Procrastination is a tendency to postpone, put off, delay, reschedule, take a rain check on, put on ice, hold off, or to defer what is necessary to reach a particular goal.(Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition. Philip Lief Group 2009.) While attending College some students find it hard to juggle work, family, and friends. Leading most students down a dangerous path to procrastination; that negative impact affect students from their physical health, mental health, and social health.
Everyone has daily burdens and responsibilities that they would prefer to avoid rather than begin. For college students that burden becomes anything relating to college academics, from homework assignments, to essays due next week, or projects. However, by delaying the time necessary to complete an assignment or to write a well and comprehensible essay. Students are putting their physical well being at risk.
By choosing to procrastinate, students are leave their bodies natural defenses weak and perfectly susceptible to the common germ. According to Hara Marano from “Psychology Today,” who talked to two of the world's leading experts on procrastination: Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, and Timothy Pychyl, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Both Ph.D., associate professors of psychology seem to agree that, “there are big costs to procrastination. Health is one. Just over the course of a single academic term, procrastinating college students had such evidence of compromised immune systems as more colds and flu, more gastrointestinal problems and insomnia.” With a weak immune system and other physical complications because of procrastinati...
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Works Cited
Marano, Hara Estroff. "Effects of Procrastination." Effects of
Procrastination. Psychology Today, 7 July 2010. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Tice, Dianne M., and Roy F. Baumeister. "LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF
PROCRASTINATION, PERFORMANCE, STRESS, AND HEALTH: The Costs and
Benefits of Dawdling." PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. Western
Reserve Umverstty, n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.
Pychyl, Timothy A. "Perfectionism, Procrastination, and
Distress." Psychology Today. Psychology Today, 28 Oct.
2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
HOLLOWAY, BRYNN E. "DOES PROCRASTINATION AND STRESS HAVE AN
AFFECT ON YOUR HEALTH?" DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY Missouri Western State University. DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY Missouri Western State University, 04 Feb. 2003. Web.
"procrastinate." Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third
Edition. Philip Lief Group 2009. 12 Nov. 2013.
In college, just about all students procrastinate in some type of way. They do not realize that they need to stay ahead of their work and stay caught up. Students do not realize that procrastination can become a habit and it can ruin a person’s life. They also do not realize that procrastination can be a burden on them. Procrastination can break students in college. Students in college may struggle because of procrastination.
Procrastination is referred to the irrational and voluntary delay despite the fact that this intended behavior will result in a negative effect on the individual and can even come at a cost of favorable outcomes (Lay, 1986; Steel, 2007).
Procrastination may be responsible for late assignments, cramming revision for tests and social anxiety, all of which can often result in a poorer performance than the person is actually capable of achieving (Lee 2005; Lay & Schouwenburg 1993). So what is the reason for procrastination? Well, there are many explanations. Some researchers see procrastination as a personality trait (Lay 1986).The interest of procrastination is usually revolved around students and academia. Research has shown the importance of understanding procrastination in an academic setting, for instance academic procrastination is experienced by approximately 80%-95% of college students (Ellis & Knaus 1977). Studies show that at least 50% of undergraduate students frequently procrastinate (Hedin 2012). And 65% of students want to stop procrastinating (Solomon & Rothblum 1984). Even though many researchers focus on the destructive impacts that procrastination can have on a person’s life, for some procrastination is not always a negative behaviour. Research shows that individuals who procrastinate try to justify their behaviour and fall back on phrases such as, “I do my best work under pressure”
Procrastination is a concept that is very relatable and real that if you ask anyone in the world whether they’ve ever procrastinated in their life, undeniably their answer will be yes. It’s been dubbed as normal and has been accepted by several procrastinators as a part of their life. Per the Merriam-Webster dictionary normal is defined as “conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern” (Merriam-Webster 2017). As a high school/early college student there shouldn’t be any room for procrastination because of the many seminars that talk about time management and accepting responsibility and pride for your work. I procrastinate daily. It’s become a natural part of my life that my schedule is now based around doing my work on the last possible day that it’s due. I might procrastinate the entire week but I can never relax because in the back of my mind I know that I have work to complete. Procrastination is a form of relief if several tasks are piling up, but in the long run procrastinating is only putting off the inevitable that will end up as a poor job.
Consequences related to procrastination often outweighed its proposed benefits for it is frequently associated with self-defeating behavior, the ineffective weighing of short term and long term benefits, (Tice & Baumeister) and poor mental health (Ferrari, Johnson, McCown); in addition to internal subjective discomfort such as irritation, self-blame and regret (Solomon, Rothblum & Murakami) procrastination is also linked to “weak impulse control, lack of persistence, lack of work discipline, lack of time management skill, and the inability to work methodically.” (Ferrari & Diaz-Morales) Other complications which may arise from overall procrastination may be related to sleep deficiency, often when one procrastinates with a specific item one may take up useful time which may be spent on something other than that. Procrastination with academic assignment will need to be competed at a certain point and the time spent on recovering lost time will be taken away from one’s sleep time. Not only does academic procrastination lead to sleep deprivation, but this is a whole new problem in itself; the tendency to delay the action
“I need to stop procrastinating, I’ll start tomorrow!” Most of us have uttered these words at least once in our academic life, if not daily. Procrastination is habitual, it is gauged that 95% of college students in America procrastinate, 50% of which who claim to do it half the time and 38% who do it on occasion (koestner, Senecal, & Vallerand, 1995). Procrastination can be defined as prolonging a task and/or delaying it for periods of time knowing it’s in need of attention. Negative implications associated with this can include a decline in quality work and overall learning experience, with an increase in stressful urgency (Goroshit & Hen, 2014). Based on the above information it can be concluded that procrastination in college students is
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines procrastination as “to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.” To understand procrastination, you must first discover why humans procrastinate even though it is the obvious wrong choice. Many scientists and researchers have studied and examined why one procrastinates, but I believe it is best explained by Alan Henry, a journalist for the online news network Life Hacker. In the article, Henry suggests that the cause for procrastination is not that students are just too lazy or bored to actually work on the task. He explains that our brains simply choose to do something more rewarding. Whether it is just a text to a friend or a funny short video clip, students still choose a distraction over working on their assigned paper, knowing this causes them stress, worry, and a worse grade in the end. This irresponsible behavior can be explained using the mental phenomenon referred to as temporal discounting. Temporal discounting, or time
Internal discomfort can be from irritation, nervousness, anxiety, or regret. There is also external discomfort such as failure in academics, the loss of opportunities, stress in relationships, or increase of health risks (Rabin et al., 2011). The difference between procrastinators and non-procrastinators is that one group of students are more goal-oriented than another. College students who delay completing tasks also do not make use of internal and external signals to control when to start, maintain, and end goal-directed actions (Rabin et al., 2011). There are many ways to minimize the effects of procrastination among these individuals. If students do not learn the proper way in concentrating and paying attention, their performance in their academics and work are destined to fail. This paper will be discussing the negative and positive effects of procrastination and how it relates to self-control and emotional well-being among college
Procrastination is defined as, “to put something off to do at a later time” (Brown, 1993, p. 2365). Franziska Diest, Manfred Hofer, and Stefan Fries (2007) sum up procrastination, “as a failure of shielding the focal goal effectively against temptation” (p. 893). For example, you are currently participating in a five week class, the instructor assigns you a final nine page paper the first night, and you wait until a week before it is due to get started. In today’s society, our generation faces daily distractions that have evolved over time which competes with proper time management (Gardener, Barefoot, 2014). Procrastination can be viewed by many researchers as a problematic, negative impacting approach to higher education
...rs tend to overestimate the degree of unpleasantness of a task” (Lay, 46). Procrastination is a problem that when left unchecked can cause serious problems in every aspect of a person’s life. The solution for students can be as easy as sticking to a goal or as hard as denying themselves a prize when they missed the deadline on a project. The type of solution a person uses depends on what works best for that student, but a schedule to help stay goal positioned never hurt.
The definition of procrastination according to Solomon & Rothblum is the determined delay of the start or completion of a task (1984). Procrastinators will also differ from those who do not procrastinate in numerous ways. An example would be that procrastinators often fear failure, strive for perfection, may be slightly pessimistic and more anxious, which may become worse when they realize they are procrastinating (McCown & Johnson, 1991) or when deadlines are approaching (Tice & Baumeister, 1997). The personal and realistic problems that result from dysfunctional procrastination are predominantly acute in academics, as the inclination to put off school-related tasks often result in challenging levels of stress (Solomon & Rothblum 1984), on the whole the end of the academic semester would be the peak (Tice & Baumeister, 1997).
Jon Olson wrote an article on procrastination because it affects the workers at his fabrication company. He looked into a study from a recent conference of the Psychological Society at a university in Toronto shows “200 Canadian students found that procrastinators put themselves under so much pressure by delaying action that they suffered more stress-related illness than others” (Olson 20-21). Stress from adjourning can cause illness? Definitely not a good sign. Especially because most everyone puts off working. I know if I put off work, it ends up getting done really late at night, then I don’t get enough sleep. This can be one way I make myself more vulnerable to illness. In the same study, supporting the fact that illness occurred more with procrastination, the student’s positive attitudes turned into colds, back pain, headaches, allergies, and sleeping issues (Olson 20-21). These effects are unhealthy, so much so that their lagging could get worse due to their health conditions. If they get little sleep or feel like they are hurting, they will want to sleep to ‘do it tomorrow’ when they are energized or healthy. This will lead to more stress as the deadline for their assignment gets closer, leading to more feelings of
Procrastination can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life because procrastination is the thief of time. When you keep putting off things, they keep piling up and getting in your way of achieving other things. Then you have missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, feel stressed, guilt and resentment; you find you are being overwhelmed easily because there is just so much to do.
Most humans have habits, habits in which they do simply because if they do not do them they feel uncomfortable. Procrastination is one of those habits that not all, but most people suffer from. Procrastination means to put off key things to do less important things that could possibly wait. It has been proving that all most everyone procrastinates, but procrastination does not determine what type of person one is. Procrastination is like a virus or a bad cold that does not want to go away. If one does not stop the problem it will get bigger; therefore, if people do not control their procrastinating they will start to do it more. However, the worst time to procrastinate is in college. College students often forget hoe important time is. Being a procrastinator can lead to several different outcomes. Procrastination can led to either good or bad outcomes. It all depends on the person doing the procrastinating. Procrastination is not always meant to happen; sometimes it simply happens because a person is too busy. Procrastination has both good and bad causes and effects, can cause failure, and bad decisions.
People all procrastinate at one time or another. Procrastination is the practice of delaying work on important tasks in favor of less challenging ones. Chronic procrastinating hinders productivity and affects our state of mind by creating anxiety and stress (Reichelt). As deadlines approach, one often feels frustration and guilt for not starting on a task earlier. We often assume that projects won't take as long to finish as they really will, which often results in a mad scramble to finish the project in the twenty-four hours before the projects deadline. One of the biggest factors contributing to procrastination is the misconception that we need to be inspired or in the mood to work on the task at hand (Reichelt). However, the reality is that if you wait for the “right time” you will most likely wait for an indefinite amount of time and the task will never get completed.