student procrastination essay

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.

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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.

Procrastination Essay

500+ words procrastination essay.

Procrastination is a tendency, attitude or behavioural trait of a person lacking willpower and vitality to do work. Most people have a tendency to not complete their work, and leave it for some other time. When people procrastinate, instead of working on important meaningful tasks, they find themselves performing trivial activities. They spend their time watching TV, playing video games, checking Facebook, obsessively cleaning, pacing back and forth through the office, or maybe just sitting and staring at a wall. Afterwards, they feel powerless and are overcome with feelings of guilt and frustration. They often end up doing nothing. So, the habit of procrastination is very harmful as it wastes so much time. This Procrastination Essay will help in understanding the meaning of procrastination, its effect on students’ lives and ways to overcome procrastination. So, students must go through it and take ideas which help them write an effective essay on this topic. Moreover, they can also get the list of CBSE Essays on different topics for their practice. It will help them to participate in various essay writing competitions.

What is Procrastination?

Procrastination is the tendency to delay an intended action or decision. It is defined as the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort. The illusory idea underlying procrastination is a feeling that ‘later is better. This is also the common reason behind the ‘tomorrow’ outlook on life, which forces people to postpone everything for a ‘tomorrow’ that never comes. When the next day dawns, the pattern resurfaces, and procrastinators excuse themselves by promising again that ‘I will do it tomorrow. Hence, procrastination is seen as a ‘tomorrow syndrome’.

Effect of Procrastination on Students’ Life

Since the dawn of time, people have suffered from procrastination. It is a serious problem, especially among students. Most of the students put off their homework and studies for later, thinking that they have plenty of time to get it done. However, the work gets delayed and results in compromising the quality of education. Research has shown that it takes more time to complete a task when a student allows his focus to drift and the task becomes more difficult for him.

Some students waste up to one-third of their time procrastinating. Procrastination can take many forms. For example, a student has a paper due on Monday morning, but he went skiing with friends all weekend instead of studying. When students procrastinate, then they always have the excuse of “not having enough” time. The reasons for delaying and avoiding tasks for students are rooted in fear and anxiety. This fear is about doing poor, losing control, looking stupid, and having one’s sense of self or self-concept challenged. They avoid doing work to avoid their abilities being judged. So, what can students do to overcome their tendencies to procrastinate? Below are a few tips and methods that can help them.

Tips and Methods to Overcome Procrastination

There are many ways to break the vicious circle of procrastination. A good first step to overcoming procrastination is to identify distractions and their possible solutions. Another is to finish the work in the allocated time. If a task seems too big or overwhelming, break it down into a series of smaller, more achievable tasks or steps that will add up to completing the job. Concentrate on taking the first step, then the next, until you complete the full journey. Whenever students find themselves procrastinating, they should think about the good things that will happen when they stop procrastinating. Set specific dates and times to begin or continue the work. Put up notes or reminders in prominent places like the fridge or a mirror, to remind them that work needs to be done.

It is difficult to leave a bad habit. It also takes time and can’t be done overnight. So, don’t expect from yourself that you will suddenly break up with your procrastinating behaviour. Be realistic and figure out the strategies that work best for you. Practise them, notice small improvements in procrastinating behaviour and reward yourself. There is no quick fix for procrastination – it takes time and effort, and surely, no one else can fix it for you.

Students must have found “Procrastination Essay” useful for improving their essay writing skills. Visit BYJU’S website to get the latest updates and study material on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams, at BYJU’S.

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Solving Procrastination

Student Procrastination: Why Students Procrastinate and How to Stop It

Student procrastination is a common problem, which occurs when students unnecessarily postpone working on school tasks, like studying or writing. It affects students at all levels, and can cause serious issues, like worse grades and lower wellbeing. It’s also a complicated problem, since different students procrastinate for different reasons, and can therefore benefit from different solutions when it comes to overcoming their procrastination.

The following article provides a comprehensive and practical guide to the problem of student procrastination. Its goals are to first help you understand why students procrastinate, and then show you what students can do in order to stop procrastinating and start studying. This will be beneficial whether you’re a student yourself, or someone like a parent or a teacher, who wants to help students overcome their procrastination.

Examples of student procrastination

An example of student procrastination is a student who needs to sit down and finish their homework, but instead wastes time on the internet all day and only starts working late at night, even though they wish they could have gotten started earlier.

In addition, other examples of student procrastination are the following:

• A high-school student who puts off studying for a test for several hours, by browsing social media instead.
• An undergraduate university student who postpones writing a class paper for weeks until right before the deadline , by watching TV, playing games, and going out instead.
• A graduate student who postpones working on a large research project or dissertation for an entire semester, by continually putting it off to a later date, while working on small and unimportant tasks instead.

Finally, although the concept of student procrastination is mainly associated with procrastination on academic tasks, students can also procrastinate on other types of tasks , like exercising or cleaning their room.

Prevalence of student procrastination

Procrastination is very common among students. For example, studies show that approximately 50% of college students say that they procrastinate in a consistent and problematic manner, approximately 75% consider themselves to be procrastinators, and approximately 80%–95% procrastinate to some degree.

Furthermore, research shows that procrastination is common among other student populations , including students in elementary school , middle school , high school , and graduate school . In fact, it’s so common among students that the tendency to procrastinate on tasks until right before they’re due is sometimes called the student syndrome .

Dangers of student procrastination

Procrastination can cause various issues for students, by negatively affecting their time management, academic performance, emotional wellbeing, and mental and physical health:

• In terms of time management , procrastination can take up a considerable amount of time, and students often report that procrastination occupies over a third of their daily activities, usually in the form of behaviors such as sleeping, watching TV, or playing games. It can also cause them to experience other time-management issues, such as missing important deadlines, or rushing to complete assignments without enough time.
• In terms of  academic performance , procrastination can lead to various issues , including worse exam scores, worse grades, more course failures, and more course withdrawals. Many of these issues can be attributed to issues that procrastination causes in terms of time management. For example, if students fail to manage their time by continually putting off studying for an important test, they will likely end up unprepared, and therefore earn a worse grade than they could have earned if they didn’t procrastinate.
• In terms of  emotional wellbeing and mental/physical health , procrastination can cause  issues like increased stress  and increased rates of illness . Many of these issues are associated with the issues that students experience in terms of their time management and academic performance. For example, if a student submits an assignment late due to procrastination and ends up receiving a bad grade, then they might feel anxiety, guilt, and stress over their behavior.

Given this, and given how common procrastination is, it’s unsurprising that many students say that procrastination is always or nearly always a problem for them when it comes to various academic tasks (e.g., writing papers and studying for exams), and that they want to reduce their procrastination on those tasks.

In addition, procrastination can also cause serious issues for students once they leave academia and enter the job market, since many of the above issues extend to adults outside academia, and since procrastination is associated with further issues, such as lower salaries, shorter periods of employment, a higher likelihood of unemployment, and lower financial success in general.

Why students procrastinate

Students procrastinate because issues like exhaustion and anxiety outweigh their self-control and motivation. These issues include personal factors, like fear and perfectionism, and situational factors, like distractions and unclear instructions.

Specifically, when students need to study or work on assignments, they rely primarily on their self-control in order to get themselves to do it. Furthermore, their self-control is sometimes supported by their motivation, which helps them do things in a timely manner.

However, in some cases, students suffer from various issues that interfere with or oppose their self-control and motivation, such as exhaustion and anxiety . When these issues are stronger than their self-control and motivation, they end up procrastinating, until they reach a point where the balance between these factors shifts in the students’ favor, or until it becomes too late.

This explains why many students procrastinate in a chronic manner even when they have the necessary motivation and truly want to study and get their work done. This also explains why many students always procrastinate on academic work until right before the deadline, at which point the increased motivation, often in the form of stressful pressure, finally pushes them to start studying or to start working on their assignments.

Accordingly, common reasons why students procrastinate include the following :

• Abstract goals , generally in terms of being vague about when and how the students intend to study or do their work.
• Feeling overwhelmed , often while being unsure of how to deal with the academic task at hand.
• Perfectionism , generally in the form of refusing to create work that has any flaws.
• Fear of failure , often due to concerns over how failure might reflect on the student’s abilities and skills, either in their eyes or in the eyes of others.
• Anxiety , often in light of potential negative feedback.
• Task aversion , especially in cases where the students find an assignment boring or unpleasant.
• Lack of motivation , often as a result of not caring about academic performance, feeling disconnected from their future self, or having rewards that are too far in the future.
• Physical or mental exhaustion , often due to a combination of reasons, such as a high academic workload together with lack of sleep.
• Resentment , generally toward the studying or assignments directly, toward their source, or toward something related, such as a parent pushing the student to do well in a subject that they’re not interested in.
• Sensation seeking , generally in the form of enjoying working on things right before the deadline, when there’s intense time pressure that can make otherwise boring assignments more challenging and exciting.
• Problematic work environment , generally as a result of having many distractions or temptations around.
• Lack of sufficient communication from instructors, for example when it comes to not having clear directions and due dates for a certain class project.

Other common causes of student procrastination include behaviors such as self-handicapping , which involves procrastinating so that if the student fails then they can blame their failure on procrastination rather than on their abilities, and self-sabotaging , which involves procrastinating as a result of a tendency to hinder one’s progress.

Furthermore, certain personality traits , such as distractibility and impulsivity , are associated with the tendency to procrastinate, meaning that people who are naturally high in these traits are more likely to procrastinate.

Finally, there are also some underlying issues that can lead to procrastination, like ADHD , depression , and lack of sleep .

Overall, students procrastinate because issues such as exhaustion and anxiety outweigh their self-control and motivation. Common issues that lead to student procrastination include abstract goals, feeling overwhelmed, perfectionism, fear of failure, task aversion, resentment, a problematic work environment, and sensation seeking.

How to stop procrastinating on studying

To stop procrastinating on your studying or schoolwork right now , you should identify the smallest possible thing you can do to make progress on it, and then modify your environment to make it as likely as possible that you will do it.

For example, if you need to study for an exam, the smallest possible step that you can take toward doing this might be to open your notes and go over just the first paragraph that you have written down. Once you realize that this is all you need to do, you can start modifying your study environment to help yourself achieve this, for example by going to a room with no distractions and leaving your phone outside.

There are many other anti-procrastination techniques you can use as a student. Start by trying a few of them that seem relevant based on factors like your circumstances and the specific causes of your procrastination. Over time, you can modify which techniques you use and how you use them, based on how they work for you.

Improve your planning:

• Set concrete goals for yourself. For example, instead of a vague goal, such as “study for my upcoming exam”, set a concrete goal, such as “on the week of my upcoming exam, go to the library every day after I finish my last class for the day, and spend at least 2 hours studying”.
• Break your tasks into small and manageable steps. For example, if you need to write an essay, you can start with steps such as figuring out the title, creating a rough outline, and finding five appropriate academic sources. Note that if the project in question is large, then you generally shouldn’t worry about figuring out all the steps to it from the start. Instead, start by identifying only the first few steps that you need to take, and then identify new steps as you make progress, to avoid feeling overwhelmed or getting stuck.
• Set intermediate milestones and deadlines for yourself. If your instructor hasn’t done this already, or if they’ve only set a single major deadline at the end, setting scaffolded intermediate milestones and deadlines for yourself will help you plan ahead, be accountable, and feel more motivated to make continuous progress.
• Identify your productivity cycles. Students vary in terms of when they’re most productive; for example, some work best in the morning, while others are more focused at night. You should take this into account, and schedule your study and work to times of day when you’re least likely to procrastinate.

Improve your environment:

• Change your environment to make it harder for yourself to procrastinate. For example, if you tend to procrastinate on writing essays because you keep browsing social media , turn off your internet connection on your computer before you get to work.
• Change your environment to make it easier for yourself to get started. For example, if you know that you’ll need to study for an exam tomorrow morning, organize all the relevant study material on your desk or in your bag before you go to bed.
• Change your environment to make it easier for you to keep going. For example, if you know that you’re likely to lose concentration if you get distracted while studying, go study in a quiet room and leave your phone outside.

Change your approach:

• Start with a tiny step. For example, if you need to write an essay, help yourself get started by committing to only write a single sentence at first. This can help you push yourself to get started on tasks, and often, once you do so, you’ll find it easy to keep going.
• Start with the best or worst part first. Some students find that starting with the most enjoyable or easiest part of an assignment helps them get going, while others find that getting the worst part out of the way first helps them avoid procrastinating over time. You can use either approach if you find that it works well for you.
• Add a time delay before you procrastinate. If you can’t avoid procrastinating entirely, try committing to having a time delay before you indulge your impulse to do so. For example, this can involve counting to 10 before you’re allowed to open a new tab on the social media website that you usually use to procrastinate.
• Use the Pomodoro technique. This involves alternating between scheduled periods of study and rest. For example, you can study for 25-minute long stretches, with 5-minute breaks in between, and a longer 30-minute break after every 4 study sets that you complete.

Increase your motivation:

• Make studying feel more rewarding. For example, you can gamify your studying, by marking down streaks of days on which you’ve managed to achieve your study goals, and potentially also giving yourself some reward once you reach a sufficiently long streak.
• Make studying feel more enjoyable. For example, if studying in your room is uncomfortable, try going somewhere more pleasant, such as the library.
• Visualize your future self. For example, you can visualize yourself being able to relax after finishing an assignment, visualize yourself being rewarded for getting a good grade, or visualize yourself having to handle the issues associated with not studying enough.
• Focus on your goals instead of on your tasks. For example, if you need to work on an assignment that you find boring, then instead of focusing on the assignment, try thinking about your academic goals and about the reason why you want to do well on that assignment, such as that you want to get a good grade in the class so you can have a stronger college application.

Change your mindset:

• Give yourself permission to make mistakes. For example, if you’re working on an assignment, accept the fact that your work likely won’t be perfect , especially at first. Furthermore, you can decide to start by just getting some initial answers written down, and then go over your work at the end to check if you need to make corrections.
• Address your fears. If you’re procrastinating because you’re afraid of something, try to identify your fears and resolve them. For example, if you’re afraid that your writing won’t be good enough, you can say to yourself that your goal is to just start by getting something written down, and that you can always improve it later.
• Develop self-compassion.   Self-compassion can help reduce your procrastination, as well as various issues that are associated with it, such as stress. It consists of three components that you should promote: self-kindness , which involves being nice to yourself, common humanity , which involves recognizing that everyone experiences challenges, and mindfulness , which involves accepting your emotions in a non-judgmental manner.
• Develop self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in your ability to perform the actions needed to achieve your goals. It can help you reduce your procrastination, as well as associated issues, such as anxiety. To develop self-efficacy, try to identify the various strategies that you can use to successfully study and complete your assignments, and think about your ability to execute those strategies successfully.

You’ll probably need to use multiple techniques in order to reduce your procrastination, but even just a few should help. Start with just a few techniques initially, to avoid getting overwhelmed, and then you can add more techniques over time, based on your progress.

If you suffer from an underlying issue that causes procrastination, such as ADHD , depression , or lack of sleep , you will likely need to resolve that issue first, using professional help if necessary, in order to successfully overcome your procrastination.

Overall, to stop procrastinating on your schoolwork, you should identify the smallest possible thing you can do to make progress on it, and then modify your environment to make it as likely as possible that you will do it. In the long term, you should also figure out the causes of your procrastination, and use relevant anti-procrastination techniques, like setting concrete goals, breaking tasks into manageable steps, and giving yourself permission to make mistakes.

How to help students stop procrastinating

When it comes to helping students overcome their procrastination, for example if you’re a teacher or a parent, there are three main approaches that you can use:

• An externally led approach. This involves using relevant anti-procrastination techniques to reduce students’ procrastination, without actively involving them in the process. For example, this can involve setting a series of intermediate project deadlines for all students in a course.
• A student-led approach. This involves letting students overcome their procrastination with little to no external guidance. External guidance in this case might include something as minimal as mentioning the problem of procrastination and telling students about a relevant resource such as this article.
• A joint approach. This involves giving students external guidance while also encouraging them to take an active role in their attempts to stop procrastinating. For example, this can involve going over relevant anti-procrastination techniques with students, and helping them choose and implement their preferred ones.

None of these approaches is inherently superior to the others. Accordingly, you should decide which one to use based on factors such as the number of students that you’re trying to help and the type of relationship that you have with them. For example, if you’re a teacher trying to help 200 students in a college course you will likely need to use a different approach than if you’re a parent trying to help just your kid.

Almost any type of relationship can be beneficial when it comes to helping a student overcome their procrastination. For example, if you’re a teacher, you’re likely in a good position in terms of your influence over the student’s academic situation. On the other hand, if you’re a parent, you’re likely in a good position in terms of your influence over the student’s home life.

Furthermore, you can reach out to other stakeholders who can help. For example, if you’re a teacher, and you think that a student’s parents might be able to help them stop procrastinating, you can reach out to them and discuss the situation.

In addition, an important factor to keep in mind is how independent the students in question are. In general, the more independent students are, the more they should be involved in the process of overcoming their procrastination, since this can increase their motivation and make the process more effective, while generally leading to more self-development and growth over time. This also raises the importance of giving students a sense of control, even if you’re the one guiding the process, which can be especially crucial when it comes to avoiding procrastination that’s rooted in issues such as resentment, rebellion, or lack of self-confidence.

Finally, the following is a list of specific things that you can do to help students stop procrastinating:

• Explain to the students what procrastination is and what it looks like, and help them understand that they engage in it themselves.
• Show the students why procrastination can be dangerous, when it comes to factors such as their academic performance, their career prospects, and their mental and physical health.
• Explain to the students what causes procrastination, and help them identify the causes of their own procrastination.
• Point students in the direction of resources that can help them deal with their procrastination, such as this article.
• Tell the student about relevant anti-procrastination techniques —which are listed in the previous section—and help them pick their preferred ones.
• Implement the previously mentioned anti-procrastination techniques on behalf of the students, for example by breaking apart large tasks into manageable steps and setting intermediate deadlines for each.

Overall, you can help students overcome their procrastination in various ways, such as by helping them understand that they’re procrastinating in a problematic manner, helping them identify the causes of their procrastination, and helping them choose and implement relevant anti-procrastination techniques. The specific approach that you should use depends on factors such as how autonomous the students in question are, how many students you’re trying to help, and what kind of relationship you have with them.

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3 Reasons Students Procrastinate—and How to Help Them Stop

Psychologists have uncovered reasons why students put off important work. But there are a few simple things teachers can do to keep students on track.

Leonardo da Vinci spent nearly 16 years painting the Mona Lisa —and never completed it . The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams famously wrote , “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” And Frank Lloyd Wright spent a mere two hours designing Fallingwater —after delaying for nine months.

“Procrastination is extremely prevalent,” Piers Steel, a business professor at the University of Calgary, noted in a 2007 study . “Estimates indicate that 80 to 95 percent of college students engage in procrastination, approximately 75 percent consider themselves procrastinators, and almost 50 percent procrastinate consistently and problematically.”

If you’re a middle or high school teacher, it’s likely that you have procrastinators in your class—students who consistently wait until the last minute to turn in their assignments, or put off studying until the night before a test. This delaying has a cost: A 2015 study found that the longer business school students waited to turn in an assignment, the worse their grades were, with last-minute hand-ins costing them five percentage points on average, or half a grade. And a 2015 meta-analysis confirmed this result, finding that procrastination was associated with lower grades across 33 studies that included over 38,000 students (most of whom were in college). Even worse, medical research has linked procrastination to higher levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and fatigue.

It’s a common perception that students who procrastinate do so because they don’t care about the assignment—and that’s usually wrong, argued Devon Price, a social psychology professor at Loyola University, in 2018. More often than not, the underlying reasons for procrastination fall under two categories: fear of failure or confusion about the first steps of an assignment.

“Procrastination is more likely when the task is meaningful and the individual cares about doing it well,” Price explained. Procrastinators can stare at a screen or book for hours, paralyzed by fear. At that point, the best solution is to take a short break and engage in a relaxing activity.

Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University and leading expert on procrastination, has performed several studies on why students put off important work. In a groundbreaking 1989 study , Ferrari found that college students often procrastinated because of indecision: They spent too much time worrying about whether they were doing an assignment correctly, prolonging the time they spent on even simple tasks. For these students, procrastination was a coping mechanism to avoid stressful experiences.

“It is very helpful and useful to gather information to make an informed decision, but when one simply continues to gather beyond the point of adequate resources, then they are being indecisive and the waiting is counterproductive,” Ferrari told an interviewer in 2010 .

In a follow-up study , Ferrari found another reason why some students procrastinate: fear of criticism. He discovered that many college students engaged in self-sabotage because they could then blame low grades on the deadlines rather than their own abilities. These students preferred to “choose situations in which their public image would not be damaged by poor performance.” Once again, procrastination was a coping mechanism—in this case, to protect the students’ self-esteem and perceptions of their identity.

Ferrari discovered yet another, very different, motive for procrastination in a 1992 study . Some college students delayed starting on an assignment because they enjoyed the perceived thrill of working against a deadline. Putting assignments off until the last minute was a way of “adding drama to life,” giving these students a rush of adrenaline.

Indecisiveness, avoidance, and thrill-seeking are thus more likely explanations for procrastination than laziness or lack of motivation. So what can teachers do? Here are some suggestions.

5 Ways to Encourage Students Not to Procrastinate

1. Spread deadlines out. Researchers have investigated the impact of three types of deadlines for a series of tasks: evenly spaced, self-imposed, or a single, final deadline. In the first experiment, students were assigned three papers and were asked to either turn one in at the end of each month, choose their own deadlines, or submit all three papers by the end of the course. In the second experiment, students were given a task—to proofread three passages—and submitted their assignments weekly, at their own self-chosen pace, or all at once. In both experiments, evenly spaced deadlines not only yielded better student work but also decreased the chances that students would miss their deadlines.

The takeaway for teachers? Instead of giving students a big project with a single deadline, break it into smaller tasks with evenly spaced out deadlines. Ask for multiple drafts of a paper, for example. In a project-based learning unit, have students present their progress at specified checkpoints. This can be especially helpful for students who are paralyzed by large projects—by making each part more manageable, you can reduce the anxiety associated with intimidating deadlines.

2. Provide supportive feedback. Students with low self-esteem may be reluctant to put forth their best work if they’re worried about criticism or afraid of failing. Avoid giving highly critical or negative feedback, which may have the unintended consequence of making students feel nervous or self-conscious. Students may also respond poorly to feedback that feels controlling, so avoid being too explicit about what needs to be corrected. Finally, be cautious about giving feedback to students in front of their peers—they may feel uncomfortable and become disengaged.

3. Teach time management and study skills. A 2017 study found that many students lack the metacognitive skills they need to be able to study effectively, such as the ability to schedule ample time for studying or knowing when to ask for help. Many study participants were surprised when their initial scores were lower than they had expected—they did not have an accurate sense of how well prepared they were. They were then encouraged to plan ahead for an upcoming test, and were shown examples of how they could prepare. The results were significant: Compared to their peers, the students who participated in the metacognitive activities scored a third of a letter grade higher, on average.

4. Be mindful of workload. According to a 2015 study , the likelihood that students will turn in late work increases when deadlines for different projects coincide—something that can easily happen in middle and high school, when students have multiple teachers. Students also experience higher stress levels if they can’t manage multiple assignments that are due at the same time. Consider coordinating with other teachers to spread out major deadlines.

And when students face adversity that impacts their ability to finish assignments on time, such as taking care of a family member or having to financially support their family, being flexible about deadlines can help them stay on track.

5. Have clear instructions and examples. Students are more likely to put off a project if they don’t understand how to start. Ensure that all students know your expectations and the requirements of the assignment—it’s best to put instructions in writing so that students can refer to them as needed. You can also use exemplars , such as examples of past student work, to help them better understand what the assignment is.

McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning

Understanding and overcoming procrastination.

Classroom Resources for Addressing Procrastination, by Dominic J. Voge Source: Research and Teaching in Developmental Education excerpted from Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring 2007), pp. 88-96

Why do so many people procrastinate and how do you overcome it?

For most people procrastination, irrespective of what they say, is NOT about being lazy. In fact, when we procrastinate we often work intensely for long stretches just before our deadlines. Working long and hard is the opposite of lazy, so that can't be the reason we do it. So, why do we procrastinate and, more importantly, what can we do about it?

As suggested above, some say they procrastinate because they are lazy. Others claim they "do better" when they procrastinate and "work best" under pressure. I encourage you to be critical and reflective of these explanations. Virtually everyone who says this habitually procrastinates and has not completed an important academic task in which they made a plan, implemented it, had time to review, etc. before their deadline. So, in reality, they can't make a comparison about the circumstances they work best under. If you pretty much always procrastinate, and never really approach your tasks systematically, then you can't accurately say that you know you "do better" under pressure. Still other people say they like the "rush" of leaving things to the end and meeting a deadline. But they usually say this when they are NOT working under that deadline. They say this works before or after cramming when they have forgotten the negative consequences of procrastinating such as feelings of anxiety and stress, fatigue, and disappointment from falling below their own standards and having to put their life on hold for chunks of time. Not to mention, leaving things to the end dramatically increases the chances something will go wrong - like getting sick or a computer problem - and you not being able to pull off the desired grade. So, procrastination can be hard on us and actually increase our chances of failing, but we do it anyway. How come?

Procrastination is not a matter, solely, of having poor time management skills, either, but rather can be traced to underlying and more complex psychological reasons. These dynamics are often made worse by schools where students are constantly being evaluated, and especially in college where the pressure for grades is high and a lot can be riding on students' performance. In reality, procrastination is often a self-protection strategy for students. For example, if you procrastinate, then you always have the excuse of "not having enough" time in the event that you fail, so your sense of your ability is never threatened. When there is so much pressure on getting a good grade on, say, a paper, it's no wonder that students want to avoid it and so put off their work. For the most part, our reasons for delaying and avoiding are rooted in fear and anxiety-about doing poorly, of doing too well, of losing control, of looking stupid, of having one's sense of self or self-concept challenged. We avoid doing work to avoid our abilities being judged. And, if we happened to succeed, we feel that much "smarter." So, what can we do to overcome our tendencies to procrastinate?

Awareness: The First Step

First, to overcome procrastination you need to have an understanding of the REASONS WHY you procrastinate and the function procrastination serves in your life. You can't come up with an effective solution if you don't really understand the root of the problem. As with most problems, awareness and self-knowledge are the keys to figuring out how to stop procrastinating. For a lot of people acquiring this insight about how procrastination protects them from feeling like they are not able enough, and keeping it in mind when they are tempted to fall into familiar, unproductive, procrastinating habits goes a long way to solving the problem. For instance, two psychologists, Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen, who have helped many people overcome procrastination, report in their article, "Mind Games Procrastinators Play" (Psychology Today, January, 1982), that for many students "understanding the hidden roots of procrastination often seems to weaken them" (p.33). Just knowing our true reasons for procrastinating makes it easier to stop.

Time Management Techniques: One Piece of the Puzzle

To overcome procrastination time management techniques and tools are indispensable, but they are not enough by themselves. And, not all methods of managing time are equally helpful in dealing with procrastination. There are some time management techniques that are well suited to overcoming procrastination and others that can make it worse. Those that reduce anxiety and fear and emphasize the satisfaction and rewards of completing tasks work best. Those that arc inflexible, emphasize the magnitude of tasks and increase anxiety can actually increase procrastination and are thus counter-productive. For instance, making a huge list of "things to do" or scheduling every minute of your day may INCREASE your stress and thus procrastination. Instead, set reasonable goals (e.g. a manageable list of things to do), break big tasks down, and give yourself flexibility and allot time to things you enjoy as rewards for work completed.

Motivation: Finding Productive Reasons for Engaging in Tasks

To overcome procrastination it's critical that you stay motivated for PRODUCTIVE REASONS. By productive reasons I mean reasons for learning and achieving that lead to positive, productive, satisfying feelings and actions. These reasons are in contrast to engaging in a task out of fear of failing, or not making your parents angry, or not looking stupid, or doing better than other people to "show off." While these are all reasons - often very powerful ones - for doing something, they are not productive since they evoke maladaptive, often negative feelings and actions. For example, if you are concerned with not looking dumb you may not ask questions, delve into new areas, try new methods, or take the risks necessary to learn new things and reach new heights. A good way to put positive motives in motion is to set and focus on your goals. Identify and write down your own personal reasons for enrolling in a course and monitor your progress toward your goals using a goal-setting chart. Remember to focus on your reasons and your goals. Other people's goals for you are not goals at all, but obligations.

Staying Motivated: Be Active to be Engaged

Another key to overcoming procrastination is to stay actively engaged in your classes. If you are passive in class you're probably not "getting into" the course and its topics, and that weakens your motivation. What's more, if you are passive you are probably not making as much sense out of the course and course materials as you could. Nonsense and confusion are not engaging; in fact, they are boring and frustrating. We don't often want to do things that are boring or frustrating. Prevent that by aiming to really understand course material, not memorize it or just "get through it." Instead, try (1) seeking out what is interesting and relevant to you in the course materials, (2) setting your own purpose for every reading and class session, and (3) asking yourself (and others) questions about what you are learning.

Summary of Tips for Overcoming Procrastination

Awareness – Reflect on the reasons why you procrastinate, your habits and thoughts that lead to procrastinating.

Assess – What feelings lead to procrastinating, and how does it make you feel? Are these positive, productive feelings: do you want to change them?

Outlook – Alter your perspective. Looking at a big task in terms of smaller pieces makes it less intimidating. Look for what's appealing about, or what you want to get out of an assignment beyond just the grade.

Commit – If you feel stuck, start simply by committing to complete a small task, any task, and write it down. Finish it and reward yourself. Write down on your schedule or "to do" list only what you can completely commit to, and if you write it down, follow through no matter what. By doing so you will slowly rebuild trust in yourself that you will really do what you say you will, which so many procrastinators have lost.

Surroundings – When doing school work, choose wisely where and with whom you are working. Repeatedly placing yourself in situations where you don't get much done - such as "studying" in your bed, at a cafe or with friends - can actually be a kind of procrastination, a method of avoiding work.

Goals – Focus on what you want to do, not what you want to avoid. Think about the productive reasons for doing a task by setting positive, concrete, meaningful learning and achievement goals for yourself.

Be Realistic – Achieving goals and changing habits takes time and effort; don't sabotage yourself by having unrealistic expectations that you cannot meet.

Self-talk – Notice how you are thinking, and talking to yourself. Talk to yourself in ways that remind you of your goals and replace old, counter-productive habits of self-talk. Instead of saying, "I wish I hadn't... " say, "I will ..."

Un-schedule – If you feel stuck, you probably won't use a schedule that is a constant reminder of all that you have to do and is all work and no play. So, make a largely unstructured, flexible schedule in which you slot in only what is necessary. Keep track of any time you spend working toward your goals and reward yourself for it. This can reduce feelings of being overwhelmed and increase satisfaction in what you get done. For more see the book Procrastination by Yuen and Burka.

Swiss Cheese It – Breaking down big tasks into little ones is a good approach. A variation on this is devoting short chunks of time to a big task and doing as much as you can in that time with few expectations about what you will get done. For example, try spending about ten minutes just jotting down ideas that come to mind on the topic of a paper, or skimming over a long reading to get just the main ideas. After doing this several times on a big task, you will have made some progress on it, you'll have some momentum, you'll have less work to do to complete the task, and it won't seem so huge because you've punched holes in it (like Swiss cheese). In short, it'll be easier to complete the task because you've gotten started and removed some of the obstacles to finishing.

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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Student Struggles: Battling with Procrastination

The word “procrastination” was derived from Latin's "procrastinare ", that translates into: the prefix pro-, 'forward', and the suffix - crastinus , meaning 'till next day'.

So, procrastination etymologically means putting off something until tomorrow, a tomorrow that is usually less defined. Every student one time or another has been a victim of procrastination, that urge to eschew studying and postpone writing those essays for another day.

An American study in 2004 claims that no less than 70% of college students are chronic procrastinators. At such times, I prefer to do the laundry, some cleaning or cooking, or any other thing apart from putting a pen on paper! This is called trivialisation: pretending that procrastinatory behaviour is not actually procrastinating, but rather a task which is more important than the avoided one.

Since procrastination has been denounced a student’s worst enemy, it is therefore important to know some of its causes and how to manage them:

Distractions Distractions have been identified as one of the major causes of procrastination among students. The internet which remains one of man’s greatest inventions has also become one of man’s biggest distractions. Social media pervades our daily lives and often robs us of that precious study time. Videos games, TV and even bantering with friends can lead to us postponing school work.

Draw up a study schedule and develop the will to stick to it. You can switch off your Wifi, television and other potential sources of distraction for some time with the strong resolve to get some academic work done. It's high time we left Facebook for a few hours and faced our books. Sorry Zuckerberg!

Perfectionism and Fear of Failure

The fear of failure and not doing well in an assignment can paralyse some students and can put them off their work. Having no clue how to start writing an essay is often a good excuse to put it off until some kind of inspiration comes or until “the time is right”.

Instead of just waiting for the Muses to inspire us, we can break down our assignments into smaller steps; for a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Take the first step - consult your professor and classmates about your difficulties. They can help you onto the right track. There is no such thing as a perfect essay, but beginning in time gives you the opportunity to revaluate your work and make it stronger. The last-minute rush won't help much.

Lack of motivation is among the greatest causes of procrastination. At times, the reason we choose to do something else or do nothing at all instead of studying is because we lack interest in it. It is therefore important to revive this interest.

It’s a good idea to listen to motivational talks and stories of great people throughout history, especially our personal heroes and mentors. It is also useful to recount those moments to overcome obstacles and challenges. Reflecting on our academic journey so far can fill us with a sense of achievement and the hunger to do more.

Remember the big things you plan to achieve with this degree and the sacrifices you have made so far. Emphasise your strengths and surround yourself with those who encourage you to work hard. Join study groups and discuss academic subjects with friends. Be your greatest fan and cheer yourself to victory. And remember that the best time to begin that assignment is now.

Photo and words by LSE Social Media Ambassador Victor Agboga.

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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Essay on Procrastination

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100 Words Essay on Procrastination

Understanding procrastination.

Procrastination is when you delay or postpone tasks. It’s a common issue among students. It often leads to stress, as tasks pile up.

Why We Procrastinate

Effects of procrastination.

Procrastination can lead to poor grades, stress, and a lack of self-confidence. It can also create a cycle of delaying tasks.

Overcoming Procrastination

To overcome procrastination, break tasks into smaller parts. Also, set deadlines and rewards for completing tasks. It’s important to start tasks early.

250 Words Essay on Procrastination

Procrastination, a ubiquitous phenomenon, is the act of delaying or postponing tasks. This habit, often perceived as harmless, can lead to detrimental impacts on productivity, mental health, and overall life satisfaction.

The Psychology Behind Procrastination

Psychologically, procrastination is not merely a lack of time management or laziness, but a complex interplay of fear, anxiety, and perfectionism. Individuals procrastinate due to the fear of failure, the anxiety of the unknown, or the desire to perfect a task, which can lead to a paralysis of action. This cognitive dissonance between the ideal self and the actual self fuels the cycle of procrastination.

Consequences of Procrastination

Procrastination can lead to a plethora of negative outcomes. It often results in poor performance, as tasks completed in haste lack quality. Moreover, it can cause stress, guilt, and a decrease in self-confidence. In extreme cases, it can lead to serious mental health issues like depression and anxiety disorders.

Overcoming procrastination requires a multifaceted approach. Techniques such as time management, goal setting, and mindfulness can help. However, it is crucial to address the underlying psychological issues. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has shown promise in helping individuals understand and change their procrastination habits.

500 Words Essay on Procrastination

Introduction.

Procrastination is not merely a matter of time management or laziness; it’s a complex interplay of psychological factors. The Temporal Motivation Theory, for instance, posits that individuals are more likely to procrastinate when the reward for a task is distant in time, and the task is perceived as unpleasant or challenging.

Moreover, procrastination can also be linked to self-regulation failure, where individuals struggle to control their responses and give in to immediate gratification. This is often exacerbated by factors such as fear of failure, perfectionism, and low self-efficacy, which can create a vicious cycle of avoidance and further procrastination.

Impacts of Procrastination

In the workplace, procrastination can result in missed deadlines, subpar work quality, and strained relationships with colleagues. Furthermore, on a personal level, chronic procrastination can lead to increased stress, diminished mental health, and a pervasive sense of guilt and regret.

Lastly, self-compassion can be instrumental in mitigating procrastination. By being kind to oneself during instances of failure or delay, individuals can reduce the associated guilt and anxiety, thereby breaking the cycle of procrastination.

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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

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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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Procrastination Essay | Essay on Procrastination for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Procrastination Essay:  Everyone procrastinates at some point. We put things off because we have too many other things on our plates or because we don’t want to do them. Big or small, putting things off-is part of human beings.

One always suspects themselves that could be a much better writer if only they didn’t put off their writing projects until the last minute. One love, the rush of adrenaline one gets when he/she finish a paper ten minutes before it’s due, but gets tired of pulling all-nights.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Procrastination for Students and Kids in English

We provide students with essay samples on a long essay of 500 words and a short essay of 150 words on the topic ‘Procrastination’ for reference.

Long Essay on Procrastination 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Procrastination is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

All of us guilty of putting off our homework till the last minute or perhaps studied for the test only a day before. We do delay our task by putting off crucial work until a later date. This habit is termed as procrastination. The practice or action of purposefully delaying any task or activity is known as procrastination.

Procrastination is not a rare phenomenon, and almost everyone finds themselves guilty such thing at some point in their lives. It’s good to ask ourselves questions like – why do people procrastinate even when most of them are busy in all their time? Time is our most precious commodity in the 21st Century. And yet, by procrastinating we waste most our time.

The reason for procrastination varies from person to person and situation to situation. However, some cause is universal and has a particular reason to delay actions or tasks. The fear of failure is one of the most important ones. The cause of a person being disinterested in finishing a task or when delays are doing an important task could be due to a deep-rooted fear of failure. Avoid and fear failure is a pretty standard human nature, and by choosing to delay or never finish the task, we do avoid the consequences as well.

The lack of focus ad determination is another big reason for procrastination. People losing their will to do a job can cause due to the feeling of unfocused and directionless, which eventually leads them to procrastination. Lack of goals and objectives are also some other important reason behind a person losing their focus sometimes. Due to not having an end-goal in mind, most people end up in wasting energy in other useless tasks.

Suppose a person is too much of a perfectionist. In that case, he/she can end up in procrastinating his/her work and is also a major reason a person may procrastinate—other reasons like low energy levels, easy distractions, laziness, etc.

Procrastination is a very natural fault we all share, but if things get out of our hands, then it can get us into quite troublesome. Loose control of your schedules and deadlines can disrupt your life due to excessive procrastination. So one should try to get things back in control if their habit of procrastination gets out of hand.

Changing your environment may be beneficial at some times. It provides you with the necessary boost by motivating you to finish your task and make you stop procrastinating. A friend or your parents can help you to keep a check on your progress and encourages you to complete the task on time by keeping the motivation level up.

We are all a victim to procrastination from time to time in our life, so the main concern is not to blame or over-focus for procrastinating sometimes. Give yourself a few breaks and keep a check that it does not derail your entire schedule and get back to work as soon as possible. Discipline organize life solves problems.

Short Essay on Procrastination 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Procrastination is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

The reason for procrastination varies from person to person and situation to situation. The cause of a person being disinterested in finishing a task or when delays are doing an important task could be due to a deep-rooted fear of failure.

Discipline organize life solves problems. We are all a victim to procrastination from time to time in our life, so the main concern is not to blame or over-focus for procrastinating sometimes. Give yourself a few breaks and keep a check that it does not derail your entire schedule and get back to work as soon as possible.

10 Lines on Procrastination Essay in English

1. Procrastination was highly valued by Greek philosophers and stated that it makes you learn to manage delay. 2. Procrastination makes you think what matters most in life and what most important to you. 3. Better decision-making may result from procrastination due to rushing in to deal, task, project or items. 4. If one has a habit of putting off things, then procrastination can help to jump-start prioritization. 5. Active procrastination can lead to better engagement of other things done on your to-do- list. 6. Procrastination is experienced due to higher levels of stress, illness, and eventually yielding to poor academic performance. 7. Procrastination does lead to higher levels of stress and may link you to low self-compassion. 8. Procrastination allows you to get things done, which are the wrong things or are out of priority. 9. Procrastination creates resentment and adds to the dumped workload on other employees or colleagues and sets feelings of anxiety and piled-on resentment. 10. The end-product of chronic procrastination includes an increase in mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.

FAQ’s on Procrastination Essay

Question 1.  What causes procrastination?

Answer: Trouble focusing, perfectionism, depression, fear of failure, a tendency to self-defeat, fear of criticism, avoidance, low self-esteem, etc. are some of the causes of procrastination.

Question 2.  Why is procrastination bad?

Answer: Procrastination over a long period cause a reduction in productivity and make you miss out on achieving our goals.

Question 3. Is procrastination a mental illness?

Answer: Procrastination may be symptomatic of a psychological disorder.

Question 4.  How common is procrastination?

Answer: Procrastination is a very common human tendency, and about 20% of adults have regular bouts of procrastination.

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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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• 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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Procrastination: Why We Do It and How to Deal with It

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Procrastination is one of the most common issues graduate students struggle with, putting off a task in favor of something more pleasurable, only to feel even worse later. For insight into why people procrastinate, check out this article from The New York Times addressing it from a mood management perspective. You may also be interested in these related resources from the Center for Teaching and Learning and this unique essay from a Stanford professor on " structured procrastination ."

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Essays on Procrastination

The importance of procrastination: a deep dive 🕵️‍♂️.

Ever wondered why we procrastinate? It's not just about being lazy! Understanding procrastination can unlock the secrets to boosting productivity and finding balance. Writing an essay on this topic isn't just academic—it's a journey into self-awareness and time management skills. Let's explore why diving deep into the procrastination pool is not only fascinating but essential! 🚀

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Procrastination Argumentative Essay

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• Can deadline pressure enhance creativity?
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• Strategies to overcome procrastination: Do they work?
• Procrastination in the workplace: Solutions and challenges

Procrastination Cause and Effect Essay

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• How procrastination can affect mental health
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"Procrastination, often dismissed as mere laziness, is a complex phenomenon with deep psychological roots. This essay examines the multifaceted nature of procrastination, its implications on personal and academic achievements, and strategies for overcoming its grip."

"At first glance, procrastination may seem like a minor hindrance to success; however, its impact is far-reaching. Through an exploration of procrastination's causes and effects, this essay aims to shed light on its role in the modern productivity paradox."

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"In conclusion, procrastination is a pervasive issue that affects individuals across various aspects of life. By understanding its psychological basis and implementing targeted strategies, it is possible to mitigate its negative effects and harness its potential for positive outcomes."

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The Fear of Failure and The Fear of Success as Factors of Procrastination

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Procrastination is the action of unnecessarily and voluntarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there will be negative consequences for doing so.

The word has originated from the Latin word procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and crastinus, meaning "of tomorrow." Oftentimes, it is a habitual human behaviour. It is a common human experience involving delay in everyday chores or even putting off salient tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner.

Procrastination can lead to poor academic performance. Procrastination may have a genetic component. Procrastination is self-defeating behavior. Prioritization may be the offshoot of procrastination.

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How to Help Students with Procrastination

How to Help Students with Procrastination Katie Rose Guest Pryal, JD, PhD Parts of this essay are adapted from Katie Rose Guest Pryal, A LIGHT IN THE TOWER: A NEW RECKONING WITH MENTAL HEALTH IN HIGHER EDUCATION (U. Press of Kansas 2024)

There is a longstanding belief that procrastination is a manifestation of laziness, or just not caring about the work a person must do.

This belief is wrong.

As psychologist Devon Price, an expert on procrastination, has pointed out, “laziness does not exist.” [1] According to Price, procrastination is driven either by “anxiety about … not being ‘good enough’” or “by confusion about what the first steps of the task are.”

Contrary to popular belief, Price points out, “procrastination is more likely when the task is meaningful and the individual cares about doing it well.” In other words, when a person cares deeply about a task, the person can become paralyzed by the fear of failure.

Students will procrastinate; it is inevitable. We must learn what procrastination is and how it works so we can help our students.

What is procrastination?

According to psychologists, procrastination is “the voluntary delay of an intended act despite the awareness that this needless delay will be detrimental in the longer term.” [2]

Procrastination is thus something that the procrastinator is aware that they are doing, and that they are also aware will hurt them. Students (and faculty) who procrastinate are not lazy, or bad workers, or poor planners. They are struggling with a real psychological problem.

A recent study on procrastination found a link between feeling awful about yourself and procrastination. Procrastinators “have a chronic tendency to cognitively dwell on their dysphoric feelings [feelings of profound unhappiness] and on negative self-relevant information.” [3]

In other words, procrastinators chronically focus on their bad feelings about their lives in general and on bad feelings about themselves. Together, these bad feelings create chronic self-doubt, which leads to procrastination.

Researchers have found that “procrastination and depression were linked significantly.” [4] Indeed, these researchers found “the association between depression and procrastination-related thoughts was stronger” than they had expected it to be.

What Can We Do?

If a student of yours is struggling with procrastination, there is a strong chance that they are also struggling with depression or anxiety. If a student feels stressed or anxious about a task, they are more likely to procrastinate.

And many of our students do suffer from stress and anxiety during law school. Data from LSSSE reveal how widespread this problem is, with over half (54%) of respondents noting stress or anxiety at a level of 6 or 7 on a 7-point scale:

You can think of procrastination as a cycle. Because of a stressful environment, a person’s mental health, awful life events, or all of the above, a person—we—feel poorly. Perhaps, because of these factors, we even develop depression or anxiety. Because we feel poorly, we cannot do our work. When we cannot do our work, we feel even worse, beginning the cycle again.

Institutions and faculty can intervene in this cycle. Yet we rarely do as much as we can to help. When asked whether their schools helps them manage stress and anxiety, a full 30% of LSSSE respondents say their schools do “very little” in this regard.

• Are we creating a needlessly stressful environment? If so, what can we do about it?
• Are we adequately tending to our students’ mental health? If not, how can we do so?
• Are we creating enough flexibility for students who are going through tough life events, such as the birth of a child or the death of a loved one? If not, how can we do so?

Remember, your students want to impress you. This desire starts on day one. Thus, they put pressure on themselves because the work is meaningful, as Price puts it, and if they procrastinate, it is for this same reason.

In the classroom

Try this teaching technique to lower the pressure on your students at the beginning of the semester. Assign a very low-stakes assignment the first week of class. Something small—a case brief in a lecture, or a one-half page reflection essay in a seminar. (You don’t have to grade them.)

Tell your students: “I want you to put in 70% effort on this. I do not want 100%, 90%, or 80%. If I see anything higher than 70%, then I will make you redo it to make it worse.” You will get laughs, and some bafflement. Give them till your next class to do it, and then collect them (on paper, via course software, it doesn’t matter).

You will find two things have occurred. First, usually all of your students will turn in the work because the 70% rule lowers the stakes and allows them to beat procrastination. You’ve told them that it is okay to turn in crap, which means it’s okay to be imperfect.

But the second thing you will find is that your students will turn in great work. You will get far fewer 70% assignments than you would expect. Without the pressure of perfect, students can achieve greatness.

You’ve set the tone for the rest of the semester: it’s okay to be imperfect. You just have to get it done. And great is pretty darn good.

[1] Devon Price, “Laziness Does Not Exist,” Human Parts , March 23, 2018, https://perma.cc/LZ8J-LXWU, https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01 . See also, Devon Price, Laziness Does Not Exist: A Defense of the Exhausted, Exploited, and Overworked (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2021).

[2] Alison L. Flett, Mohsen Haghbin, and Timothy A. Pychyl, “Procrastination and Depression from a Cognitive Perspective: An Exploration of the Associations Among Procrastinatory Automatic Thoughts, Rumination, and Mindfulness,” The Journal of Rational-Emotive and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy 34, no. 3 (September 2016): 170.

[3] Flett, Haghbin, and Pychyl, “Procrastination and Depression,” 180.

[4] Flett, Haghbin, and Pychyl, “Procrastination and Depression,” 182.

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Procrastination Essay: Complete Guide & Examples

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Does Procrastination Increase Anxiety Before Taking an Exam?

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How to stop procrastinating and get more done.

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What Is a Procrastination Essay

There is no particular definition of procrastination essay. It’s a written piece exploring dilatoriness from various angles. Students are required to conduct a small research, organize arguments, and present them in a comprehensible way. Similar academic papers rarely create major troubles when it comes to data-foraging.

The majority of problems come from text structuring and argumentation itself. These steps of the writing process require immense skills as well as talent. Not every student possesses them in necessary amounts. Using proposed paper samples as templates helps effectively mimic developed writing skills. Discover new tricks or tips from free text examples on this site.

College Procrastination Essay Examples

For all college students examples of procrastination essay will come in handy. College is an extremely busy life period for every person. Numerous tasks and assignments leave only a few free hours every day. Hobbies and social life take up the rest. No student can spare additional time on perfecting each written assignment. Maybe you are just going to college; keep in mind to study college admission essay examples . It is the right step to succeed.

One procrastination essay sample can save time simultaneously improving grades. Following existing papers indirectly copying them is much faster. Such an approach not only improves grades but also perfects author’s writing skills. No matter how you look at procrastination personal essay samples, you see only positives.

Download free text examples at any time – improve writing and argumentation easily. Get new ideas or working hacks for ultimate composition quality.

Procrastination Argumentative Essay

Argumentative essay on procrastination takes serious approach. It must prove a point and support it with examples and credible data. Such pieces heavily rely on prior research work requiring substantial data mining. Students must read various journals, publications, or even books to find appropriate support materials.

Without immense research and reasoning skills writing a competent essay on procrastination for college students is impossible. Our website offers numerous text examples on any topic. Multiple free samples demonstrate effective and creative ways of tackling this task.

With one reading session, any student can sufficiently boost personal writing abilities together with final grades. Learn new argumentation tactics and convincing techniques – create impressive scholarly pieces from scratch. Free paper samples are always ready to provide guidance and informational support.

Procrastination Informative Essay

informative essay on procrastination offers more classic, refined experience. Informative papers closely resemble well-known research papers. Their entire content consists of facts, numbers, and statistics. Writing starts and ends with endless subject research and gathering academic materials.

Writing style is mostly scientific, free from emotions and personal opinions. Every student must find the correct information presenting it in a clear, comprehensible way. Informative essay about procrastination also needs extensive vocabulary and masterful use of words.

College essay about procrastination takes significantly less time and effort if you’re following a good text sample. Various information-oriented papers can be freely downloaded from this site. These articles were donated by former students and present unique approaches to any topic demonstration. Improve your writing completely for free without registration!

Procrastination Narrative Essay

Narrative essay on procrastination is another common paper type a student can receive. Story-based articles have less reliance on research materials than the previous two. For successful completion of this task, students must demonstrate strong cognitive skills and text planning. Without proper structuring and planning, such pieces become an unreadable mass of random sentences. Narration must be carefully designed and executed.

Our free paper samples proposed multiple approaches to narrative-based pieces of various sizes. For a procrastination essay 300 words are more than enough if the main focus is shifted toward the narrative. Samples demonstrate effective approaches to writing such papers. Look at text outline, transition between sections, and narration pace. Learn structuring, storytelling, and attention-hooking from these text examples.

Procrastination Essay Outline

Creative outline on procrastination essay assignments bears significant importance. Without this structure whole article fall apart like a house of cards. Outline strongly bonds together all paragraphs providing smooth, natural transitions. It adds coherency and consistency to the narration improving text quality effectively.

Example of procrastination essay outline

Introduction

• Main topic – pros and cons of procrastination
• Background data – widespread among teenagers
• Thesis statement – article’s final goal
• Optional author’s opinion

Body paragraphs

• Arguments for procrastination
• Supportive materials, examples from experience
• Reasons against it, facts, examples
• Data to support these reasons
• Restating the general topic
• Quick reminder of arguments
• Thesis statement repetition
• Was the article’s goal achieved?
• Optional shift in personal perception

Procrastination Essay Introduction

Introduction for procrastination essay occupies the first paragraph. It serves the purpose of grabbing the audience’s attention. Author must compose each sentence in such a way that every reader will get engaged. Audience must become interested and invested in reading. Author must give background information introducing readers effectively to the subject. Various attention hooks are needed as well as thesis statement. Facts, quotations, or short stories are great at grabbing attention.

We offer a competent sample below. It proposes an interesting way of engaging the audience. Examine pacing, formatting, and sentence sizing. Copy elements you consider useful. Look at its structure, used wording, and narration tricks. Try extracting them for personal use in custom academic pieces.

Introduction of procrastination essay example

A critical review is primarily used in the event where there is a need to assess and establish the reliability of a given study. In this paper, the focus is on Anthony Onwuegbuzie’s article titled; Academic procrastination and statistics anxiety. Antony delves into the dynamics of academic procrastination and its relation to statistical anxiety. In other words, he strives to explore the link between graduate student postponement of studies and how it is linked to a fear of statistics related courses.

Procrastination Essay Thesis Statement

Thesis statement for procrastination essay introduction is the main part. It focuses all attention on itself giving the information and hooking attention simultaneously. Students often have major problems with a thesis in particular. It must creatively present article’s direction without revealing too much.

Creating an effective thesis statement can’t be done on the first attempt. It requires substantial writing skills and topic understanding. Author must condense article's whole meaning into one small sentence. Without outside help, such task is almost impossible. Look at the proposed procrastination thesis statement examples for guidance. Use them as templates if necessary – create custom unique scholarly pieces!

Procrastination Essay Body Paragraph

Main reader’s attention is reserved for a paragraph about procrastination essay. It takes most of the available estate and provides all the necessary information. As seen from the outline above, the central paragraph hosts all argumentation and reasoning. If you’re creating a narrative-focused article, all story must be told in body paragraphs. The same goes for informative pieces – central section holds all important data.

Such paragraphs are extremely dependent on strong writing skills. Body paragraph presents author’s abilities to their extent. It not only demonstrates argumentation skills but also narrative-planning and data-representation abilities. Every student will benefit from using these free samples as templates. Donated by former students, they showcase various approaches to body sections on any given subject. Copy style or small elements – improve writing abilities easily!

Paragraph on procrastination essay example

The author concludes that a high percentage of the academic procrastination among the graduate students can be traced to the statistics anxiety. The implications of this study go a long way in providing instructors with insight on what causes student procrastination and therefore develop ways through which they can help eliminate such incidences. It is without a doubt that the academic performance of an individual is directly linked to their attitude towards their courses (Onwuegbuzie, 2004). Statistics anxiety can be defined as the nervousness that a person develops in the course of taking a course in statistics within a formal setting. Academic procrastination, on the other hand, is described as a conscious sidestepping or avoidance of a task in terms of completion or starting it.

Procrastination Essay Conclusion

To create an effective, comprehensible finale, we recommend checking out procrastination essay conclusion examples. Proposed pieces show various ways of finishing the article. Final paragraph always was a struggle for young authors. Not every person can shorten all previous articles effectively and comprehensibly. Writers are obliged to answer all questions that were asked prior.

Content of a conclusive section depends on article’s topic and main goal. Structure closely resembles the one from the introduction with minor changes here and there. There should be the same topic stating, thesis statement, and main goal mentioned.

Keep your conclusion short and informative. Avoid unnecessary information and asking new questions. Maintain narration consistency throughout. Use proposed examples to get meaningful insights and fresh ideas. 

Conclusion of procrastination essay example

Overall, the article can be said to be well written. Not only is it explicit in explaining the methodology and thesis but also goes ahead to provide substantial support using documented research. While the literature reviewed might be regarded as being out of date, it is highly extensive.

How to Overcome Procrastination Essay

Sometimes students must write a so-called “ overcoming procrastination essay”. Such papers slightly differ from all previously mentioned article types. To make it easier for you, here’s a small list of tips that will make writing easier:

• Research your topic. Before writing, look at how other students created memorable essays about procrastination. Extract ideas, wording, and structuring advice from them.
• Create an outline. Carefully design article’s structure. Plan how and where will arguments be presented beforehand. It’ll improve readability and transitioning.
• Propose solutions. Think of custom solutions for certain issues. Try generating something fresh, unheard of before. Or reserve to presenting personal experience.
• Proofread. Edit mistakes out. Eliminate repetitions, grammar errors, and spelling mistakes. Check originality with online plagiarism tools.

If you struggle to come up with effective ways of eliminating procrastination from life, we’ve got you. Look at this list of possible solutions:

• Introduce your regime/plan your day.

Sometimes all you need is some careful planning. Design every day sticking to that plan closely.

• Congratulate yourself for not wasting time.

Give yourself small presents each time you don’t procrastinate. Little awards initiate changes.

• Add more hobbies and activities.

If there’s too much free time, fill it with interesting hobbies. Try to occupy every hour with something.

If you write an essay on psychology , it is better to prepare for it beforehand. Read different essays in this field and get some inspiration. For example, an essay about anxiety, stereotype essay and many more.

Procrastination Essay Topics for College Students

Students should select creative, interesting titles for procrastination essay pieces. Topic must interest writer at first and readers after. With author’s engagement and investment comes improved article quality. Select your subject wisely and think creatively. Choose something you want to write about. It should be something catchy.

Here are some great procrastination essay titles in case you want to procrastinate instead of creating a custom one:

• Negative/positive consequences of such behavior.
• Discuss possible ways to stop laziness in 200 words.
• Explain worldwide phenomenon of missing deadlines as human habit.
• Which actions can be taken to control chronic laziness?
• Explore common human fear of long delay or losing time.
• Is dilatoriness a fault of nature embedded in us?
• Give one easy solution in 100 words with reasoning.
• What’s the main reason why people waste time on purpose?
• Can we test someone’s laziness with questionnaires?
• Hidden effects of such behavior on life and career.

FAQ About Procrastination Essay

Advice for writing a short essay on procrastination is given above. If you need the algorithm – start with an introduction. Specify the article’s topic and goal. Then give argumentation and reasoning supporting it with credible data. To finish it off, repeat the topic and summarize the success of task completion. Look at free paper samples for ideas and correct structuring.

Some essays on procrastination require conducting research. These pieces task students with in-depth analysis of positive and negative consequences. Read some articles online and specify the most important effects. Use provided texts as templates, sources of inspiration, and alternative opinions. Try adapting proposed ways of data presentation in custom scholarly pieces.

The greatest essays about procrastination are written with passion. Start by selecting the topic that interests you directly. Use personal engagement and investment to improve writing quality. Another helpful shortcut is reusing already existing papers that got high scores. Such files provide an endless supply of arguments, reasons, and description tactics.

Procrastination essays occupy an important place in college education. Such genre articles engage thinking and analytical abilities. Students learn to analyze personal behavior and its effect on lives. Similar reflection on actions helps with finding weak spots in life. Simultaneously, they improve writing and research skills alongside cognitive functions.

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84 Procrastination Ideas & Essay Examples

Is procrastination good or bad? Some people judge procrastination and call it “lazyness”. Others insist that procrastinating helps them to do their best under pressing deadlines.

If you assigned to write an essay on this topic, we’ve got your back covered! In this article you will find 51 interesting procrastination essay topics. Keep reading!

🏆 Best Procrastination Topics & Essay Examples

📌 interesting procrastination essay topics to write about, 👍 good procrastination research topics, ❓ research questions about procrastination.

• A Critical Analysis of Hamlet’s Constant Procrastination in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Claudius is successful in his ambition and Hamlet is left with the decision on whether or not to kill his uncle so as to avenge his father’s death.
• Procrastination Essay In both cases, people procrastinate because they fear the consequences of their actions and prefer to live in uncertainty. These are serious obstacles on the way to success and life satisfaction, which is why it […]
• Students Procrastination Problem If the task is big, it should be broken down into small tasks that are easy to manage and to complete.
• Procrastination and Time Management In case the available time is not properly allocated to all activities to be achieved within a given period, then the available time will not be allocated to the correct event.
• Procrastination Among College Students It is not the fear of failure that keeps people from taking on assignments, but their personality traits and desire to have fun instead of putting in the effort.
• Procrastination as a Means of Improving Creativity The work’s author is Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The point of the essay is to talk about the benefits of procrastination.
• Procrastination: Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Due to the nature of the research questions of the study, open-ended questionnaires and interviews will be used to gather the required information for the study.
• Procrastination Predictors in College Students This is a show of autonomy, the evading of the aversive task, avoidance of a state of anxiety, a response to their fear of failure or they are said to suffer from perfectionism and usually […]
• Procrastination Concept and Reasons The term procrastination is relatively new to psychology, despite the fact that the psychological essence of the phenomenon indicated by this term is familiar to everyone.
• Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination? 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 […]
• Procrastination in Undergraduates and Graduates In this article, the researcher was interested in investigating the differences in procrastination and the motivation between undergraduate and graduate students.
• Procrastination in the Fields of Education and Psychology Although two articles discuss the topic of procrastination, writings in the fields of psychology and education are similar only in relation to the chosen IMRAD format, vocabulary, and rhetoric appeals, and the articles are different […]
• Frequent Tests as the Ways to Overcome Procrastination and Anxiety The problem can depend not only on the level of the students’ knowledge but also on the degree of the tension and anxiety which are associated with the preparation and review of the material during […]
• Procrastination Issues: Cause and Effect Procrastination is said to be the avoidance of starting or going through on a task that is deemed to be important and necessary.
• Solving the Problem of Procrastination
• Procrastination: The Biggest Problem of Generation
• Negative Consequences of Medical Checkups Procrastination
• Steps for Overcoming Procrastination by Michael Locklear
• Procrastination, and Side Effects of Procrastination
• Procrastination: Causes and Effects
• Measuring the Effect of Procrastination and Environmental Awareness on Households’ Energy-Saving Behaviours
• Overcoming Obstacles of Overcoming Procrastination
• Three Field Experiments on Procrastination and Willpower
• The Causes of the Procrastination to Seek Revenge in Hamlet, a Play by William Shakespeare
• The Cause and Effects of Procrastination Causes Stress
• Behavior Modification & Stopping Procrastination
• Procrastination: Computer and Urgent Legislative Issues
• The Questioning, Procrastination and Rationalization That Defines Hamlet’s Character
• The Effect of Academic Procrastination on Self Determination
• Addressing the Behavior of Procrastination That Needed to Be Fixed
• Procrastination Is a Complex Behavioral Disorder
• The Importance of Procrastination and Their Advantage and How It Affects
• Putting It off for Later: Procrastination and End of Fiscal Year Spending Spikes
• The Struggle With Procrastination in Hamlet by William Shakespeare
• The Effects of Procrastination on Personal Discipline and the Quality of Work
• Procrastination and Its Effects on College Students
• The Different Reasons Why One Commit Procrastination
• Rush and Procrastination Under Hyperbolic Discounting and Interdependent Activities
• Procrastination Is a Psychological Epidemic
• Procrastination Is Synonymous With Hesitation
• Reducing Procrastination by High School Students
• An Analysis of the Causes and Remedies of Procrastination in College
• Procrastination in Teams, Contract Design and Discrimination
• The Relationship Between Academic Procrastination Behaviors of Preservice Science Teachers and Their Attitudes toward Social Media
• Procrastination Is a Dangerous and Seemingly Unbreakable Habit
• The Contributions of Technology to Modern Procrastination
• Transition and Regional Inequality in Russia; Reorganization or Procrastination
• Deadlines, Procrastination, and Forgetting in Charitable Tasks
• The Causes and Effects of Procrastination on Students in School
• Procrastination: Anger and Unrealistic High Expectations
• Procrastination versus Time Management
• The Different Ways of Eliminating Procrastination
• Procrastination and Time Management Skills
• Differences in Procrastination and Motivation Between Undergraduate and Graduate Students
• How Study Environments Foster Academic Procrastination?
• What Are the Pros and Cons of Procrastination?
• What Are the Main Reasons Students Procrastination?
• How Does Procrastination Affect College Education?
• Why Should We Stop Procrastination?
• Is Procrastination a Mental Health Issue?
• What Are the Complex Reasons for Procrastination?
• What Are the Causes and Cures for Procrastination?
• Is Procrastination Caused by Laziness?
• Why Do Students Procrastinate?
• How Permanently End Procrastination?
• What Are the Statistics on Procrastination?
• Can You Be Successful if You Procrastinate?
• How to Achieve the Art of Procrastination?
• What Age Group Is Procrastinate the Most?
• What Is the Most Common Cause of Procrastination?
• What Are the Negative Effects of Procrastination?
• Why Being in Procrastination Is a Serious Problem?
• What Are the Common Types of Procrastination?
• Does Loss Aversion Beat Procrastination?
• How Does Procrastination Affect Success?
• How Many People Procrastinate on Average?
• How Can a Creative Person Use the Procrastination?
• How Can You Avoid Procrastination?
• Is Procrastination a Form of Depression?
• What Happens in Your Brain When You Procrastinate?
• How Can Students Avoid Procrastination?
• What Are the Solutions to Procrastination?
• How Does Procrastination Affect Academic Performance?
• Is Procrastination a Genetic Trait?
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Home / Essay Samples / Psychology / Behavior / Procrastination

Procrastination Essay Examples

Essays about procrastination aim to delve into the phenomenon of delaying tasks, its underlying causes, and its impact on personal and professional life. The purpose of such essays is to raise awareness about the negative consequences of procrastination, provide insights into effective strategies to overcome it, and inspire readers to cultivate better time management and productivity habits. These essays offer valuable guidance to individuals struggling with procrastination and help foster a proactive and goal-oriented mindset. Self-Awareness and Reflection One of the primary goals of essays about procrastination is to encourage self-awareness and reflection. These essays prompt readers to identify the reasons behind their tendency to procrastinate, such as fear of failure, lack of motivation, or perfectionism. Essays on this topic emphasize the negative consequences of procrastination, such as missed opportunities, increased stress, compromised quality of work, and a sense of unfulfillment. By highlighting these drawbacks, the essays motivate readers to take action and change their procrastination habits. Procrastination informative essay offer practical strategies and techniques to overcome this habit. These strategies may include setting specific goals, breaking tasks into smaller steps, using time management tools, and practicing self-discipline. These topic guide readers toward adopting healthier and more productive habits. Tips for Writing Essays About Procrastination:

Thesis Statement: Start with a clear thesis statement that introduces the topic and the main points you will address in the essay. Personal Anecdotes: Share personal stories or experiences related to procrastination to create a relatable connection with readers. Causes and Effects: Discuss the common causes of procrastination and the negative effects it can have on various aspects of life. Research and Evidence: Include psychological research and expert opinions to support your arguments and provide credibility. Strategies for Improvement: Offer a range of practical strategies and techniques to help readers overcome procrastination. Real-Life Examples: Provide real-life examples of individuals who have successfully conquered procrastination and achieved their goals. Encourage Action: Conclude the essay by encouraging readers to take steps to overcome procrastination and improve their time management skills.

Essays about procrastination serve as a valuable resource for individuals seeking to overcome the challenges of delaying tasks. By shedding light on the reasons behind procrastination and providing practical solutions, these essays empower readers to take control of their habits, enhance their productivity, and lead more fulfilling lives.

The Causes of Procrastination Among University Students and the Solution to It

Procrastination is the act of delaying something that has to be done within a certain time. According to Ferrari and Díaz-Morales (2014), there are 20% - 25% of adults from all over the world affected by the issue of procrastination, it is a common problem...

Phenomenological Look at Workplace Procrastination Through the Eyes of an Employee

Phenomenological look at workplace procrastination through the eyes of an employee. Aim: The major purpose of this study is to explore procrastination at the workplace from a phenomenological perspective. The present study aims to look through the eyes of a procrastinator and understand one’s individual...

The Main Causes and Consequences of Procrastination

Procrastination in time management is no stranger to the modern society. Statistics estimated that 40 percent to over 50 percent of students were procrastinating. 'Procrastination arises from the Latin 'pro,' indicating 'ahead, forward, either for,' as well as 'crastinus,' meaning 'future''. On that basis, procrastination...

The Concept of Procrastination in Psychology

Psychology is a study of human behavior and cognitive operations. By studying particular human behavior or mental performances it could be used to treat mental issues, understand events, and even improve the way of life. Procrastination is common phenomenon when individual postpone their work to...

Procrastination, Its Causes and Negative Effects

Have you ever put off an important project or task until the very last minute? If this sounds like something your familiar with then you may be suffering from chronic procrastination. According to Dr. John Riddle, an author of several books whose byline has appeared...

The Hidden Benefits of Procrastination

Imagine this, it is a first week of February your programming professor asked you to design a website which was to be due on 3rd week of the same month. You just acknowledged it and play your favorite online computer game. Afterwards, in the second...

The First Steps in College Life

Starting college is a new and exciting time. Most Students look back on college life with fond and happy memories. It is a time to learn new skills, meet new people and work towards your dream career. However, the college life does come with a...

The Link Between Procrastination and Personal Well-being

Procrastination is repeatedly seen as self-regulatory failure, affecting many people in their everyday lives. From putting off tasks on the basis that they will later complete them. It has been suggested from research that procrastination may negatively impact professional advancement and our general well-being, such...

The Reasons Why Procrastination Occurs and How to Fight It

Each of us happened to postpone important things for later, dragging out their implementation as much as possible, doing anything instead of them. Unable to explain to ourselves why we are doing this, after that we are tormented by guilty feelings because of the deadlines,...

Positive and Negative Sides of Procrastination

Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a certain time; an intentional delay of starting or finishing the assignment despite knowing it might have negative consequences in the future. Most students have procrastinated at some point, doing more...

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About Procrastination

Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something.

The origins of procrastinate come from the Latin prefix pro-, meaning "forward, " and crastinus, "of tomorrow." The word means moving or acting slowly so as to fall behind, and it implies blameworthy delay, especially through laziness or apathy.

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