Procrastination In College Students

You’ve made up your mind to finally start studying. You just want to quickly read your messages, then you can start! While you’re at it, quickly finish watching one episode of your favorite series. Three episodes and two hours later, you tear your eyes away from the screen in panic. “Damned. It’s so late.” It’s dark now and you decide to start tomorrow.

Do these symptoms sound familiar to you? Then you probably suffer from procrastination. While I’m not a doctor, I can reassure you that procrastination is common (especially among college students) and can be treated quickly and effectively. Today I will explain to you what procrastination is, why it exists and what the consequences are.

What Is Procrastination?

Procrastination is the voluntary postponement of an activity. Its implementation has been planned but has not yet been put into practice. In most cases, these are important or even necessary activities. Procrastination comes despite the well-known negative consequences, which far outweigh the immediate positive consequences of procrastination. We accept long-term disadvantages for short-term rewards. Although we can certainly feel remorse or discomfort while procrastinating. In short, procrastination describes the failure of our self-control. We have decided to study because the exam is coming up soon, but instead, we clean the entire apartment or meet up with friends. 

Which Activities Are Deferred?

Two main characteristics determine whether we do the activity immediately or rather postpone it: temporal proximity and aversiveness. The further our deadline is in the future, the more likely it is to be postponed. “The exam is only in 3 months? Then I still have enough time to learn for it later!” Not only the temporal distance triggers avoidance, but also the aversiveness of the activity. So, if it’s unpleasant, boring, or uninteresting, we’re more likely to put it off. “Memorize 50 more pages of meaningless definitions and incomprehensible models? No thanks!” So, ​​it can definitely be helpful to make peace with the issues and not to underestimate the deadlines.

Talking about deadlines, if you are running out of time on writing an important essay, an essay writer would help you to hand in the essay right on time. 

Who Is Most Likely To Be Affected?

Basically, procrastination is part of the human being, like alcohol is part of studying. The vast majority of students give in to him from time to time, have a lot of fun while doing it, and have to realize the following day that he already hid today’s good mood from last night. Procrastination occurs particularly frequently – who would have thought it – in an academic and professional context. School, studies, and work – this is where procrastination works particularly well! This is also confirmed by a large number of studies. Study participants between the ages of 14 and 29 procrastinated most frequently. So, procrastination seems to have a special appeal to students. It is estimated that 80-95% of students procrastinate. For 50% of all students, procrastination is even problematic and takes place over a longer period of time.

What Triggers Procrastination?

Research is still divided on this. But one thing is certain: there is no single cause! The interaction of many different factors finally causes us to procrastinate. For one thing, some personality traits make us more prone to procrastination. For example, they can reinforce perceptions of the aversiveness of our tasks. However, this does not mean that personality traits are considered a cause of procrastination. They are risk factors. Of course, motivational processes also play a major role! Each theory explains the phenomenon from a different perspective and therefore provides different reasons why we have an intention but don’t carry it out. Some variables associated with procrastination include goal orientation, self-regulation, and time management. 

What Are The Consequences Of Procrastination?

We have put off learning and indulging in pleasurable activities. The first consequence is quickly noticeable: Unfortunately, the pleasant activities are not as much fun as they should be! The test and our guilty conscience are breathing down our necks. Quite apart from the short-term feelings of regret: In the longer term, procrastination only has negative consequences. Studies show that procrastination has an impact on our health and well-being. We are more anxious, tired, and stressed. We are more restless before tests and our performance on exams is worse than that of students who don’t procrastinate. 

To Sum Up

Procrastination is not a chronic disease! You can train yourself to stop procrastinating. So, it is by no means the case: once postponed – always postponed.