alike to create accountability, get feedback, and simply get reminded that you are not alone in the struggle to produce and to improve your writing. See our writing group packet at for more information on how to form and sustain a writing group. Dissertation writers may benefit not only from joining a writing group but also from reading our handout on the dissertation . This handout was written by a former Writing Center staff member who eventually completed her dissertation.

Get unblocked

Sometimes, we procrastinate because we feel stuck on a particular essay or section of an essay. If this happens, you have several options:

• Turn off the screen. Type with a dark screen, so you can’t see what you’ve written, decide you don’t like it, and delete it immediately. Sometimes procrastination stems from insecurity about what to say, or whether we have anything to say. The important thing, in that case, is to get started and KEEP GOING. Turning off the screen may help lessen your fear and turn off your internal critic. When you turn it back on (or print out what you’ve written), you may find that you do have something to say, after all.
• Write about writing. Take 15 minutes and write a letter to yourself about why you don’t want to write this. This lets you vent your frustrations and anxieties. Then, Take 15 minutes and write about what you could do to get unstuck. You can also try writing about what you’re going to write, making an initial assessment of the assignment. You won’t have the pressure of writing an actual draft, but you will be able to get something down on paper.
• Write the easiest part first. You don’t have to start at the beginning. Whatever section you can do, do it! If you think that’s wimpy, and you would rather do the hardest part first so that you can get it out of the way, that’s fine—whatever works for you. If you start writing and you get stuck, write about why you’re stuck.
• Talk it out. Try tape-recording yourself speaking the ideas you want to include in the paper, and then transcribe the tape.

Make yourself accountable

Set a writing deadline (other than the paper’s due date) for yourself by making an appointment at the Writing Center or telling your TA (or a former TA) that you’re going to give them a draft on such-and-such a date. If you make your Writing Center appointment for several days before the paper is due, then you may be motivated to have a draft finished. Or set an earlier appointment at the Writing Center to have a conversation about your plans for the draft. Talking out your ideas with someone will help you get them organized for subsequent writing.

Leave your work out

Keeping your work (books, notes, articles, etc.) physically out, in full view, gives you a reminder that you are in the middle of the paper, or that you need to start. Also, if you write in more than one shift, it can be helpful to leave off in the middle of a paragraph and leave your ‘tools’ where they are. When you return to the paper, you’ll be able to “warm up” by finishing that paragraph. Starting a new section cold may be more difficult.

Work on improving your writing when you don’t have a deadline

Investigate your writing process. First of all, you may not think you have a thing called a “writing process.” But you do—everyone does. Describe your writing process in detail.

Ask yourself:

• When do I usually start on a paper?
• What tools do I need (or think I need) in order to write?
• Where do I write?
• Do I like quiet or noise when I write?
• How long a block of time do I need?
• What do I do before I start?
• What do I do at the end?
• How do I feel at the end (after I have turned it in)?

Then ask yourself:

• What do I like about my writing process?
• What do I want to change?

Once you can see your writing process, then you can make a decision to change it. But take it easy with this—only work on one part at a time. Otherwise, you’ll get overwhelmed and frustrated—and we all know where that leads, straight down the procrastination road.

Evaluate your writing’s strengths and weaknesses

If you aren’t ready to evaluate your writing process completely (and it’s okay if you aren’t), then you could try just listing your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. For instance, perhaps you are great at creating thesis statements, but you have trouble developing arguments. Or, your papers are very well-organized, but your thesis and argument tend to fall a little flat. Identifying these issues will help you do two things: 1) When you write, you can play to your strength; and 2) You can choose one weakness and do something about it when you DON’T have a deadline.

Now, doing anything when you don’t have a deadline may sound strange to a procrastinator, but bear with me. Let’s say you’ve decided that your writing is too wordy, and you want to work on being more concise. So, some time when you don’t have a paper—but you do have a free hour—you waltz into the Writing Center and tell your tutor, “Hey, I want learn to how to write more clearly.” You confer, and you come away with some simple strategies for eliminating wordiness.

Here is why this may make a difference the next time you write a paper, regardless of whether or not you have procrastinated (again!): You print out your draft. It’s 1 a.m. You go to bed. The next morning, you read over your paper (it’s due at noon). You say to yourself, “Hmmm, I notice I’m being too wordy.” BUT, rather than concluding, “Oh, well, it’s too late, there isn’t anything I can do about that,” (as you may have in the past), you can choose to employ some of what you learned (previously, when you weren’t under the gun) to make your writing more concise. You edit the paper accordingly. You turn it in.

When your instructor hands the papers back the following week, there are far fewer instances of “awkward,” “unclear,” etc. in the margins. Voila! You’ve made a positive change in your writing process!

What does this have to do with procrastination? Well, making one small change in your writing process creates momentum. You begin to feel more positive about your writing. You begin to be less intimidated by writing assignments. And—eventually—you start them earlier, because they just aren’t as big a deal as they used to be.

Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses in your writing gives you a sense of control. Your writing problems are solvable problems. Working on your writing when you don’t have a deadline helps you gain insight and momentum. Soon, writing becomes something that, while you may not look forward to it, you don’t dread quite as much. Thus, you don’t procrastinate quite as much.

This strategy also accounts for the fact that if you perceive procrastination as having been successful for you in the past, you aren’t going to give it up right away

Hone your proofreading and editing skills

If you procrastinate on writing because you don’t like to re-read what you have written, the good news is this: you can learn specific proofreading , revising , and editing strategies. If you finish your paper ahead of time, and you re-read it, and you don’t like it, you have options. Writing a first draft that you don’t like doesn’t mean you’re a terrible writer. Many writers—in fact, I would venture to say most—hate their first drafts. Neither Leo Tolstoy nor Toni Morrison produce(d) brilliant prose the first time around. In fact, Morrison (a big fan of revision) said recently that you don’t have to love your writing just because you wrote it! If you practice some revision and editing strategies, you may feel more comfortable with the idea of re-reading your papers. You’ll know that if you find weaknesses in the draft (and you will), you can do something to improve those areas.

Learn how to tell time

One of the best ways to combat procrastination is to develop a more realistic understanding of time. Procrastinators’ views of time tend to be fairly unrealistic. “This paper is only going to take me about five hours to write,” you think. “Therefore, I don’t need to start on it until the night before.” What you may be forgetting, however, is that our time is often filled with more activities than we realize. On the night in question, for instance, let’s say you go to the gym at 4:45 p.m. You work out (1 hour), take a shower and dress (30 minutes), eat dinner (45 minutes), and go to a sorority meeting (1 hour). By the time you get back to your dorm room to begin work on the paper, it is already 8:00 p.m. But now you need to check your email and return a couple of phone calls. It’s 8:30 p.m. before you finally sit down to write the paper. If the paper does indeed take five hours to write, you will be up until 1:30 in the morning—and that doesn’t include the time that you will inevitably spend watching TV.

And, as it turns out, it takes about five hours to write a first draft of the essay. You have forgotten to allow time for revision, editing, and proofreading. You get the paper done and turn it in the next morning. But you know it isn’t your best work, and you are pretty tired from the late night, and so you make yourself a promise: “Next time, I’ll start early!”

Make an unschedule

The next time you have a writing deadline, try using an unschedule to outline a realistic plan for when you will write. An unschedule is a weekly calendar of all the ways in which your time is already accounted for. When you make an unschedule, you consider not only your timed commitments such as classes and meetings, but also your untimed activities such as meals, exercise, errands, laundry, time with friends and family, and the like. It is not a list of what you should do in a given week; rather it is an outline of the time that you will necessarily spend doing other things besides writing.

Once you have made your unschedule, take a look at the blank spaces. These represent the maximum number of hours that you could potentially spend writing. By starting with these blank spaces as a guide, you will be able to more accurately predict how much time you will be able to write on any given day. You may be able to see, for instance, that you really don’t have five hours to spend writing on the night before the paper is due. By planning accordingly, you will not only get a better night’s sleep, you may also end up with a better paper!

The unschedule might also be a good way to get started on a larger writing project, such as a term paper or an honors thesis. You may think that you have “all semester” to get the writing done, but if you really sit down and map out how much time you have available to write on a daily and weekly basis, you will see that you need to get started sooner, rather than later. In addition, the unschedule may reveal especially busy weeks or months, which will help you budget time for long-term projects.

Perhaps most importantly, the unschedule can help you examine how you spend your time. You may be surprised at how much (or how little) time you spend watching television, and decide to make a change. It’s especially important that you build time for fun activities into your unschedule. Otherwise, you will procrastinate in order to steal time for relaxation.

You can also use the unschedule to record your progress towards your goal. Each time you work on your paper, for example, mark it on the unschedule. One of the most important things you can do to kick the procrastination habit is to reward yourself when you write something, even if (especially if) that writing is only a little piece of the whole. Seeing your success on paper will help reinforce the productive behavior, and you will feel more motivated to write later in the day or week.

Set a time limit

Okay, so maybe one of the reasons you procrastinate on writing projects is that you just plain hate writing! You would rather be at the dentist than sitting in front of your computer with a blank Microsoft Word document staring you in the face. In that case, it may be helpful to set limits on how much time you will spend writing before you do something else. While the notation “Must work on Hemingway essay all weekend” may not inspire you to sit down and write, “Worked on Hemingway essay for ½ hour” just might. Or, if you tell yourself that you will write “all weekend,” for instance, the sheer agony of the thought may keep you from doing any writing at all. If, however, you say that you will write for two hours on Saturday afternoon, you may actually accomplish something. The important thing here is to keep your commitment to yourself. Even if, at the end of the two hours, you think you could keep going, stop. Go outside and enjoy the weather. Your procrastinating self needs to be able to trust your new non-procrastinating self the next time you say you will only write for a certain amount of time. If you go overboard this time, then the next time you say, “I’ll write for two hours and then stop,” the procrastinator within will respond, “Yeah, right! I’m going rollerblading!”

On the other hand, it may work better for you to trick yourself into working on your paper by telling yourself you’re only going to write for two hours, but then continuing to work if you’re feeling inspired. Experiment with both approaches and see which one seems to work best for you.

Be realistic about how long it takes you to write

Procrastinators tend to be heroic about time; they estimate that it will take them two hours to complete a task that would take most people four. Once you have determined that procrastination is hurting your writing, begin taking notice of how long it actually takes you to write. Many students have a “page an hour” rule. Perhaps you can write a page in an hour if you are totally rested, fed, and focused, your roommate isn’t home, and the wind is blowing just right. But what if the phone rings, what if you are tired, and what if you have to go to the bathroom? When you estimate how long it will take you to write something, expect that there will be interruptions along the way.

Parting thoughts

As you explore why you procrastinate and experiment with strategies for working differently, don’t expect overnight transformation. You developed the procrastination habit over a long period of time; you aren’t going to stop magically. But you can change the behavior, bit by bit. If you stop punishing yourself when you procrastinate and start rewarding yourself for your small successes, you will eventually develop new writing habits. And you will get a lot more sleep.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Burka, Jane M., and Lenora M. Yuen. 1983. Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now . Boston: Addison-Wesley Publishing.

Ellis, Albert, and William J. Knaus. 1977. Overcoming Procrastination . New York: Signet.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Students Procrastination Problem Problem Solution Essay

1. introduction.

The introduction of the essay provides an insightful discussion on what procrastination is and its implications on students. In everyday life, individuals have a tendency to procrastinate. It is a common phenomenon that all of us experienced. When we think of "procrastination," many perceive it as just "putting things off.'' However, true procrastination is much more than just postponing doing something. It is an issue that affects many people and only seems to be getting more and more common. In addition, chronic procrastination is not about actually "doing" a task. This involves an on-going process of delaying or avoidance and it can lead to various negative effects. For students, it presents as the in ability to complete tasks when required, and this may lead to high anxiety, a low sense of self-worth, and severe stress. Also, it affects student's academic performance, their social status as well as their mental and physical health. So, this essay is going to dissect the problem of procrastination among students and the best solutions to combat. It is because many students are suffering the negative effects of procrastination and it needs to be combated. On this process, a number of things can happen. First, it leads people to make hasty or ill-informed decisions and over time this can erode the confidence of being able to make good decisions. Second, people become so concerned about not being able to do a good job, the rate success, that they end up doing nothing at all, which is even worse than completing an unsatisfactory job. Last but not least, chronic procrastination may escalate to a complete lack of ability to regulate the usage of time. In the end, submission of work without proof-reading may result in low quality and reduced performance and this has bad implications for grade. Also, it is known that procrastination will have, in turn, affect on student's mental and physical well-being. High stress, depression, and low vanities are commonly associated with the bad habit of delaying action on something. Students experienced high drops in academic performance and some may experience a "mid-university crisis" due to piling work and very limited time. Altogether this essay presents a new argument as to why procrastination occurs and designed to appear as more of a self-imposed phenomenon. It is to be suggested that further research which investigates into the societal pressures and expectations that we face and to provide empirical evidence as to whether they do cause us to procrastinate in our daily life. Also, it is important that further research that investigates into the proposed solutions and the long-term sustainability of the recommendations provided in order to truly combat procrastination among students.step. In the third section, different strategies to avoid procrastination are presented as well as a hypothesis regarding the most effective strategy. Students in a high school psychology class were asked to participate in a study to complete a survey to help other students to overcome procrastination. The survey measured the levels of procrastination and awaited task averseness by asking students to come up with a good way to help accomplish their work in a timely manner for other students. This experiment does not apply the factors to prevent procrastination that have been founded by this essay. However, as the hypothesis suggests, more than seventy percent of the students would assume that "getting a good night's rest" would aid them most in overcoming procrastination. What is particularly interesting is that all the levels of task averseness did not play a significant role in preventing procrastination but tested to depend on the type of task that a subject had to complete. Instructions or the nature of the task as well as the various levels of averseness may effect on the choice of strategies that subjects used to overcome procrastination and this is a topic for future research. On the other hand, a critical perspective of this topic suggests that chronic procrastination is a lifestyle impairment that roots in cognitive dissonance. This essay presents as a theory in psychology- the principle of cognitive dissonance and self- esteem. According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, human beings have a natural aversion to certain actions or thought. Procrastination is born when the ability to complete a task is stressful and generates an internal conflict such as low self- esteem. It is found that the negative emotional state that accompanies the possible failure later. When a task that is taken on meets with failure, that person's self- esteem suffers particularly if such failures are linked to effective personal characteristics. In the start, the procrastination creates a mind that only through a routine of personal care is stress reduced, helping to maintain a higher level of self- esteem. However, this is only a short-term answer and procrastination often leads such individuals into a constantly "depressed cycle''. This potential answer sums the severity of problem for those who put on a show of busy-ing themselves to avoid completing his or her goal for achievement, not with regard to physical or mental health. The principle of cognitive dissonance can drive dissonance reduction; the [Firstly, students need to understand that procrastination is not "curing" anything. It does not ease the pain or calm the nerves that come with facing a stressful task. The semblance of feeling in control by avoiding the need to complete a given task can be comforting. However, this fails to realize the bigger issue of combating a present fear of potential failure. While procrastination is noticeable behaviour that most of us experience to some extent, these statistics show that the number of people who struggle with persistent and unhealthy procrastination is on the rise. This has been a growing concern since the late 1990s and it has been found that levels of procrastination over the nation are on continuous increase, proposed by a psychological study. The research and associated report from that study mention the advancement of technology and increasing relevance of materialism and consumerism, both of which have provided psychological obstacles to emotional success, as a major player in the partnership of being able to cope with procrastination. Materialism begins to generate a broader platform for lack of self- Esteem and true fulfilment and this study suggests that "feelings of inadequacy" are becoming more and more prevalent. With the rise of the "work hard, play hard" ethos, it appears that "the ability to correctly appraise challenges and correctly manage time" is rapidly on the decline and, successively, the inability to do so and procrastination on'tasks' has begun to recognise itself as more than just a sign of bad time management; a dangerous lifestyle in need of satisfaction.] cognitive miser will utilise whatever focus it can to reduce the holding of multiple beliefs, thereby decreasing psychological stress and promoting contentment. On the other hand, students present two major viewpoints-both the biological standpoint and support for the self-esteem argument as potential ways to prevent procrastination. From the biological standpoint, it is proposed that procrastination has roots in a lack of "self-regulation." Self-regulation is defined as a cyclical process that involves setting goals, monitoring progress and obtaining strategies to reach distinct markers and during this process, critical beliefs are formed about one's ability to exercise self- control step. Left to its own devices, however, self- regulation may be overcome by impulsive desires and this is a concept that psychologist believe is particularly relevant to the issue of procrastination. In essence, the claim is that the individual recognizes a task as a potential source of stress and difficulty, the person seeks to avoid such negative feelings. This suggests that the individual is unable to properly navigate the self- regulatory cycle and develop appropriate strategies for time management step. The essay ends with a call to stop procrastinating, to turn off procrastination or eliminating distraction and try to master the gift of time. By using time wisely, people could be more joyful. Also, reducing procrastination will improve individuals' quality of life and longevity. It is said that a lifetime of procrastination may lead to a life filled with regret.步。 As the essay indicates, a student who procrastinates will end up in poor performance level. In the third section, different strategies to avoid procrastination are presented as well as a hypothesis regarding the most effective strategy. Students in a high school psychology class were asked to participate in a study to complete a survey to help other students to overcome procrastination. The survey measured the levels of procrastination and awaited task averseness by asking students to come up with a good way to help accomplish their work in a timely manner for other students. This experiment does not apply the factors to prevent procrastination that have been founded by this essay. However, as the hypothesis suggests, more than seventy percent of the students would assume that "getting a good night's rest" would aid them most in overcoming procrastination. What is particularly interesting is that all the levels of task averseness did not play a significant role in preventing procrastination but tested to depend on the type of task that a subject had to complete. Instructions or the nature of the task as well as the various levels of averseness may effect on the choice of strategies that subjects used to overcome procrastination and this is a topic for future research. On the other hand, a critical perspective of this topic suggests that chronic procrastination is a lifestyle impairment that roots in cognitive dissonance. This essay presents as a theory in psychology- the principle of cognitive dissonance and self- esteem. According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, human beings have a natural aversion to certain actions or thought. Procrastination is born when the ability to complete a task is stressful and generates an internal conflict such as low self- esteem. It is found that the negative emotional state that accompanies the possible failure later. When a task that is taken on meets with failure, that person's self- esteem suffers particularly if such failures are linked to effective personal characteristics. In the start, the procrastination creates a mind that only through a routine of personal care is stress reduced, helping to maintain a higher level of self- esteem. However, this is only a short-term answer and procrastination often leads such individuals into a constantly "depressed cycle''. This potential answer sums the severity of problem for those who put on a show of busy-ing themselves to avoid completing his or her goal for achievement, not with regard to physical or mental health. The principle of cognitive dissonance can drive dissonance reduction; the cognitive miser will utilise whatever focus it can to reduce the holding of multiple beliefs, thereby decreasing psychological stress and promoting contentment. On the other hand, students present two major viewpoints-both the biological standpoint and support for the self-esteem argument as potential ways to prevent procrastination. From the biological standpoint, it is proposed that procrastination has roots in a lack of "self-regulation." Self-regulation is defined as a cyclical process that involves setting goals, monitoring progress and obtaining strategies to reach distinct markers and during this process, critical beliefs are formed about one's ability to exercise self- control step. Left to its own devices, however, self- regulation may be overcome by impulsive desires and this is a concept that psychologist believe is particularly relevant to the issue of procrastination. In essence, the claim is that the individual recognizes a task as a potential source of stress and difficulty, the person seeks to avoid such negative feelings. This suggests that the individual is unable to properly navigate the self- regulatory cycle and develop appropriate strategies for time management step. The essay ends with a call to stop procrastinating, to turn off procrastination or eliminating distraction and try to master the gift of time. By using time wisely, people could be more joyful. Also, reducing procrastination will improve individuals' quality of life and longevity. It is said that a lifetime of procrastination may lead to a life filled with regret.

1.1 What is procrastination?

Procrastination is something most of us do from time to time. It is the self-sabotage of the highest order. Procrastination is when we willingly choose to delay things that we should be doing. We know that we need to do something, and instead of doing that task, we find ourselves doing something else, such as checking social media, watching TV or simply doing nothing. So why do we do it? It's because procrastination really is an emotional reaction to certain tasks. It is not so much choosing to do something as choosing to avoid something else. And so the question of why you would actively avoid something is the key to understanding what procrastination is all about. (Job, A., 2017, writing for "Psychology Today"). This is why basically everyone in the world can understand what it's like to procrastinate. We all face our emotional baggage when it comes to getting things done. Some people might procrastinate because they have a natural desire for perfection, for example. If they can't do the thing perfectly now, then it is easy to see why they might delay it. This is the sort of procrastination that is born from anxiety. We might see it for tasks that we desire or expect high success from, or from things that are high value to us. On the other hand, some people might procrastinate because they have been brought up to be dependent. If you were always provided structure, telling you exactly what you should be doing, then it is normal to expect that you might carry some of those habits forward. (Babyak, E., 2012, writing for "Psychology Today").

1.2 Impact of procrastination on students

It has been widely suggested that students often suffer the consequences of procrastination and this behavior has a high prevalence among them. Due to students' procrastination, not only is their academic performance affected, but also their mental and well-being. Firstly, academic performance could be severely affected. By delaying the study or doing the coursework until the last minute, students are at a big risk of lowering their grades. Good time management is important for a student's academic success, and procrastination is a form of poor time management. As Larry Weinzimmer and Jim McConoughey (2018) noted, "Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill" (Quality Progress). Secondly, it would take a toll on students' physical and mental health. According to Dr. Ferrari and Dr. Steel (2015), "procrastination is a form of self-regulation failure characterized by the needless delaying of things one intends to do despite knowing that one's delay will likely make the task harder or prevent its completion (5). It may involve avoiding tasks, carrying out tasks less effectively, or giving up on the tasks. Although the goal of the present study is to examine the prevalence and consequences of academic procrastination, procrastination in other life domains is an important area for future research" (Frontiers in Psychology). They revealed that procrastination is linked to various negative associations such as depression, anxiety, unhappiness, low self-esteem, and etc. Besides, it not only deteriorates the quality of the work produced as the time for doing the work is shortened, but also generates stress when the deadline is imminent. MouseEventArgs is a property of the MouseEventArgs too. Students' well-being is also at risk due to procrastination. When students procrastinate over a longer time, they would start to worry about the imminent consequences of it and it may lead to generalized anxiety and other mental health issues as suggested by Dr. Salome Brevers (2012). Students would get stuck in a vicious circle of anxiety caused by procrastination on one side and the increase in procrastination produced by the anxiety on the other. As a result, students may feel an inexplicable sense of dread when encountering the workload.

2. Causes of Procrastination

One of the causes of procrastination is the lack of motivation. Students often confuse the content of motivation and having the willingness to complete a task. They assume that they will only start their work once they feel in the mood to do so. With the growth of the source of entertainment nowadays such as social media and online games, students are easily distracted from their studies and homework. The more common reason for their distraction is the comfort from the surroundings of the games and technology. They prefer to stay in the ambiance that provides such relief and avoid going to a less comfort and quiet workspace that can elevate their productivity. Instead of just waiting for themselves to feel the excitement to start the work, students should make use of methods to approach the task ahead and find why it is meaningful for them to do it. For example, by setting achievable yet progressive aims during the process of completing the task, students can always remind themselves to stay on course as each accomplishment will increase their confidence and make it becomes clearer and clearer to reach the final goal. Such kind of motivation referring to the willingness to feel success and the desire to work on meaningful targets would not come naturally. This can be fostered with students learning to make choices such as activating the motivation but not being driven by a sense of urgency or duty. So, instead of looking for any tasks that might interest a person, students are suggested to discover the meaningfulness behind the task and organize learning and the steps for doing it.

2.1 Lack of motivation

I know it sounds confusing, but stay with me for a second: we are looking for a section of our new essay; it is much more than that being the most common reasons why students procrastinate. You see, lack of motivation might have a link to many other reasons on their own. Basically, when you feel like you are not moving forward or when there are no goals and no clear deadlines to be met, motivation tends to disappear. This is a very important thing. Most people believe that to kill procrastination one must find a way to magically create motivation and they will keep looking for it for a long, long time. What I am trying to say is that you may not have to create it. You might have motivation already. The thing is: motivation needs to be managed. Also, lack of motivation feeds the negative emotions every human being has. It is way easier to be dragged into procrastination by negative emotions than you may think. You feel stuck, worthless, you feel as if no matter what you do, nothing is going to change for the better, so why bother? Sounds familiar? Have you ever said this to yourself? Maybe not out loud, but still. And now I am supposed to tell you how everything can be fixed, right? I can give you the best strategy which will help you to kill procrastination once and for all. Well, sorry for disappointing you, but I cannot do that. There is no such thing as a perfect solution of motivation problem when it comes to students. It is very individual, meaning what works for one, might not work for another person. However, there are few effective ways to help you to manage and direct your motivation and I would like to tell you about one of the most successful theories of motivation in the next second section. Well, I mean the third. But both are important, so stay till the next time to learn more about that!

2.2 Poor time management skills

One of the other causes of procrastination is the lack of proper time management skills. This means that there is no scheduling of tasks on the student's daily routine, which may lead to a situation where some of the tasks have to be carried forward to the next day. With time, these tasks pile up and the student feels overwhelmed by the amount of work that is pending. In the long run, one may result into procrastination. Now that we have understood the meaning of procrastination and the factors that cause it, we have to look at ways to cure it. We have already mentioned three causes of procrastination and we have gone further to look into each of them in detail. On the same note, it should be clear that the journey to find a solution to the problem of procrastination starts by recognizing the signs and admitting the need for change. Moreover, it is very valuable to note that you cannot wake up one day and decide that you will never procrastinate again! This is because procrastination has an element of psychological re-enforcement - when you procrastinate, it feels good and when you are on task it feels bad. Therefore, adjusting the manner in which you view your work or changing your habits is a gradual process that involves a change of mindset. One way which has worked for many people is to train yourself to look at a task and immediately think about the next physical action that is required. This makes the task more manageable and less likely to be postponed. It is a good practice to write down all the tasks that need to be done and break them down into day-to-day activities in a planner. This will provide a clear visual of what needs to be done and help manage time effectively. In addition, if it is something that will take less than 5 minutes, it is advisable to do it at that moment and not shelve it for a later time. Also, it is important to identify the times when you are most alert and productive since we do not work at the same level all through the day. This period should be utilized for completing important and urgent tasks.

2.3 Fear of failure

Another primary reason for procrastination is the fear of failure. Most people have a fear of failing before they even start. This fear could stem from a previous failure or the idea of not being good enough. For students, this fear is particularly strong because the academic environment is competitive and tutors' evaluation is highly regarded. Students who have this fear might believe that putting off the task indefinitely helps to delay the judgment and protect their self-esteem. However, the long-term consequence of this behavior is that it can cause an increase in the fear of facing the task at hand because the deadline is approaching. Also, it can result in cramming the work just before the deadline which consequently leads to more stress and a substandard output - fulfilling their own prophecy of failing the task. Cognitive-behavioral therapy suggests that a symptom of depression is the fear of ending. This fear might cause students to avoid planning for their future after failing in a task. But by not facing the failure and vitiating the opportunity to learn from the failure, students are not allowing themselves to learn, develop, and move forward from the incident. There are two ways in which failure can be interpreted. It can be interpreted as a confirmation of inadequacy or it can be interpreted as a constructive process from which to learn and develop as a better person and as a student. And it is the latter way of understanding failure that students should aim to adopt in order to overcome fear. Students should be encouraged to perceive academic challenges as tasks to be mastered or to develop skills and knowledge and not merely to prove to the teachers or themselves that they have a competence of knowledge. By reducing the emphasis on seeking approval and shifting the emphasis to the process of learning itself, this can help to reduce the fear of failing and, in extension, the risk of procrastination that is linked.

3. Solutions to Overcome Procrastination

Setting clear goals and deadlines can help students overcome procrastination, as it forces them to take the first step and ensures that they do not have the leeway of putting off tasks indefinitely. It helps the students because they are able to identify exactly what needs to be done and the "end-point" of the task. More importantly, having clear goals will initially form motivation and the deadlines will use the pressure of time to help students overcome the tendency to procrastinate. However, the key to goal setting is to have short-term and long-term goals. If a student only has long-term goals, then it's too easy to keep putting it off and leave everything until the last minute. Also, if a student only has short-term goals, they will find it difficult to motivate themselves to success in their studies and will end up becoming extremely stressed. Another way to overcome procrastination is to break up a project into smaller projects or tasks. We have all had that feeling of being overwhelmed by a really big project. It's tough to get started and it's tough to keep going. But when each individual part of the project is laid out on a step-by-step timeline with due dates and everything, the project does not seem so big and scary. It will give the students a game plan to follow, it adds structure to the project and it makes it seem more manageable. This can take a lot of the stress out of the project and makes it much easier to get started. The last, and most important step in overcoming procrastination is to seek some level of accountability. Many students find that it helps to get someone else to hold them accountable for their actions. For students, seeking support and the opinion of someone else is what they need to motivate themselves. So the first step is to find a 'study buddy' and help each other keep on track. First of all, students should get all their friends to write down their goals and students should tell somebody else about them. The person who students told will ask students about their progress and whether they have achieved their goals or not. This puts a lot of pressure on students to succeed. Also, if students know that they work well with other people and that they will listen to support from those around them, students should seek group support. It might help to form or join a revision or study group; that way, other people can help to keep students on track and provide support and guidance. Can help students understand a shared interest, encourage students and can make a task more social and perhaps more of a rewarding experience. Students shouldn't see asking for help as a negative thing. It is more than likely that teaching or support staff are familiar with a student having these issues and they will be more than happy to help and provide guidance. Also, being part of a study group or class and asking for help provides a great chance to practise the communication and team-working. After all, overcoming procrastination is not an easy task. This is because it is the root of habits and work and it's complicated and long to work through; and it is not just going to go away overnight. However, symptoms of procrastination can be treated by incorporating new behaviour. Once students start to relieve themselves of their old habits and feel the change in their lifestyles, they will have more enthusiasm to go through with their goals. Students have to take charge and know that overcoming procrastination is very important to a bright academic and successful career.

3.1 Setting clear goals and deadlines

Moreover, students can stop the delay tendency by setting goals with smart criteria. As McKay (2018) explained, a good goal needs to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. Specific means the target of the goal should be clear and unambiguous, so no one will misunderstand it. Measurable refers to the idea that concrete criteria to evaluate progress tell us that a goal is attainable and relevant. This goal-setting theory is supported by A. Locke and G. Latham, who were best known for their extensive theory Goal Setting Theory. They stated that working with clear and challenging goals is directly related to higher performance in work or study. By using this theory, it can greatly reduce the likelihood of procrastination. However, any study or work processes will not be smooth all the time, it comes with obstacles or barriers from one stage of work to others. But procrastinate is not an excuse for not putting effort to continue doing the task. For example, the arising problems should be seen as a challenge with discovering different ways in solving a task from the way has been planned. Next, F. M. Sirois and T. Vargha (2015) stated that one of the greatest challenges with coping strategies research is an absence of adopting a multifaceted approach. This means a single method of coping strategy may provide significant supportive practice in managing or regulating procrastination, but multi-method research can provide comprehensive enhancement of the effective. Also, a literal review of the novel scientific research procrastination and related method is far from solved. This is clearly supported by W. J. Perrin, who so-called found that self-forgiveness for procrastination is a facilitated of energy to complete nearly imminent goal pursuit. Through his research, he introduced a new procrastination coping strategy called self-forgiveness. He proposed that when procrastination led to inertia and thereby a decrease in progress in goal, the negative self-judgment may further entrench procrastination. In contrast, self-forgiveness could be a response to negative emotional responses elicited by procrastination, which could be considered as a healthy way to strengthen self-regulation for completing goals. Besides, the finding of novel research and expertise of coping strategy is providing significant positive exposure to a shift into positive realm from negative spiral.

3.2 Breaking tasks into smaller, manageable parts

The next step is to take one task at a time. However, if any of the tasks are quite large, then it is much more advisable to break them down into smaller parts – which can be independently tackled, one at a time. This will help to remove the very common and somewhat overwhelming feeling of having 'too much to do and not enough time to do it'. In addition, it will help in terms of motivation, as each smaller task is completed, the knowledge that progress is being made will help to generate more energy and more incentive to continue the study or work. A strategy that incorporates both continuous work and short breaks can help, such as the 'two-minute' break strategy often suggested to young children. This involves working diligently for 30 or 60 minutes and then taking a very short break of only a couple of minutes. This makes the workload seem less intense and breaks up the time into more manageable 'chunks'. However, the break should really be only a few minutes – long breaks often become time that is filled with some other distraction and the momentum is lost. Using a timer can be very helpful in implementing such a strategy, as it can be reset each time a break finishes - this can help the sense of urgency to help push through the 30 or 60 minutes of work. However, therapy or counselling does not necessarily focus on the skill to time manage as the core of the problem - in fact, procrastination is not considered a time management problem. Nevertheless, the reason why cognitive behaviour therapy is often more successful than other common therapies, such as psychoanalysis, is that it is a more practical treatment and looks to understand the root of the issue. It aims to help the individual develop useful and important skills in controlling and managing their own life. Even more, many online packages of cognitive behaviour therapy are conveniently structured to fit a programme of face-to-face therapy – should it be warranted - under the guidance of a therapist from modern developments such as accessing mental therapies via internet applications. Cognitive behaviour therapy focuses on the reasons why an individual is procrastinating and aims to affect long-term behavioural changes. It may try to challenge beliefs and opinions or habits which a person has developed. For example, setting themselves overly high standards or deciding that certain outcomes are to be dreaded.

3.3 Seeking support and accountability

Some students find that the "buddy system" is effective in helping them to overcome procrastination. They report that working with a partner is useful because it helps them to focus. Each of them feels a sense of responsibility to the other person and so, they are less likely to waste time. They become mutually "accountable" to each other. One of the key strategies in overcoming procrastination is finding ways to simplify the work of starting a task and this kind of "collaborative support" works to achieve that. Just as taking a mouse to the gym every day gradually builds the habit of exercise in the mouse, the sense of responsibility that is part of collaborative working gradually builds the habit of getting down to work. This in turn reduces or even eliminates procrastination. However, finding a suitable partner to work with can be difficult and this approach is unlikely to be effective for all tasks or for all people. Heicen - who in his writings on procrastination has provided us with these helpful insights into the various ways that people seek support and the reasons why some approaches may be effective - also recognizes this limitation. He points out that "accurate judgments about others' friends or frequently about the document Heicen_marzi. Iy employed techniques otself thereby provided a model of self-instrumental behavior. Utrwarduggy functional defoß thing else, because it creates another set of tasks and that it fears the outcome of the work. He also discusses the possibility of seeking "negative support", where someone helps you by stopping you from doing something else. He calls this "structural avoidance" which means that you keep finding other jobs to do and so, avoid starting the main task. This is particularly common during times of transition, such as the journey from school or college to university. Heicen explains that working with someone who provides negative support and intervening when you attempt to avoid a task can be a successful strategy and can be seen as a form of "creating accountability". The key thing is to work with someone who will actually be strict enough to stop you from doing all those other things! Oh - and no, I don't mean just somebody else in your house; I mean somebody who's also going to be staying on task with you.

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Procrastination Essay for Students and Children

500+ words on procrastination essay.

Have you ever put off your homework till the last minute? Or perhaps studied for the test only a day before? Maybe delayed writing an essay till the last possible hour? All of us are guilty of delaying tasks and putting off important work until a later date.  This is essentially procrastinating. It is the action of purposefully delaying any task or activity. In this procrastination essay, we will see the reasons and the solutions to this problem.

As we will see in this procrastination essay, this is not a rare phenomenon. Almost everyone is guilty of it at some point in their lives. So we ask ourselves this question – why do people procrastinate even when they are so busy most of the time? We live in the 21st century, where time is our most precious commodity. And yet, we waste this precious resource procrastinating our time away.

Why do we Procrastinate?

The reasons for a person procrastinating can be varied. It depends on person-to-person and situation-to-situation. However, there are some universal reasons that cause people to delay their tasks and actions. One of the most important ones is the fear of failure. When a person delays doing an important task or is disinterested in finishing it, the cause could be a deep-rooted fear of failure. It is in human nature to avoid and fear failure. So by choosing to never finish the task, we can avoid the consequences as well.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Another reason is the lack of focus and determination. Feeling directionless and unfocused can often cause people to lose their wills to do their jobs. This leads to procrastination. Sometimes the lack of goals and objectives is also the reason a person loses their focus. Since they do not have an end-goal in mind, they end up wasting energy in other useless tasks.

There are other reasons a person may procrastinate. Sometimes, a person may be too much of a perfectionist. This distracts them from other tasks. And then there are other reasons like laziness, low energy levels, easy distractions, etc.

Read 10 Ways to Stop Procrastinating here.

How to Stop Procrastinating?

While procrastinating is a very natural fault we all share, if it gets out of hand it can get quite troublesome. Excessive procrastination can disrupt your life and cause you to lose control of your schedules and deadlines. So when the procrastination gets out of hand, you need to reign it in and get back in control.

One way to stop procrastinating is to break down the dreaded task into little steps. If the work or the task is too overwhelming, we tend to procrastinate about it. But if the job is broken down, then we can tackle one step at a time without being overwhelmed. You can also create a detailed timetable or a timeline of some sort to help you with the steps.

At other times changing your work environment may be beneficial. It can provide you with the boost necessary to stop procrastinating and finish the task. If possible get a friend or a parent to keep a check on your progress. It helps keep the motivation levels up and encourages you to finish the task on time.

The main concern is not to over-focus or blame yourself for procrastinating sometimes. We are all a victim to procrastination from time-to-time. As long as it does not derail your entire schedule, give yourself a break and just get back to work!

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• Procrastination Essay

Essay on Procrastination

Have you ever postponed your homework until the last minute? Or maybe you studied for a test the day before? 

Maybe it's too late to write a story until the last hour? We are all guilty of delaying jobs and postponing important work until the latest date. This is actually procrastination. It is the act of deliberately delaying any task or activity. In this case, we will look at the causes and solutions to this problem.

About Procrastination

As we shall see in this article, this is not a coincidence. Almost everyone is guilty of it at some point in their lives. So we ask ourselves this question - why do people procrastinate or are so busy all the time? 

We live in the 21st century when time is of the essence. However, we are wasting our precious resources by wasting our time.

Saint Kabir had advised: what you have to do tomorrow, do today; what you have to do today, do it now. Procrastination is the habit of delaying a task or an activity until a later date. The habit of procrastinating the doing things is one of the worst habits of a person. People tend to be slothful to put off the finishing of a piece of work, implementation of a plan till another time. Life is not certain and it is possible that circumstances may change and one may not be able to do the work at all. It is good to procrastinate on things that are bad, but we are right and what we have decided to do, we must do in time.

Reasons for Procrastinating

One of the major reasons for procrastinating on a task is slothfulness. When a person is indulged in luxuries and slothfulness, it will blunt his edge of urge for action. When a person starts fearing the outcome of the task, he tends to procrastinate the task for a later date. Other factors for procrastinating work for a later date are low self-esteem, weak determination, less focus and distraction and also high impulsiveness. 

Procrastination is Harmful

Procrastination is harmful in various ways. It maintains tension in mind. It will relieve you of this tension if you do the work right now. Putting off work till another time more often may keep us deprived of the benefits, which might have accrued to us from its having been done. Opportunity knocks at the door once. Opportunity lost once is lost forever. There is no guarantee that the circumstances will remain the same. They may change and you may have to repent later on over the fact that you missed the opportunity. Sometimes it may prove tragic and change the good side of your career to a bad one. 

A successful man is one who strikes the iron while it is hot. When procrastination becomes a habit, all cheerfulness and carefree living go out of life and we live a life of perpetual tension, which indeed is not a life worth living at all. While procrastination is harmful to individuals, it may be more harmful to groups, communities and nations. 

We must ask ourselves whether we do actually realise the dangers emanating from procrastination and, therefore, shun it. We will perhaps find the answer in the affirmative as well as in the negative. We are still procrastinating steps for development in certain sectors of our life. For example, we have been sadly procrastinating in the educational sector. Even after more than five decades of economic planning, we find half of our population illiterate. We have taken steps to eradicate illiteracy, but our steps are not fast enough. 

We have been procrastinating developing certain geographical regions of the country with the result that there are evident regional imbalances in terms of development. We have not yet been able to connect every village of India with a link road. This was the task of utmost importance, a task that ought to have been given priority in any scheme of development. Our pace of development could have been faster if proper planning and implementation had been done at the right time. 

While procrastination is regarded as a bad habit, undue hurry or haste is equally a bad tendency. Promptness of action is advisable, but an impulsive decision is fraught with undesirable consequences. One must not delay or procrastinate in arriving at a decision in crucial matters, but unless a well-thought-out decision has been taken, it is more often than not risky to convert into action. Decisions taken in a hurry or haste without cool and calculated deliberation are likely to lead one into blind alleys or unfathomed troughs which it is difficult to get out from. The golden rule is first to get satisfied with the correct decision. Action should immediately follow the correct decision. Action should immediately follow the correct decision. Evil actions contemplated as a consequence of anger, revenge, greed, larceny, lust should be put off as indefinitely as possible till they die their natural death. 

How to Avoid Procrastinating?

There are a few tips to curb the habit of procrastination. 

Slothfulness: 

We must shake off slothfulness altogether. One must be up and doing. Avoid indulgence in luxuries because this makes one blunt. 

Value of Time: 

Understanding the value of time is very important. Nothing great can be expected from one who does not understand the value of a minute, for seconds and minutes make an hour, a day, a month, a year and the whole life itself. If the value of a minute is descended deep into our mind and heart, sloth will disappear. 

Idleness: 

Idleness is fatiguing. One must, therefore oneself engage in some useful work like some household chores other than one's main occupation. 

To ward off procrastination, one must plan one's work. Detailed planning is necessary. The entire gamut of work may be divided into fragments and time fixed for completing each fragment will facilitate satisfaction and invigorating. What we must have to do right from the time we get up from bed down to the time we go to bed must be clear to us and we must stick to it religiously.

Prioritization:

One may arrange the array of work in order of priorities. How many things are to be done and in what order of priority they must be taken — once this is planned in advance, then most of the battle is won and we can get out of the habit of procrastinating tasks.

Why Do We Procrastinate?

Reasons for postponing a person may vary. It depends on the individual and the situation-to-situation. However, there are international reasons why people delay their activities and actions. 

One of the most important things is the fear of failure. When a person is slow to perform an important task or is not interested in completing it, the cause may be a deep fear of failure. It is human nature to avoid and fear failure. So by choosing not to complete the task, we can also avoid the consequences.

Another reason is a lack of focus and determination. Feelings of indifference and insecurity can often cause people to lose their will to do their jobs. 

This leads to self-control. Sometimes a lack of goals and objectives is also a reason for a person to lose focus. With no goal in mind, they end up wasting energy on other useless activities.

There are other reasons a person may tolerate it. At times, a person may be a perfectionist. This distracts them from other activities. And then there are other reasons like laziness, low energy levels, easy distractions, etc.

How Can You Stop Procrastination?

Although procrastination is a normal part of life for us, it can be extremely difficult to do so. Procrastination can ruin your life and cause you to lose control of your schedules and deadlines. So when procrastination fades, you need to be in control and in control.

One way to stop procrastinating is to turn a dreadful task into smaller steps. If a task or task is too difficult, we often put it off. But if the work is depleted, then we can deal with it one step at a time without frustration. You can also create a detailed timetable or timeline of some sort to help you with the steps.

Sometimes a change in the work environment can be beneficial. It can give you the energy you need to stop procrastinating and complete the task. If possible, get a friend or parent to check your progress. It helps keep motivation levels up and encourages you to complete the task on time.

The key is not to become too preoccupied with the mundane things of life. We are all victims of procrastination. As long as it doesn't interfere with your entire system, take a break and go back to work!

Short Essay on Procrastination

Procrastination is not a rare thing; nine out of ten people, mostly students, nowadays procrastinate their work until the very last moment and it is also realised that they often feel guilty due to continuous postposing of their important work. The reasons for procrastination vary from person to person and situation to situation.

However, some causes are universal and some may have a particular reason to delay their important actions or tasks. The fear of failure stands on the top and another reason why most people procrastinate is lack of motivation. 

Everyone needs motivation while starting a new task or action, but due to lack of motivation most, people procrastinate due to the hesitation of performing a new activity plus lack of motivation, while some procrastinate due to laziness, lack of interest and unwillingness to perform any work. 

However, the end product of procrastination is always negative, like people start feeling much guilty, less focused, worried about upcoming projects or actions etc. 

In conclusion, it should be stated that procrastination is rooted in many causes, such as numerous distractions, lack of motivation, fear of uncertainty and failure, and perfectionism. At the same time, the result stands the same with infinite consequences such as concern for career, studies, health, and personal qualities. Thus, procrastination prevents a person from rising through the ranks, succeeding in training, and developing a personality.

The major difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is that while the former put his decisions promptly into action and reaps the fruits, the latter procrastinates, thereby depriving himself of the fruit.

FAQs on Procrastination Essay

1. What is Procrastination really about?

Postponing or procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing activities until the last minute or beyond the deadline. Some researchers describe procrastination as "a form of self-indulgence that is characterised by unreasonable delays in performance despite negative consequences.

2. Why Are We Here?

We postpone activities that we find "difficult, unpleasant, contradictory or just boring or oppressive." If a task seems overwhelming or raises serious concerns, it is usually very easy to avoid it. Another reason people put things off, says Sirois, is lack of confidence.

3. What Are The 4 Types of Retreat?

They say that there are four main types of archetypes to avoid or procrastinate: the perpetrator, the negligent, the excessive, and the person who seeks new things.

4. Is procrastination a mental illness?

Some people spend a lot of time in the monastery until they can finish important daily tasks. They may have a strong desire to stop procrastination but may feel that they will not be able to do so. Delaying yourself is not a diagnosis of mental health. But yes, less control over your mind is a sign of mental illness.

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• Procrastination Psychology: Understanding Effects, Causes, And Solutions

Procrastination Psychology: Understanding Effects, Causes, and Solutions

What is procrastination?

The word procrastination comes from the Latin procrastinare:  “deferred until tomorrow” and the Greek akrasia:  “acting against one’s better judgment.” The word itself suggests that procrastination is an active process: you choose to do something other than the task at hand, despite knowing that its delay will cause you to suffer in the future. 

Procrastination can vary from chronic (perpetual problems finishing tasks) to situational (the delaying of tasks that may seem unattractive or boring). At some point in our lives, nearly everyone has delayed completing a task, with a number of studies showing that “procrastination appears to go hand-in-hand with the human condition.” Numbers are particularly high among students, with 80-95% of this group being estimated to engage in procrastination. 

Dr. Joseph Ferrari , professor of psychology at DePaul University and a leading voice in the study of procrastination, says that a true procrastinator “has twelve things to do, maybe does one or two of them, then rewrites the list, shuffles it around, then makes an extra copy of it. That’s procrastinating.” 

Procrastinators often seek “ephemeral pleasures” such as watching a TV show or spending time with friends instead of working on an important task. This type of procrastination is easy to identify. However, procrastination may take a more subtle form, disguised as the pursuit of “ephemeral chores.” If you have ever convinced yourself that organizing your spice cabinet or color-coding your agenda is more important than starting a task, you may employ this form of procrastination disguised as productivity. 

The harmful effects of procrastination 

Contrary to popular belief, procrastination is not caused by poor time management or a fear of failure. Rather, studies show that procrastination is due to self-regulation failure and a poor ability to manage emotions. Procrastinators recognize the harmful effects of putting tasks off, but can’t overcome the emotional urge of a diversion. 

When discussing procrastination, Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius reminded himself to “stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you,” suggesting that the Romans had insight into the causes of procrastination that psychologists are studying today. According to  Dr. Timothy Pychyl , author of  Solving the Procrastination Puzzle , “emotional regulation is the real story around procrastination because, to the extent that I can deal with my emotions, I can stay on task.” 

The link between procrastination and struggles with self-regulation can play a role in substance abuse disorders or impulse control, suggesting that missing a deadline or rushing to finish a task can have more severe consequences than a bad grade or poor performance at work. The poor emotional regulation that comes with a tendency to procrastinate can also lead to a higher likelihood of developing mood disorders such as depression, anxiety, and even bipolar disorder. 

Choosing short-term rewards over long-term benefits

Several studies have linked procrastination to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and overall poor mental health. One of the  earliest studies to investigate the negative effects of procrastination followed a group of students throughout the course of a semester in 1997. Students who engaged in procrastination experienced less stress at the beginning of the semester, but their bliss was short-lived. By the end of the semester, the procrastinators not only earned lower grades than other students but also reported significantly higher stress levels and cases of illness, suggesting that procrastination had an influence not only on their performance but on their overall well-being. 

When it comes to the link between procrastination and mental health conditions, it can be hard to identify which came first. The decreased energy, negative thoughts, and low self-esteem that come with depression can lead us to believe we cannot carry out the task at hand. In turn, putting off important tasks can increase our stress levels, decrease our self-worth and lead to elevated levels of anxiety and a higher likelihood of depression. A 2017 study found that the way participants felt influenced how and when they approached a task. Similarly, in research settings, people who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower well-being.

Don’t delay: take care of your mental health today

Due to the complicated underlying causes that lead us to procrastinate, telling a procrastinator to “just do it” can be as counterproductive as telling a person who suffers from depression to “cheer up.” 

Training your mind and body to prioritize important tasks may be difficult, but the long-term benefits can not only improve your professional and academic performance but also improve your mental health and overall well-being. 

3 tips to help you procrastinate less

Change the narrative.

Due to the reciprocal nature of the link between mental health and procrastination, approaching tasks with a more positive outlook can trick your brain into prioritizing them instead of dreading them. Instead of seeing tasks as something you have to do, reframe them from a more positive point of view. 

Instead, try:  

“I can’t wait to show off my writing skills in this paper”

“Studying this topic is going to set me up for success in my career”

“This project is a great chance to showcase my analytical skills to my manager”

Practice self-compassion

A  2012 study that looked at the links between procrastination, stress, and self-compassion found that lower levels of self-compassion can lead to higher stress levels and a greater tendency to procrastinate. Lower self-esteem reduces our confidence in completing a task, leading our bodies and minds to opt for the short-lived pleasure of avoidance, instead of the long-term reward of overcoming a task. 

Ways to increase self-esteem and practice self-compassion can include the following: 

Forgive yourself for your mistakes

Take care of your body and mind with a healthy diet and exercise

Be kind to yourself

Acknowledge your strengths 

Recognize your weaknesses not as shortcomings, but as opportunities for improvement

Create a reward system

Our tendency to procrastinate is intrinsically connected with the regulation of our emotions. When we procrastinate, we often choose immediate pleasure over long-term reward. By creating a reward system, you can train your mind to associate accomplishing difficult tasks with positive emotions. 

Try rewarding yourself with a refreshing walk after completing half of the day’s tasks (just remember to get back on track) or spend time with friends getting coffee once you complete a hard assignment. 

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Procrastination-Proofing Students

By  Steven J. Corbett and Michelle LaFrance

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For many of our students, procrastination is a monster hiding in the closet.

At least once a semester, one of us will receive a last-minute email from a student with a question that, had that student been working on a project in advance, he or she would have asked days before bumping up against the deadline. Or, similarly, we will sometimes receive questions from students an hour before class claiming that the link that we sent for the day’s reading did not work.

These are the telltale signs of students suffering from procrastination syndrome. And it would be easy to say, “Start earlier next time,” and then move on. But as we note the level of anxiety, panic and supercharged emotion that our students express when they come clean about a botched timeline or poor planning, we realize that working through a habit of procrastination is too important a quality-of-life issue for our students to dismiss so easily. As we’ve asked them: Isn’t it better to know what sort of monster is hiding in the closet than to wait for it to come lurching out unexpectedly -- and at the worst possible moment?

It seems to us that the more we understand procrastination and think it through with our students, the more we can help them build lifelong habits that allow them to be successful in our writing classes. Indeed, antiprocrastination habits can also help students manage the many competing priorities in their busy schedules as well as help us all remember what’s really important in life.

The Many Faces of Procrastination

When you get right down to it, procrastination really involves the what-ifs of Murphy’s Law that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. This should be the main motivator behind procrastination awareness. It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan. Don’t put off getting started on a project because it feels like it will be easy to put together. Start assembling resources, outlining, thinking forward and scheduling activities to avoid the unexpected. When a project is due, leave yourself plenty of wiggle room for issues with printing, traffic, parking, finding the drop-off place for paperwork, etc.

A health sciences team that one of us once worked with famously told and retold the story of a National Institutes of Health grant application that was five minutes too late for the FedEx truck. An important project was delayed funding for a whole year because a copy machine ran out of paper and the team had not allotted enough time to the final stages of the job. The more we can help our students realize that these sorts of habits -- being prepared, starting early, problem solving in advance -- can make or break a project, the sooner they can start taking action.

But what about students who have writing or performance anxiety? Such students stand to gain the most from developing antiprocrastination tactics. If they experience the gains that can occur if they start on projects earlier, they will begin to feel their anxiety lessen. If the paper is due in two weeks, they can start right away by analyzing and note taking on the assignment sheet, breaking the assignment down into discrete stages or tasks. That simple act will activate the composing process, launching the task in their minds. Starting earlier on the assignment or task might lead to better time management, including catching any unforeseen time sensitivities well in advance.

Complicating the picture slightly, procrastination does offer some positive possibilities. Sometimes writers need to put a project aside for a later time to let it stew or to allow thinking to mature. And if we teach our students that this approach can be a productive conscious part of their own processes, we can again help them to build more conscientious tactics. People who work hard not to procrastinate develop a good working sense of when to put something off strategically and when to dive into something more forcefully. Sometimes procrastinating on a project might be a sign that we aren’t quite ready to grapple with something about it -- perhaps for good reasons.

Helping Students Develop Procrastination Awareness

Procrastination syndrome is a tough phenomenon to deal with. It can take many subtle and not-so-subtle forms: the student who always seems to have a rough draft, no matter how much time he’s been given to write a paper; the student who always goes missing on the day a draft of a paper is due; the student who just always seems anxious about something.

In line with the context that we’ve offered above, we can take further steps to help students develop strategies to manage and work toward overcoming procrastination:

• We can discuss with them valid reasons why people procrastinate. If you ask students whether they consider themselves procrastinators, most will say that they are. But then if you ask why they tend to procrastinate, they have to think about it a bit. The beginning of any procrastination-awareness intervention starts with the question of why we procrastinate: because we’re feeling overwhelmed, because we are uncertain about where to start, because we are fearful of failure, because we really would rather not do what we know we have to do.
• We can start nudging students to think about the different reasons for procrastination and to start to make distinctions between wise waiting and unhelpful delaying.
• We can share with students our own experiences with procrastination. If we are anxious about writing or performing, we can confess that to students -- many of whom share this anxiety and would appreciate hearing it from an instructor. If we’ve ever lost a significant amount of work due to not saving it in more than once place, students will see that it can happen to anyone. And if we tell students the story of how we arrived late (and embarrassed) to that important interview or conference presentation because we simply did not leave enough time to find what turned out to be a labyrinthine locale, we will be reiterating a lesson applicable to many other circumstances.
• As teachers of writing and other creative performances, we can try to build antiprocrastination fail-safes into our curriculum. Portfolio assessment systems, for example, offer students the opportunity to experience their writing tasks as works in progress. We can give students opportunities to see just how good a piece of writing can become if they have enough time, space and opportunity to revise multiple drafts of their work throughout the course of a term. The peer pressure involved in working together closely and extensively with a peer writing group can also nudge them to meet deadlines more responsibly.
• Finally, students can internalize this (almost) procrastination-proof process more deeply if we ask them to write reflectively and critically about what they learned from the process. Most of our students come to realize the benefits of starting early and staying persistent.

Life, Work, Time

So what if students procrastinate? The cream will always rise to the top. The good students will always be more proactive and thoughtful. It’s not really that big of a deal, is it?

Well, it might actually be about as big as a deal can get. In her memoir The Top Five Regrets of the Dying , Bronnie Ware details her experiences working as a palliative nurse with people in their last three to 12 weeks of life. She discusses the top five regrets, or things they would have done differently, that repeatedly surfaced in all their stories. All of those regrets seem to revolve around important things people kept putting off: not living a life true to themselves and their dreams, not taking time away from work, not sharing their feelings with the people they loved the most, not keeping in touch with friends, and not letting themselves be happy. We always seem to think we will have enough time to get to, start or restart the big deals in life … later.

These quality-of-life questions remind us of Thomas Carlyle’s antiprocrastination exhortation in Sartor Resartus (“The Tailor Retailored”). Carlyle proclaims the importance of what he learned from Professor Teufelsdrӧckh about not waiting too long on the most important life choices and actions:

I too could now say to myself: Be no longer a Chaos, but a World, or even a Worldkin. Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it in God’s name! ’Tis the utmost thou hast in thee; out with it then. Up, up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it, do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called To-day, for the Night cometh wherein no man can work.

(And we might well replace the words “work” in the last sentence with “start.”) If we try, we can perhaps also help our students retailor some of their most pernicious procrastination habits of mind.

But, of course, we must not wait too long in starting to offer our students some of this potentially lifelong good advice.

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How to Stop Procrastinating

What is procrastination, what causes procrastination.

• Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
• Negative Impacts
• How to Overcome

Frequently Asked Questions

Procrastination is characterized by delaying work on a task that requires completion. While it’s not a mental health disorder, procrastination can cause psychological distress. Frequent procrastination may negatively affect your personal, school, or work lives.

This article will discuss the types of procrastination, what causes them, the negative impacts, and how to overcome procrastination.

Procrastination is when a person delays a task or puts something off until the last minute or even past the deadline. 

Procrastinators will often do other tasks in advance of starting or returning to a task or commitment they're avoiding. For example, if there’s a difficult conversation to be had at work, procrastinators may take on other tasks to avoid the anticipated discomfort.

Impending deadlines may prompt procrastinators to check out on social media until the last minute or to do menial household activities like sweeping and washing floors, or other tasks they’ve been procrastinating doing for longer, like answering emails.

One estimate from 2010 claims that 20% of U.S. adults are procrastinators. Estimates may be higher today due to the ever-present distractions of technology and social media. 

Types of Procrastination

Identifying what type of procrastinator you are is the beginning step in changing your behavior. There are six types of procrastination based on the main perceived issue causing the behavior:

• Perfectionist : Has high standards and fear of not meeting expectations and puts off work because they fear they won't do it correctly
• Dreamer : Has big goals but no plan for success
• Worrier : Fears change, has worst-case scenario thinking, and resists risk-taking
• Defier : Promise-maker with poor follow-through and many excuses or reasonings for not doing the task
• Crisis-maker : May unintentionally or intentionally create chaos at the last minute to delay work
• Over-doer : Has unrealistic expectations of what can be achieved and lacks priority-setting abilities

While everyone’s reasons for procrastinating are unique, there may be a common element of fear and perfectionism motivating procrastinating behavior. Perfectionism makes a person want to do every task flawlessly, which becomes a block to getting things done and leads to procrastination.

Procrastination is also associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression.

Anxiety and Procrastination

Anxiety is defined by symptoms like intrusive thoughts, excessive fear and worry, and physical symptoms. All of these can impact a person’s ability to follow through with impending tasks and meet deadlines.

What Is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination?

Revenge bedtime procrastination is when a person sacrifices sleep for staying up later and doing whatever they didn’t have time to do during the day. This may include scrolling through social media, watching television past bedtime, or so close to bedtime that it disrupts your total sleep.

This isn’t the same as truly unwinding or relaxing because this type of procrastination quickly adds to sleep deprivation, which is directly associated with mental distress and disorder, including depression.

What Is the Negative Impact of Procrastination?

Procrastination doesn’t do anyone any favors. It can create problems beginning in your school years, when you may delay deadlines, project management, and follow-through. Studies have shown that the earlier an assignment is submitted (indicating less procrastination), the higher the academic achievement.

Other negative impacts of procrastination are:

• Increased risk for anxiety and depression
• Low self-esteem
• Increased stress
• Poor impulse control

Putting things off you eventually do anyway also takes energy and time. Avoiding tasks doesn’t make you stop thinking about them or worrying about them. 

How to Overcome Procrastination

Procrastination is a learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. A good place to start is to acknowledge that you’re procrastinating. Once you recognize this behavior in yourself, you can figure out what's causing you to procrastinate and change it.

Ways to overcome procrastination include:

• Identifying the role of procrastination in your life
• Making time for time management
• Breaking up large projects into smaller tasks
• Finding productive reasons to keep working on tasks and commitments
• Keeping your goals realistic and reassessing goals and strategies as needed

Procrastination may stem from many factors, including an underlying mental illness or perfectionism. People who want to stop procrastinating can do so by assessing from where the problem arises and working to develop new coping methods.

A Word From Verywell

Everyone procrastinates from time to time. If constant procrastination is disrupting your life, it may be time to look at what's causing you to procrastinate. Whether it's being caused by perfectionism or an underlying mental health issue, there are plenty of ways to stop procrastinating and live a better life.

No. However, mental disorders such as anxiety disorders, OCD, ADHD, or eating disorders may include procrastination as a symptom. Knowing where the behavior stems from is important in helping you change these patterns. 

Procrastination looks like avoiding a task, doing other tasks to distract from the current task, or making excuses. If you keep avoiding a task at all costs, you're procrastinating.

No. Procrastinators may try to justify their behavior by suggesting the act of putting things off somehow makes them more efficient or that they work better under pressure, but research suggests no one benefits from procrastination. It’s best to avoid procrastinating.

Steinert C, Heim N, Leichsenring F. Procrastination, perfectionism, and other work-related mental problems: Prevalence, types, assessment, and treatment—a scoping review . Frontiers in Psychiatry . 2021. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.736776

American Psychological Association.  The psychology of procrastination: Why people put off important tasks until the last minute . April 5, 2010.

Indiana State University. Types of procrastination . 

Limburg K, Watson HJ, Hagger MS, & Egan SJ. The relationship between perfectionism and psychopathology: A meta-analysis . Journal of Clinical Psychology . 2016; 3 (10):1301–1326. doi: 10.1002/jclp.22435

Steinert C, Heim N, Leichsenring F. Procrastination, perfectionism, and other work-related mental problems: prevalence, types, assessment, and treatment—a scoping review .  Front Psychiatry . 2021;0. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.736776

American Psychological Association. Anxiety .

The Sleep Foundation. What is revenge bedtime procrastination?  

Jones I, Blankenship D. Year two: Effect of procrastination on academic performance of undergraduate online students . Research in Higher Education . 2021;39(1-11).

McClean Hospital. Why you put off things until the last minute .

Princeton University’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning. Understanding and overcoming procrastination . 

By Michelle Pugle Michelle Pugle, MA is a freelance writer and reporter focusing on mental health and chronic conditions. As seen in Verywell, Healthline, Psych Central, Everyday Health, and Health.com, among others.

Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination? Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

My Personal Struggle

Pros and cons of the solution, additional resources.

Have you ever felt like no matter how much time you are given to complete a task, it will not be sufficient and you will fail anyway? That is exactly what I have to experience every day being a single mother, who has to work while continuing to study. In this situation, time management skills become crucial. It may seem simple to make a schedule and follow it but in fact, very few people can really manage their time. The problem is often caused by excessive anxiety or a fear of possible failure. Moreover, there are a lot of those who are simply unable to follow schedules and rules.

So, time management problem simultaneously triggers panic and is aggravated by it. That is why everyone should learn how to correctly divide time to avoid stress. Personally, I feel that I must find a solution to the problem as it impacts not only me but people who surround me: I often become irritable and apathetic when I feel that my efforts are all in vain. I have to combine family life with work and studies, which means that I have very little time to afford procrastinating. However, I find it really challenging to schedule my day in such a way that I could devote enough time to everything that is important to me.

Time management is basically the process of planning how to divide the time you have between the activities you need to perform as well as to the idea of controlling how the schedule is followed (Panek, 2014). Good time management skills increase your effectiveness and productivity while saving time wasted on procrastination. On the contrary, inability to manage time may have a negative impact on your study and job (Glover, Ronning, & Reynolds, 2013). In order to manage time effectively the following solutions can be applied:

• The most popular solution is to make a schedule to keep track of important facts and ideas that can be of any use as well as arrangements that you have for a week to come. On the one hand, it helps understand how much have already been completed; however, on the other hand, much time is wasted on writing lists.
• Time management can also start from setting priorities and assigning time to each. The problem is that sometimes to-do lists grow so long that they simply become unmanageable. That is why it could be more effective to prioritize tasks to make sure that nothing important got lost in lists of trifles.
• Some experts believe that using planning tools can solve the problem. They include apps, computer programs, electronic planner and diaries, wall charts, index cards, and a lot of other devices allowing to make a schedule more quickly and efficiently (Forster, 2014).
• It could be useful to manage time by diving it into two major categories: working and rest time. Planned interruptions are important as they give one a motivation to work.
• Since long-term plans (even those that cover only one week) make a lot of people depressed, a possible solution could be to begin every day with making a day-long plan.
• For many students and office workers (as well as other people who work with other people nearby), the problem is often not to divide time but not to distract attention. That is why the most reasonable solution in this case is to remove all distracting factors (not to engage in conversations, not to chat in social networks, not to complain, etc.).
• As an extension to the previous solution, you can disconnect instant messaging, log out from your accounts, and stop answering the phone or emails merely because someone calls or writes.
• It is not a rare case that we fail tasks because we try to do everything simultaneously. Multitasking may seem attractive but the most reasonable approach to time management is to set discrete objectives and never to mix activities (Thomas, 2015).
• This solution is often forgotten despite being simple and effective: You can learn to say no to everything that does not correspond to your plans. On the one hand, it means rejecting opportunities, on the other hand, you will avoid stress from work overloading.

As far as I am concerned, I prefer to combine several methods in accordance with the work I have to do. I believe that there cannot be a universal solution that would fit your studies, work, free time, and family issues. I use an electronic app to make lists but I also try to rely on my memory and do not exclude on-the-spot decisions. Moreover, I realized that planning can focus on tasks but it can also concentrate on results: Some people feel more motivated if they understand what benefits they will obtain if they cope with this or that problem. Thus, I can manage my time by determining desired outcomes first and then identifying what have to be done to achieve them. This way I feel that I do not have overwhelming obligations.

How to manage your time effectively . (2017).

Mathews, J., Debolt, D., & Percival P. (2017). How to manage time with 10 tips that work . Web.

Time management. (2017).

Forster, M. (2014). Do it tomorrow and other secrets of time management . London, UK: Hachette UK.

Glover, J. A., Ronning, R. R., & Reynolds, C. (2013). Handbook of creativity . Berlin, Germany: Springer Science & Business Media.

Panek, E. (2014). Left to their own devices: College students’ “guilty pleasure” media use and time management. Communication Research , 41 (4), 561-577.

Thomas, M. (2015, April 22). Time management training doesn’t work . Harvard Business Review.

• Durkheim's Ideas on Social Solidarity
• Capitalism in Marx's, Weber's, Durkheim's Theories
• Students Procrastination Problem
• Procrastination in the Fields of Education and Psychology
• A Critical Analysis of Hamlet's Constant Procrastination in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
• Positivism and Subjectivity in Sociology
• Social Exchange Theory and Human Relationships
• Voluntarism as a Social Transformation Instrument
• Theory Construction as a Disciplined Imagination
• Reality Construct and Perception of Others
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, September 14). Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination? https://ivypanda.com/essays/time-management-how-to-beat-your-procrastination/

"Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination?" IvyPanda , 14 Sept. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/time-management-how-to-beat-your-procrastination/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination'. 14 September.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination?" September 14, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/time-management-how-to-beat-your-procrastination/.

1. IvyPanda . "Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination?" September 14, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/time-management-how-to-beat-your-procrastination/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination?" September 14, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/time-management-how-to-beat-your-procrastination/.

Understanding procrastination: A case of a study skills course

• Open access
• Published: 22 March 2021
• Volume 24 , pages 589–606, ( 2021 )

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• T. Hailikari   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1355-2985 1 ,
• N. Katajavuori   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5093-2402 1 &
• H. Asikainen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3858-211X 1  

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Procrastination is consistently viewed as problematic to academic success and students’ general well-being. There are prevailing questions regarding the underlying and maintaining mechanisms of procrastination which are yet to be learnt. The aim of the present study was to combine different ways to explain procrastination and explore how students’ time and effort management skills, psychological flexibility and academic self-efficacy are connected to procrastination as they have been commonly addressed separately in previous studies. The data were collected from 135 students who participated in a voluntary time management and well-being course in autumn 2019. The results showed that students’ ability to organize their time and effort has the strongest association with procrastination out of the variables included in the study. Psychological flexibility also has a strong individual role in explaining procrastination along with time and effort management skills. Surprisingly, academic self-efficacy did not have a direct association with procrastination. Interestingly, our findings further suggest that time and effort management and psychological flexibility are closely related and appear to go hand in hand and, thus, both need to be considered when the aim is to reduce procrastination. The implications of the findings are further discussed.

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1 Introduction

Academic procrastination is very common among university students: almost all occasionally procrastinate in one or another domain of their studies, and approximately every second student regularly procrastinates (Rothblum et al., 1986 ; Steel, 2007 ). Considerable attention has been given to procrastination in university setting (Klassen et al., 2008 ). The student population is especially prone to procrastination, with an estimated prevalence of 50–95% (Steel, 2007 ). Procrastination may be defined as ‘the voluntary delay of an intended and necessary and/or [personally] important activity, despite expecting potential negative consequences that outweigh the positive consequences of the delay’ (Klingsieck, 2013 , 26). Typical for procrastination is that it is irrational and not imposed by external matters and it is often accompanied by subjective discomfort and negative consequences (Klingsieck, 2013 ). Procrastination is often associated with several negative factors, such as lower academic performance (Steel et al., 2001 ), increased stress (Sirois et al., 2003 ) and poorer mental health (Stead et al., 2010 ). Therefore, it is necessary to understand the causes and the factors that maintain procrastination in order to be able to reduce it. The challenge is that research in the area of procrastination often lacks a coherent, theoretical explanation of the behaviour (Glick et al., 2014 ) which has made it difficult to understand the phenomenon and to follow the research (e.g., Klingsieck, 2013 ; Schraw et al., 2007 ; Steel, 2007 ). Therefore, there are prevailing questions regarding the underlying and maintaining mechanisms of procrastination which are yet to be learnt (Katz et al., 2014 ; Visser et al., 2018 ).

The core characteristic of procrastination is the intention-action gap suggesting that the procrastinators often have good intentions, but the challenge lies in the implementation of these intentions (Dewitte and Lens, 2000 ). Thus, procrastination has traditionally been understood as a self-regulation or time management problem (Wolters et al., 2017 ). There is a strong body of evidence suggesting that lower levels of self-regulating behaviours are related to higher levels of procrastination, and thus self-regulation is one of the keys to understanding procrastination (Ferrari, 2001 ). However, Visser et al. ( 2018 ) suggest that procrastination is complex behaviour that involves both cognitive and emotional elements as well as evaluations of one’s own competence. Recent research suggests that instead of being purely a self-regulation or time management problem, procrastination is also strongly influenced by psychological factors, such as the low confidence in one’s own abilities to perform (Steel, 2007 ) and inability to cope with negative emotions that arise in challenging situations referring to the centrality of psychological flexibility in understanding procrastination (Dionne, 2016 ; Gagnon et al., 2016 ). In this article, we aim to bring together these central constructs that have usually been addressed separately in previous studies in order to understand the phenomenon of procrastination and its underlying mechanisms better.

1.1 Factors explaining academic procrastination

There are several theoretical perspectives that have been used when exploring procrastination: the differential psychology perspective; the motivational and volitional psychology perspective; the clinical psychology perspective; and the situational perspective (Klingsieck, 2013 ). In the context of higher education, the motivational-volitional psychology and situational perspectives may be regarded as the most relevant because they provide tangible tools and theories for educational developers to try to influence students’ procrastination tendencies whereas the other perspectives focus more on aspects that are not so easily influenced, such as personality traits, depression or personality disorders. The motivational-volitional perspective is focused on the relationship between different motivational and volitional variables such as motivation, self-regulation, time management and learning strategies which are central in successful studying in higher education (Lindblom-Ylänne et al., 2015 ; Klingsieck, 2013 ). The situational perspective, on the other hand, focuses on procrastination evoked by situational features, such as the perceived difficulty of the task (Klingsieck, 2013 ). This situational perspective can be further extended to include the person’s reactions to the challenges posed by the situation.

From the motivational-volitional perspective, academic procrastination has been found to be related to lower levels of self-regulation and academic self-efficacy and is associated with higher levels of stress and anxiety (e.g., Ferrari et al., 2005 ; Howell et al., 2006 ; Schraw et al., 2007 ; Wolters, 2003 ). Klassen et al. ( 2008 ) state that among all the variables that have been investigated in relation to academic procrastination, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and self-esteem have received the most attention (see e.g., Cassady and Johnson, 2002 ; Chun Chu and Choi, 2005 ; Ferrari, 2001 ; Howell et al., 2006 ; Steel, 2007 ; Wolters, 2003 ). Procrastination has traditionally been considered to be a form of self-regulation failure, as a weakness of will and low ability to organise own studying (e.g., Ferrari, 2001 ; Senecal et al., 1995 ; Steel, 2007 ) and, thus, one common theory is that procrastination results from a person’s inability to manage time (Burka and Yuen, 1982 ; Glick and Orsillo, 2015 ).

1.2 Time and effort management skills behind procrastination

Research focusing on exploring university students’ study progress has consistently shown that time and effort management skills are among the most crucial factors (e.g., Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002 ; Entwistle, 2009 ; Haarala-Muhonen et al., 2011 ; Häfner et al., 2015 ; Pintrich, 2004 ). In the higher education context, time and effort management skills refer to students’ ability to set goals for themselves and to study according to their goals, to manage their time usage and to prioritise the tasks to be conducted (Entwistle et al., 2001 ). It has further been suggested that time and effort management skills provide a foundation for cognitive engagement and student achievement as they refer to how much the students are willing to invest in their learning (Appleton et al., 2008; Fredricks et al., 2004). Previous studies indicate that many higher education students struggle with time and effort management skills (Parpala et al., 2010 ) and that these skills remain constant throughout the studies and are hard to change (Parpala et al., 2017a ). Many students study without study schedules and thus fail to pass the courses because they run out of preparation time, such as for exams (Asikainen et al., 2013 ). Thus, many interventions to reduce procrastination have focused on improving time management skills (e.g., Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002 ; Häfner et al., 2015 ; Levrini and Prevatt, 2012 ).

There are also critical voices claiming that time and effort management skills, or lack thereof, are not enough to explain the phenomena and that research focusing on the role of time and effort management skills in procrastination does not take the persons’ internal experiences enough into account (Glick and Orsillo, 2015 ). It has been suggested that when exploring factors that maintain and cause procrastination, we have to widen the perspective to include a broader theory of regulation of inner experiences, namely, psychological flexibility (Hayes, 2004 ; Hayes et al., 2012 ). Recent studies concerning procrastination have brought up the importance of psychological flexibility in decreasing procrastination and suggest that procrastination may also result from person’s psychological inflexibility (Eisenbeck et al., 2019 ; Gagnon et al., 2016 ; Glick et al., 2014 ; Scent and Boes, 2014 ).

1.3 Psychological flexibility and academic self-efficacy beliefs

Psychological flexibility refers to one’s ability to be consciously present, confronting and accepting the negative experiences, emotions and thoughts one might have, and being able to take action about achieving one’s own goals despite unpleasant feelings and thoughts, and further, being able to react to negative feelings and thoughts from a new perspective (Chawla and Ostafin, 2007 ; Hayes et al., 2006 ). Thus, it is a central factor influencing the way students react in a stressful and challenging situation. Procrastinators often fail to regulate their actions in situations that are challenging and involve high levels of stress and cognitive workload and avoiding the unpleasant feelings generated by the situation (Ferrari, 2001 ). This experiential avoidance, or an unwillingness to encounter unpleasant experiences, such as anxiety, is a key component of psychological inflexibility (Sutcliff et al., 2019 ). Tasks that are considered to be difficult and challenging and do not provide instant rewards tend to be delayed and avoided (Blunt and Pychyl, 2000 ; Sirois and Pychyl, 2013 ; Steel, 2007 ). Escaping from stressful and aversive situations might relieve stress and are thus rewarding. As an example, students are always faced with a trade-off when choosing between procrastinating or studying (Kirby et al., 2005 ; Olsen et al., 2018 ) . One alternative is to complete the challenging academic tasks on time which leads to delayed rewards in the form of achieving academic and career goals (see e.g., Sutcliff et al., 2019 ). These goals often strongly align with students' values. However, students always have an alternative to choose an immediate, positive reinforcers in the form of avoidance or escape from negative internal experiences elicited by challenging tasks, such as engaging in social or leisure activities that are not related to the task at hand. Consequently, a number of recent studies have suggested that procrastination is strongly characterised by avoidant tendencies and aversive experiences and is thus mainly involved with the person’s ability to deal with negative emotions, in addition to their time and effort management skills (Sirois, 2014 ; Ticeand Bratslavsky, 2000 ; Hailikari et al., submitted).

Psychological flexibility is thought to be constructed of six core psychological processes, which are cognitive defusion, self-as-context, being present, acceptance, values and committed actions (Hayes et al., 2012 ). These processes include the ability to observe and recognise ones’ own thoughts and seeing them just as thoughts rather than truths; keeping a flexible perspective-taking attitude on one’s thinking and feeling; the ability to remain in the present moment and be mindful of thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judging them; confronting negative thoughts and emotions without attempting to change them; clarifying one’s hopes, values and goals in life and finally, doing and taking actions which are consistent with one’s hopes, values and goals (Flaxman et al., 2013 ; Hayes et al., 2012 ). Each of these processes is a psychological skill that can be enhanced in different life domains.

Previous research has clearly shown a link between high levels of procrastination and psychological inflexibility. Eisenbeck et al. ( 2019 ) found that procrastination and psychological distress were associated with psychological inflexibility and further, psychological inflexibility mediated the relationship between general psychological distress and procrastination. The role of psychological flexibility’s sub-processes in procrastination among university students has also been studied, and it was found that committed actions were moderately negatively correlated with procrastination suggesting that committed action could be a promising variable in the study of procrastination (Gagnon et al. 2016 ). Another study showed that procrastination was negatively and moderately related to lower levels of acceptance, adding support to the negative link between psychological flexibility and procrastination (Glick et al., 2014 ). The significance of psychological flexibility in the university context has been studied less, but recent research in this context showed that psychological flexibility has a strong relationship with student engagement and study progression (Asikainen, 2018 ; Asikainen et al., 2018 ).

A recent study by Jeffords et al. ( 2018 ), showed that psychological flexibility is closely related to self-efficacy. Self-efficacy has often been studied previously, focusing on procrastination with results showing an inverse relationship with procrastination (Howell and Watson, 2007; Steel, 2007 ; Wolters, 2003 ). Academic Self-efficacy beliefs describe students’ beliefs in their own capabilities to learn new things and to complete given tasks successfully (Bandura, 1997 ). According to the study by Jeffords et al. ( 2018 ) students who reported greater psychological flexibility felt more efficacious in their ability to complete their studies, whereas students who reported greater inflexibility also reported feeling less efficacious. Similar findings have been reported in relation to students’ time and effort management skills. Bembenutty ( 2009 ) showed that college students who have greater academic self-efficacy also tend to show increased management of their time and study environment (see also Burlison et al., 2009 ; Park and Sperling, 2012 ). Academic Self-efficacy beliefs have been proposed as a possible explanation for procrastination in the academic context, indicating that low academic self-efficacy beliefs are associated with an increased tendency to procrastinate (Judge and Bono, 2001 ). If one’s academic self-efficacy beliefs are low, the motivation to initiate work or to commit to required action should also be low, resulting in avoidance behaviour and consequently procrastination (Grunschel et al. 2013 ). On the other hand, students who believe that they can and will do well are more likely to be motivated to self-regulate, persist and engage in studying (Pintrich and Schunk, 2002 ; Zimmerman, 2000 ). Academic Self-efficacy beliefs have been found to be among the strongest predictive factors of performance in various domains (e.g., Lane and Lane, 2001 ; Pajares, 1996 ). Thus, when exploring the maintaining factors of procrastination, it is important to include academic self-efficacy.

1.4 Aim of the study

Taken together, previous research suggests that time and effort management skills, psychological flexibility and self-efficacy are all closely related to procrastination. Although the studies in this area support a tentative connection between these factors, it is far from conclusive. To our knowledge, no previous study has brought together these central constructs in explaining procrastination. They have been explored separately as they represent different research traditions. The aim of the present study is to include all these variables and explore their interrelations and how they together predict procrastination among students that experiences challenges with their study skills. There is a need to understand the underlying mechanisms of procrastination and which constructs are especially important if the aim is to reduce procrastination among higher education students. This research focuses on answering the following research question: How are university students’ time and effort management skills, psychological flexibility and self-efficacy associated with (a) each other and (b) to their reported level of procrastination.

2 Methodology

2.1 participants.

The data were collected from students studying arts and humanities at a Finnish university. Prolonged study times are a great challenge at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Kurri, 2006 ). Recent research also suggests that students procrastinate more in the field of arts and humanities compared to other academic fields (Nordby et al., 2017 ). The data came from the students who participated in a voluntary time management and well-being course, and who were willing/eager to improve their study skills. This course was advertised for students who have challenges with their time-management and well-being. A total of 149 students voluntarily participated in the study and answered the questionnaire in autumn 2019. Students responded to the questionnaires at the beginning of the course as a part of their pre-assignment. Of these students, 14 were excluded because their answers had many missing values concerning the measured dimensions (> 50%). Thus, a total of 135 students provided the data. In the questionnaire, the students were asked to evaluate their own time and effort management skills, academic self-efficacy, tendency to procrastinate and psychological flexibility. Of these students, 22 were male students and 110 female students. Two students identified as ‘other gender’, and one did not answer this question. Approximately a quarter of the students in the Faculty of Arts are male and, thus, the sample distribution is similar to the population. The average age of the participants was 28.1 years (SD = 7.62).

2.2 Instruments

We used two scales, focusing on time and effort management skills and academic self-efficacy, from the HowULearn questionnaire (Parpala and Lindblom-Ylänen, 2012 ). HowULearn -questionnaire and its scales are widely used and validated in Finnish and international contexts (e.g., Cheung et al., 2020; Parpala et al., 2010 ; Postareff et al., 2018; Ruohoniemi et al., 2017 ; Rytkönen et al., 2012). The HowULearn questionnaire has also been translated in the context of Danish higher education (Herrmann et al., 2017 ). Time and effort management skills are measured with four items on a Likert-scale from 1 to 5 (e.g. 'I am generally systematic and organised in my studies’). Concerning students’ academic self-efficacy, we used a scale from HowULearn questionnaire which has been constructed based on (Pintrich and Garcia ( 1991 ) Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Five items, using a Likert scale from 1 to 5, were modified to suit the academic self-efficacy. As it is applied here, academic self-efficacy refers to students’ appraisal of their ability to master academic tasks including their judgements about their ability to accomplish a task as well as their confidence in their skill to perform that task. Based on these items, an academic self-efficacy scale for constructed (5 items, e.g., ‘I believe I will do well in my studies as long as I make an effort’). Psychological flexibility was measured according to the work-related acceptance and action questionnaire (WAAQ) (Bond et al., 2013) which was recently developed to fit the higher education context in Finland (7 items, e.g., ‘My worries do not prevent me from succeeding in my studies’ (Asikainen, 2018 ). The items used a 7-point Likert scale (1 = totally disagree, 7 = totally agree). Procrastination was measured with a short version of the Pure procrastination scale (PPS) (Svartdahl and Steel, 2017 ) using a 5-point Likert scale (5 items, e.g.,’ In preparation for some deadlines, I often waste time by doing other things’). This short version of the original pure procrastination scale has been proven to be a robust instrument to measure academic procrastination (Svartdahl et al., 2017; see also Klein et al., 2019 ).

2.3 Statistical analysis

Missing value analysis was conducted on the items measuring the scales. There were only four separate missing values concerning different items and, thus, these were replaced with means. The relationships between the scales were analysed with Pearson’s correlation analysis. In addition, linear regression analysis was conducted on the scales measuring academic self-efficacy, time and effort management (= organised studying) and psychological flexibility explaining procrastination. In addition, the students were then divided into three score groups (low/medium/high) based on their scores measuring time and effort management and psychological flexibility where the middle group was formed using the mean + − a half standard deviation. The groups were combined and thus, six score groups were conducted. The differences in these groups in procrastination was analysed with One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s test.

According to the Cronbach alpha analysis, the scales measuring psychological flexibility, procrastination and academic self-efficacy had very good reliability (α = 0.83–0.90). The reliability for the scale measuring time and effort management can be regarded as acceptable (see Table 1 ). Adding more items to measure the same dimension, would most probably have increased the alpha on Organised studying (Taber 2018). However, as the scale has been used in many previous studies with good reliability (Herrmann et al., 2017 ; Parpala et al., 2010 ; Ruohoniemi et al., 2017 ) its use can be considered to be acceptable.

The correlational analysis showed that there was a clear relationship between procrastination, psychological flexibility, academic self-efficacy and time and effort management skills. Procrastination was statistically significantly and negatively correlated with time and effort management skills (r =  − 0.584, p  < 0.001), academic self-efficacy ( p  =  − 0.358, p  < 0.001) and psychological flexibility (r =  − 0.461, p  < 0.001). In addition, academic self-efficacy was positively related to psychological flexibility ( p  = 0.322, p  < 0,001) and time and effort management skills ( p  = 0.357, p  < 0.001). In addition, time and effort management skills and psychological flexibility correlated positively with each other (r = 0.332, p  < 0.001). The correlations can be seen in Table 2 .

3.1 Regression analysis

A linear regression model was conducted with psychological flexibility, time and effort management and academic self-efficacy as predictors of procrastination. As presented in Table 3 , time and effort management skills, psychological flexibility and academic self-efficacy explained a significant level of variance in procrastination (Adjusted R Square = 0.382). Both time and effort management (t =  − 5.63, p  < 0.001) and psychological flexibility (t =  − 3.06, p  = 0.003) explained the variance in procrastination statistically significantly meaning that students who reported greater use of time and effort management strategies and higher psychological flexibility reported less tendency to procrastinate. Academic self-efficacy failed to emerge as an individual predictor of procrastination t =  − 1.04, p  = 0.301). The results of the regression analysis can be seen in Table 3 .

3.2 Differences in score groups

The One-way ANOVA of the score groups showed that there were differences in experiences of procrastination according to the score groups. According to the Tukey’s test, the group with a high score on time and effort management as well as psychological flexibility scored statistically significantly lower on procrastination than the other score groups (see Table 4 ). In addition, the group with a low score in time and effort management as well as on psychological flexibility scored higher in procrastination than the group scoring average on time and effort management and high on psychological flexibility as well as the group scoring high on time and effort management and average on psychological flexibility. The group scoring average on time and effort management and low on psychological flexibility also scored statistically significantly higher on procrastination than the group scoring high on time and effort management and average on psychological flexibility.

4 Discussion

Procrastination is consistently viewed as problematic to academic success and students’ general well-being (Steel, 2007 ). Students’ time management skills as well as ability to manage their own actions despite the negative feelings have been identified as central factors associated with procrastination along with students’ academic self-efficacy beliefs. To this point, however, only a few studies have included all these measures and compared their impact on procrastination. Thus, an aim with the present study was to explore how students’ time and effort management skills, psychological flexibility and academic self-efficacy are interrelated and associated with procrastination as they have been commonly addressed separately in previous studies.

Designed to address this limitation, our findings support three noteworthy findings regarding academic procrastination among students who experience problems in their time management skills. Firstly, our findings show that students’ ability to organise their time and effort had the strongest association with procrastination out of the variables included in the study. Secondly, our findings indicate that psychological flexibility has a strong individual role in explaining procrastination along with time and effort management skills, although to a slightly smaller degree. And thirdly, our findings suggest that these two constructs appear to be closely related and clearly go hand in hand and, thus, both need to be considered. In the remainder of this section, we review the findings that support these points, identify implications for research and practice, and discuss some limitations to these conclusions.

Time management has been repeatedly identified in previous studies as a major factor contributing to procrastination (Ferrari, 2001 ; Senécal et al., 1995 ; Steel, 2007 ; Wolters, 2003 ). Our findings add to this work by showing that in our study time and effort management skills were strongly related to self-reported level of procrastination and explained the largest variance of procrastination in the regression. This finding implies that students’ time and effort management skills can be used to understand their self-reported levels of academic procrastination. However, it appears that time and effort management skills alone are not enough to explain the phenomenon of procrastination as we assumed. In our study, psychological flexibility also had a strong individual role in explaining large variation of procrastination. This is in line with the recent research suggesting that psychological flexibility is also a central construct explaining procrastination (Dionne, 2016 ; Gagnon et al. 2016 ). These two factors were also strongly correlated with each other as well as with academic self-efficacy beliefs which suggests that they share common variance. Their central role was further explained by regression analysis which showed that together they explained almost 40% of the variance in procrastination. Interestingly, in the present study academic self-efficacy beliefs did not have a direct association with procrastination. This finding is in contrast with previous studies showing that lower self-efficacy beliefs are associated with an increased tendency to procrastinate (Judge and Bono, 2001 ; Wolters, 2003 ). However, some studies have similarly reported a non-significant association between self-efficacy and procrastination. For example, Klassen et al. ( 2010 ) showed with Canadian and Singaporean students that although procrastination negatively and significantly correlated with academic self-efficacy, in the regression model there was no association between academic self-efficacy and procrastination. Only self-efficacy for self-regulation and self-esteem had a significant relationship with procrastination (Klassen et al., 2010 ). This finding is very similar to our result. The most likely explanation for the result is that time and effort management skills and psychological flexibility have a more direct and stronger relationship with procrastination than academic self-efficacy even though it is closely related to all these constructs. It might be that if one is committed to value-based actions which are at the core of psychological flexibility, the negative thoughts one might have about oneself may not be hindering one’s goal-based actions (Hayes et al., 2006 ). This is an interesting finding, and it would be useful to study it in more detail in subsequent studies.

As a third noteworthy finding, our findings provide insight into the relations between time and effort management and psychological flexibility as factors contributing to procrastination. Psychological flexibility and time and effort management skills appear to go hand in hand. When the students were divided to three groups based on their scores on psychological flexibility and time and effort management, the largest groups were the ones in which both time and effort managements skills and psychological flexibility were either low or high. The groups where one of these measures would be high and the other would be low were the smallest in implicating their close relationship. Therefore, it seems that if a person rates his/her time and effort management skills highly, he/she rates his/her psychological flexibility high as well. Also, significant correlations between these measures support this notion. A significant positive correlation between time and effort management and psychological flexibility has also been found in previous study (Asikainen et al., 2019 ). Interestingly, the group that rated both time and effort management and psychological flexibility highly rated their tendency to procrastinate as markedly low compared to other groups. The opposite phenomenon was true for the group that rated their time and effort management skills and psychological flexibility low. This group rated their tendency to procrastinate very highly. Interestingly, if the rating on one of these measures, especially on time and effort management studying was lower, the tendency to procrastinate increased drastically. Although this conclusion fits with common-sense expectations regarding these constructs and their relationship, our findings are the first to establish this relationship empirically.

One implication of this finding is that future efforts to remediate students’ procrastination should account for both these factors. Only when accounting for both time and effort management and psychological flexibility can students’ procrastination be understood. Instead of taking procrastination merely as a self-regulation problem, it is also strongly influenced by a person’s inability to cope with negative emotions that arise in challenging situations (Eisenbeck et al., 2019 ; Gagnon et al., 2016 ; Glick et al., 2014 ). It may be suggested that time and effort management support psychological flexibility. Some studies on time allocation suggest that psychological flexibility process includes allocating one’s time to important and value-based actions in everyday life (Kashdan and Rottenberg, 2010 ). Thus, when time is allocated to support value-based action well-being also increases (Sheldon et al., 2010 ). Thinking about your own values and setting goals can also be considered to be a central part of both time and effort management (Entwistle and McCune, 2004 ) and psychological flexibility (Hayes et al., 2006 ). Thus, we could suggest that when practising psychological flexibility, time management is a part of the process in which one needs to plan how to allocate time to support one’s own personal values. Fostering students’ psychological flexibility as well as time and effort managements skills, could be a promising tool to decrease procrastination. As procrastinators often fail to regulate their actions in challenging or stressful situations (Ferrari, 2001 ), it might be that psychological flexibility could be a central construct. More attention should be paid to encouraging students to pursue value-based committed actions, despite the negative thoughts and feelings one might have. Thus, students’ capacity to cope with their negative thoughts and emotions should be enhanced during their studying (Asikainen, 2018 ).

4.1 Limitations

There are also some limitations that should be addressed. The participants consisted of a selected sample of students which most probably influenced the results. The students took part in a time management and well-being course which was directed especially at those students who had experienced problems with their studies. Thus, the sample of the students in this study was selected and most probably consisted mostly of students who were eager and motivated to improve their time management skills and studying. That might also explain why the time and effort management skills were the strongest explanatory variable of procrastination in the present study. Thus, these results of the study are not generalisable to general student population and the selected sample most probably influenced the results. More research is still needed with a bigger and more representative population. Studies should also explore the role of time and effort management skills in procrastination with a more representative student population. The number of participants was rather low which gave limited opportunities for analysis. For example, the number of students in different score groups was rather low, and in some cases too low for the analysis. Therefore, the results should be interpreted with care. Still, we wanted to include the One Way Anova analysis in our study as it clearly showed that psychological flexibility and time and effort management skills are aligned with each other and students with high scores in both of these dimensions report much less procrastination than other students. Furthermore, one major limitation of the study is that the data are based solely on self-reports. This means that we have measured students’ experiences of these variables. However, we used validated questionnaires which have been shown to be reliable in measuring these constructs and thus, we argue that these results also bring valuable insights to research in procrastination which should be further explored. Future research should also include other measures such as accumulation of credits to see how these measures relate to students’ study progression. In addition, our data are also cross-sectional in nature and thus represents only one particular timeframe. Thus, it is not possible to draw any conclusions regarding the predictive value of the variables. In future research we should also include longitudinal data to explore more closely the relationship between these measures. Despite of the numerous limitations in our study, we argue that this paper provides a novel exploration of these predictors of procrastination together which has not been provided in previous studies.

4.2 Practical implications and conclusions

One promising way to support students’ psychological flexibility and learning processes could be to combine study skills courses, such as time and effort management intervention courses with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)-based intervention courses, in which students could practise tolerating stress and negative thoughts as well as developing their time and effort management. Recent studies (Asikainen et al., 2019 ) have shown that this kind of ACT-interventions including reflection of one’s own study processes and practising new ways to study, in this way practising new ways to study, can enhance students’ psychological flexibility and time and effort management and in this way, foster students’ well-being and study skills. ACT-based intervention has shown to have multiple positive effects on students’ well-being and studying (Asikainen et al., 2019 ; Levin et al. 2017 ; Räsänen et al. 2016 ). In addition, ACT-based training can help students to manage psychological inflexibility and encourage persistence behaviour, which in turn is likely to have a positive impact on students’ self-efficacy and further, to their academic performance (Jeffords et al. 2018 ). Earlier studies have found that ACT-based interventions targeted at students who suffer from procrastination can decrease experiences of procrastination (Scent and Boes, 2014 ; Wang et al., 2015 ). One study has suggested that different core processes of psychological flexibility have different effects on procrastination. That is, although all the components correlate with procrastination, acceptance and committed actions significantly predict experiences of procrastination (Gagnon et al., 2016 ). Thus, it seems that being more open and accepting of one’s emotional experiences or thoughts and being willing to engage in difficult activities to persist in the direction of important values is important in reducing procrastination.

As time and effort management in our study was the predominant factor associated with procrastination, we suggest that time management should be promoted for higher education students. It has been shown that many students have trouble with time management (Parpala et al., 2010 ). Many studies have shown that different time management strategies are beneficial for different students. These include things like setting goals and planning how to achieve these (Häfner et al., 2015 ), setting deadlines (Ariely and Wertenbroch, 2002 ) and monitoring time use (Asikainen et al., 2019 ). These skills should be enhanced during university study because it has been shown that time and effort management skills remain rather constant without a conscious effort to influence them (Lindblom-Ylänne et al., 2017 ).

To conclude, our study brings novel insights into the underlying mechanisms of procrastination. Our study showed that both psychological flexibility and time management are important factors influencing procrastination, and furthermore, they appear to be closely related factors and together influence procrastination behavior. Thus, both these factors should be considered when the focus is on reducing procrastination. Students who tend to procrastinate might benefit from trainings that focus on training both time management skills and psychological flexibility and not focusing on only either one. This might produce the best results.

Data availability

The data is available on demand.

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Hailikari, T., Katajavuori, N. & Asikainen, H. Understanding procrastination: A case of a study skills course. Soc Psychol Educ 24 , 589–606 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09621-2

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How to Stop Procrastinating on Homework and Start Studying

Table of contents

• 1 Why Do Students Procrastinate On Homework?
• 2.1 Fight Temptations And Eliminate Distractions
• 2.2 Rely On Your Motivation And Take Action
• 2.3 Work On Your Study Agenda
• 2.4 Don’t Forget To Rest
• 2.5 Reward Yourself
• 2.6 Assess Your Strengths Wisely
• 2.7 Turn Off Your Perfectionism
• 2.8 Bottom Line

Why Do Students Procrastinate On Homework?

Learners put off tasks until the last minute. It is the most common problem that interferes with receiving quality knowledge and education. This includes sitting up at night, hoping to complete all the homework assigned for the week, and trying to learn all the topics right before a quiz. Learners often like to prepare for exams overnight, culminating in disappointing results.

Are you sick of it? Learn more information about the reasons for this behavior and how to deal with it. PapersOwl tips will help you get better and get your stuff done in advance rather than the night before the deadline.

How To Stop Procrastinating?

Learners repeatedly procrastinate on tasks because they don’t see how important every home assignment is to them, don’t understand the material, or simply don’t know how to begin. Task procrastination is a combination of motivation, confidence, and understanding issues.

Many college students don’t like to constantly struggle with themselves and procrastinate instead of controlling their lesson plans. This can leave many feeling like they won’t make it on time because they’re lazy. If this is your case, it’s worth getting your homework writing help from professionals. This way, you will reduce stress and turn in your homework for the highest grade. Our experts ensure the nicest possible quality. Many learners do this and remain satisfied.

Nevertheless, this problem requires a long-term solution. You can overcome procrastination quite easily if you take advantage of the following recommendations.

Fight Temptations And Eliminate Distractions

The first ten minutes are the hardest. If you manage not to get distracted by entertainment, your brain will tune in and fully engage in the process from the start. How to stop procrastinating homework and not pay attention to distracting factors? Just prepare for the task in advance. This includes:

• removing everything unnecessary from the workplace;
• turning off messengers, such as Facebook or Instagram;
• uninstalling mobile games for a bit;
• switching off your phone, TV, and other gadgets that may have notifications.

If you can’t avoid procrastination, don’t worry, you can still get the most promising results. Use the help of someone who can write your assignment before a deadline for a high grade. Our professionals are knowledgeable in a range of topics and can provide you with a correctly completed task in any field. With such high-quality services, you will be able to finish and submit your homework in advance. And then, give yourself another chance.

Rely On Your Motivation And Take Action

You need to have a clear vision of what needs to be achieved. Thoughts alone are not enough. It is essential that your motivation is visualized and not remain imaginary. You can keep these targets in your diary or hang stickers at your workplace.

Once you’re inspired, it’s a moment to get down to business and work on your assignments. It is also a good idea to avoid procrastination by periodically looking at the goals you have written down or the stickers with your objectives. This way, you’ll stay motivated to complete homework in no time at all. As a result, you may even have the desire and extra time to study other subjects or to prepare for a test.

Work On Your Study Agenda

A to-do list can help with the question of how to stop procrastinating on homework. Many successful people advise doing this to stay productive, keep the focus on studying, and get good grades for the assigned task.

However, just noting the upcoming agenda is not enough. One should divide each task into smaller items, as well as set deadlines for each step. In this way, you ensure your success in  completing homework fast and efficiently. Moreover, you can make things easier for yourself and turn in your homework by the due date.

Don’t Forget To Rest

You shouldn’t do something as serious as homework if you’re too tired. It will only cause you to postpone it for an even longer period. It is necessary to get enough sleep and keep track of your work hours and rest each day. Besides, sleep increases your academic success. Even if you have to sacrifice something for the sake of your school, it shouldn’t be about sleep.

Even if there isn’t much left to submit your work, it’s obligatory to take a short break, go back, check again for mistakes, and so on. Nevertheless, it is crucial to determine the duration of rest. If the pause is uncontrollably long, you will not be able to stop procrastinating on your homework.

Reward Yourself

Every time you consciously avoid procrastination and accomplish what you set out to do, encourage yourself with something pleasant. This will bring positive emotions into the process, which work much more effectively than guilt. Find a work partner that you enjoy interacting with. This can be your friend or a family member. Prepare a delicious coffee to drink while solving a problem. Or bribe yourself with ice cream when you have to study.

Though, our human nature can’t be fooled by rewards when it comes to doing difficult homework. Things can get pretty stressful if you don’t understand a complicated subject, like statistics. In that case, refer to professionals who will do your statistics homework and help you master the subject. You can choose the expert you like and supervise the process of completing the assignment yourself by using this service. Thus, praise from the teacher, and most importantly, knowledge, is guaranteed!

Assess Your Strengths Wisely

You may have overestimated your strengths if you don’t complete your tasks, and you can’t avoid procrastination. For instance, you thought you could do your homework in 2 hours, when in fact, you are not even familiar with the subject or the structure of the project, which increases the completion period to 5-6 hours. In the end, you start procrastinating on your homework and feel like a failure.

Instead, evaluate your abilities and time sensibly, and perhaps divide one big task into many small ones you will be able to handle. The first step to completing the assignment is to learn how to write assignment  correctly. Once you do, the process will go more smoothly, and you’ll be able to count on your strength to complete it successfully.

Turn Off Your Perfectionism

Perfectionism is the beginning of procrastination. Quite usually, it is the reason for constantly postponing tasks. The perfectionist strives to do everything in life ideally, including homework. When you see that it is impossible to achieve perfection, you decide against doing the assignment at all. In this matter, a significant factor is the recognition that sometimes it is difficult to do something on the highest level. When you start a task, concentrate on doing your best instead of focusing on perfection.

Bottom Line

It is possible to cure procrastination or at least lessen its impact, especially if you are determined to work on yourself. You need to understand how it all started first so that you can determine the proper way to solve this problem. Some people need to establish a strict schedule, others need professional help with schoolwork, and others just have to change the environment a little bit. If you are looking for additional help, there are  custom assignment writers available to provide assistance. Listen to yourself and try to implement the recommendations from this or related articles that seemed closest to you so that you understand how to quit procrastinating and trigger success in all spheres.

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Home — Essay Samples — Psychology — Social Psychology — The Impact of Procrastination in College: Causes and Strategies

The Impact of Procrastination in College: Causes and Strategies

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Published: Mar 8, 2024

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Table of contents

Defining procrastination, causes of procrastination in college, consequences of procrastination, strategies for overcoming procrastination.

• Create a schedule: Developing a schedule can help create structure and provide a sense of direction towards academic and personal tasks. Make sure to include ample time for study sessions as well as leisure activities.
• Break tasks into smaller chunks: Break up long-term projects into smaller and more manageable tasks. This way, students can avoid feeling overwhelmed, make consistent progress, and remain motivated.
• Set goals: Specific and achievable goals can help track progress and maintain productivity. Goals should be measurable, attainable, and time-bound.
• Remove distractions: Minimize or eliminate the distractions that may be causing procrastination, such as social media applications and games.
• Utilize the Pomodoro technique: This technique involves working for a specific period, usually 25 minutes, followed by a short break. This method encourages focus and productivity while allowing for a necessary break to recharge.

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Procrastination solutions, ten strategies for combating procrastination.

• Take control of your study environment - study in a place that is free from distractions.
• Make a "TO DO" list.
• Establish a routine.
• Self-bribery - give yourself rewards. I can watch TV for a half an hour once I finish reading these 10 pages
• Divide and Conquer - break larger tasks into smaller units - thereby eliminating how daunting the task seems. As you complete each small unit, move on to the next one. Before you know it, you'll be done
• Use a planner for time management.
• Use the 10-minute rule. When you have trouble getting started, select a specific task, such as three pages of reading or "I'm going to spend 10 minutes reading without stopping." At the end of 10 minutes, see how much you've done. Keep working in 10-minute blocks until you are satisfied with what you have done."
• When you finish studying, do one more thing before you quit. Start another assignment; then you will be ahead when you sit down to study again.
• Carry flashcards, notes and other study materials with you so that you can make better use of your open time. Recite and review your notes while waiting for the bus, riding in a car, standing in line, etc.
• Do two things at once. Combine recitation and review with another activity. Recite terms and definitions while you are jogging or having your lunch.

List created by Annie Passarello, GTA, Academic Success Center

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Solving Procrastination

Procrastination: Definition, Examples, Solutions, and More

Procrastination is a common problem, which can cause various issues, like missed opportunities and increased stress. Furthermore, people often misunderstand it, which prevents them from being able to stop procrastinating. To solve this, the following article will show you the key information you need to know about procrastination, including what it is, why it happens , and how you can overcome it .

What is procrastination (a definition)

Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions. For example, a person is procrastinating when they delay working on an assignment until right before its deadline for no reason, even though they know that it would be better for them to start earlier.

There are various types of procrastination , which can occur for different reasons , involve different behaviors , and lead to different outcomes . For example, some people procrastinate to avoid thinking about a task that makes them feel anxious , while others procrastinate because they get distracted by  social media .

Nevertheless, the following are the key defining features of procrastination, which characterize most of its types:

• It involves unnecessary delay.
• The delay generally leads to predictable negative outcomes , in terms of factors like the procrastinator’s performance and wellbeing.
• The delay is often—but not always—unintentional, meaning that it occurs despite the procrastinator’s intent to do things on time (so it involves an intention-action gap ).

Examples of procrastination

A classic example of procrastination is a student who postpones studying for an exam until the night before, despite wanting to start earlier and feeling bad about the delay.

Another example of procrastination is someone who has months to submit an important application, but delays until the day before the deadline , despite repeatedly promising themselves that they’ll start earlier.

In addition, the following are further examples of procrastination, which illustrate the diverse forms it can take, and the diverse domains it can occur in:

• Browsing social media when you should be working, even though you’re frustrated with yourself and wish you could just get started.
• Staying up hours later than you intended at night while watching videos or playing games, despite knowing this will make you tired tomorrow.
• Doing useful things , like cleaning your room, when you should be doing more important things, like finishing a school assignment.
• Promising yourself that you’ll get started on a passion project (like writing a book or building a business ) “one day” or “sometimes soon”, but never making any progress toward it, and instead just fantasizing about your future success.
• Planning to start a new habit (like dieting, exercising, or saving money), but instead making excuses to wait with it for months, even though you know that it would be better to just start.
• Intending to solve an issue (like paying bills or going to the dentist), but postponing doing so because it’s unpleasant, even though the issue becomes worse the longer you delay solving it, and won’t go away on its own.
• Wanting to ask someone for something (like a romantic date), but postponing it every time you have an opportunity, even though you wish you could just ask and get it over with.
• Postponing choosing between two opportunities, until this indecision means that both opportunities are unavailable.

Finally, examples of procrastination also come from various people throughout history . For example, many famous authors regularly procrastinated on their writing, including J. K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, Hunter S. Thompson, and Douglas Adams. Furthermore, many other famous people also procrastinated regularly; for example, Mozart procrastinated on composing music, Frank Lloyd Wright procrastinated on designing houses, Steve Jobs procrastinated on work, and the Dalai Lama procrastinated on studying.

Prevalence of procrastination

Procrastination is a common phenomenon, which chronically affects around 20% of adults, including lawyers , business executives , and college professors . Furthermore, procrastination is particularly common among certain populations, like college students, around 50% of whom procrastinate chronically .

Dangers of procrastination

Procrastination is associated with various potential issues , including missed opportunities, worse academic performance ,  worse employment and financial status , increased interpersonal conflicts, worse emotional wellbeing ,  worse mental health ,  worse physical health , and a  tendency  to postpone  getting treatment  for one’s problems.

Signs of procrastination

The following are common signs of procrastination :

• Repeatedly saying things like “I’ll do it later” or “I’ll do it tomorrow”.
• Getting stuck in neutral even though you know how important it is to get started.
• Taking a long time to complete things that require little except sitting down and doing them.
• Postponing things you don’t want to do (e.g., boring or frustrating tasks).
• Struggling to get started even if you hate yourself for it.
• Waiting until the last minute before deadlines to get started.
• Putting off making decisions for too long.
• Constantly postponing improving your work habits, despite intending to do it.
• Promising yourself you’ll do something and then dragging your feet instead.
• Finding yourself performing tasks that you intended to do days before.
• Working on trivial things instead of what you should be doing.
• Always having excuses for not doing things on time.
• Delaying taking action even after you decide what to do.
• Wasting time repeatedly and being unable to do anything about it.
• Delaying even though you know that doing it hurts your performance or wellbeing.

The more of these signs you display, and the more frequently and seriously you do so, the more likely it is that you’re a procrastinator , and the more severe your procrastination likely is.

These signs can also be summarized into one key question: are you delaying when you shouldn’t? If the answer is “yes”, then that means that you’re likely procrastinating, especially if this delay hurts you in some way, like making you miss deadlines or feel bad.

Causes of procrastination

People procrastinate because their drive to delay is irrationally stronger than their drive to act . This happens when their self-control and motivation are weakened by issues like exhaustion, and are opposed by issues like fear .

Specifically, the drive to act represents how strongly people can push themselves to take action at the moment. It depends primarily on people’s self-control and motivation, which are influenced by various factors. For example, at any given moment, a person’s self-control can be influenced by how tired they are, while their motivation can be influenced by how long they’ll have to wait before being rewarded for taking action. Accordingly, issues like exhaustion and far-future outcomes can interfere with self-control and motivation, and consequently reduce people’s drive to act, as can issues like depression , ADHD , and low self-efficacy .

Conversely, the drive to delay represents how strongly people feel pushed to avoid taking action at the moment. It depends primarily on the desire to feel better in the short term , by avoiding negative emotions (e.g., fear of a certain task), and by increasing positive emotions (e.g., through digital entertainment ), a behavior described as “giving in to feel good”. This drive involves various issues, like anxiety and perfectionism , which people want to avoid in order to protect their emotions in the short term.

Accordingly, although procrastination often leads to issues in managing time , it’s driven primarily by issues with regulating emotions . In addition, procrastination is associated with akrasia , which is a state of mind where people act against their better judgment due to insufficient self-control.

Based on this psychological framework, the following are the key issues that can cause procrastination:

• Prioritization of short-term mood (i.e., preferring to feel better right now even if this will lead to feeling worse later).
• Task aversiveness (i.e., thinking a task is frustrating, boring, or unpleasant in another way).
• Anxiety and fear (e.g., due to concerns over being criticized ).
• Feeling overwhelmed (e.g., due to having so many things to do that it’s unclear where to start).
• Perfectionism (e.g., due to refusal to publish work that has any flaws).
• Disconnect from the future self (e.g., viewing the consequences of your delay as something that someone else will experience).
• Delayed outcomes (e.g., due to discounting of rewards that will only be given in the far future ).
• Low motivation (e.g., due to low-value outcomes , low expectancy of achieving outcomes , or difficulty in associating outcomes with tasks ).
• Expected effort (e.g., due to hard tasks).
• Inertia (i.e., the tendency to keep doing what you’re already doing).
• Abstract goals (i.e., ones that aren’t clearly defined).
• Cognitive biases (e.g., being unreasonably pessimistic about your odds of success).
• Time-management issues (e.g., failure to prioritize tasks ).
• Problematic traits (e.g., impulsivity and distractibility).
• Underlying behaviors (e.g., self-handicapping, sensation seeking, or rebelling against an authority figure).
• Underlying conditions (e.g., depression and ADHD ).
• Low energy (e.g., due to lack of sleep ).
• Low capacity for self-control (e.g., due to exhaustion).
• Problematic environment (e.g., one that’s filled with distractions or has negative peer influence).

The relationship between these issues and procrastination is complicated . For example, although some types of perfectionism and fear generally increase procrastination, other types generally decrease it (by increasing people’s motivation to act).

Furthermore, many of these issues are interrelated . For example, depression can cause lack of energy, which can exacerbate anxiety, which can increase task aversiveness. Similarly, the effect of anxiety on procrastination can be reduced by factors like high self-efficacy and mindfulness .

In addition, these issues can also cause repeating procrastination cycles . For example, this can happen when someone is anxious about a task, so they procrastinate on it, which causes them to do badly, which makes them more anxious about similar tasks, which makes them likely to procrastinate again for the same reason in the future.

Finally, note that people can procrastinate for different reasons . For example, one person might procrastinate due to anxiety, while someone else might procrastinate due to a combination of perfectionism and abstract goals. Furthermore, a person can procrastinate for different reasons at different times and under different circumstances, sometimes leading to differences in how they procrastinate too.

For more information about the causes of procrastination, see the guide on why people procrastinate .

Solutions to procrastination

To stop procrastinating right now , identify the smallest possible step you can take to make progress toward your goals, and try to start with just that tiny step, while giving yourself permission to make mistakes during the attempt. For example, if you need to write an essay, you can decide to start by writing just a single word, while accepting that it won’t be perfect, and might even be quite bad at first.

In addition, you can make it easier for yourself to get started first, for example by preparing your tools without yet trying to start working, and also make it harder to procrastinate, for example by removing distractions from your environment.

To overcome procrastination in the long term, do the following:

• Set specific and realistic goals. For example, if you want to start exercising, a good goal might be “be able to run a full mile by the end of the month”, while bad goals might be “do some running” (unspecific) and “run a marathon by the end of the month” (unrealistic).
• Assess your procrastination. First, identify cases in which you delay unnecessarily, to figure out what exactly you procrastinate on (e.g., studying) and  how you do it (e.g., by browsing social media ). Then, think about those situations to also figure out where and when you procrastinate (e.g., at home or the library, on starting or finishing tasks, in the morning or evening). Finally, figure out why you procrastinate (e.g., due to perfectionism , fear , anxiety , depression , ADHD , sensation seeking , or abstract goals ), potentially after reading about why people procrastinate .
• Create an action plan.  It should involve using relevant anti-procrastination techniques, which account for the goals that you set and the nature of your procrastination problem.
• Implement your plan. Make sure to reflect on your progress and refine your approach, primarily by figuring out which techniques work for you and how you can implement them most effectively.

The following are key anti-procrastination techniques you can use :

• Break tasks into manageable steps (e.g., into sub-tasks that you can easily complete).
• Commit to a tiny first step (e.g., to working for just 2 minutes).
• Give yourself permission to make mistakes (e.g., by accepting that your work won’t be perfect).
• Make it easier to do things (e.g., by preparing everything you need in advance).
• Make tasks more enjoyable (e.g., by listening to music while you do them).
• Make it harder to procrastinate (e.g., by removing potential distractions).
• Delay before indulging the impulse to procrastinate (e.g., by counting to 10 first).
• Set deadlines (e.g., by deciding that you’ll complete a certain task by noon tomorrow).
• Plan how you’ll handle obstacles (e.g., by deciding that if X happens, then you’ll do Y).
• Identify and address your fears (e.g., by considering what advice you’d give to a friend).
• Increase your motivation (e.g., by marking streaks of days on which you achieve your goals).
• Increase your energy (e.g., by taking necessary breaks).
• Improve your environment (e.g., by adding reminders of your goals).
• Use social techniques (e.g., by emulating a role model).
• Use time-management techniques (e.g., by alternating consistently between work and rest).
• Create starting rituals (e.g., by counting down from five before taking action).
• Start with your best or worst task (e.g., with your easiest or hardest one).
• Develop self-efficacy (e.g., by reflecting on your successes).
• Develop self-compassion (e.g., by reminding yourself that everyone makes mistakes).
• Treat underlying conditions (e.g., ADHD).

For more information about these techniques and how to use them effectively, see the guide on how to stop procrastinating .

You can use any combination of techniques that you want , but should start by focusing on a few that seem most relevant to you given your specific situation .

You’ll likely benefit from writing things down , such as your goals and plan. This can have various benefits, like helping you think more clearly and making your decisions feel more concrete.

You can use a similar approach as an intervention to help someone else stop procrastinating , by doing the above on their behalf, doing it together with them, or encouraging them to do it themselves.

Finally, remember that imperfect action is generally better than no action , so you’ll benefit more from trying to do just a bit of the above, than from getting stuck doing nothing at all. Also, the longer you delay, the more likely you are to do nothing, so you should start right now, while understanding that you’ll probably get some things wrong at first, but that you’ll be able to improve your approach over time. If you feel overwhelmed , just start with the first technique in this section (committing to a tiny step), until you feel ready to do more.