Procrastination
Procrastination is derived from the Latin word “pro,” meaning “forward, forth, or in
favour of,” and “crastinus,” means belonging to tomorrow “of tomorrow” (Ferrari, Johnson,
& McCown, 1995). Procrastination is also recognized as a behavioural design that directs to
ineffectual time management, decreased performance levels, delayed study behaviours,
depressed levels of tolerance in regards to frustration, continuing task aversion, self-esteem
depletion, speeding compromises, and a helplessness in controlling damaging sentiments (Ferrari
& Díaz-Morales, 2014; Schubert & Stewart, 2000). Procrastination is a common and troubling
form of self-regulation failure that involves the unnecessary and voluntary delay of essential
tasks that were intended but not followed through despite an awareness that such delay would
have negative consequences (Sirois & Pychyl, 2016). The five acknowledged classes of
procrastination behaviour include (i) normal day to day procrastination, (ii) decisional
procrastination, (iii) neurotic procrastination, (iv) obsessive procrastination, and (v) academic
procrastination (Balkis & Duru, 2007).
History of procrastination
Perses, Brother of Hesiod: Your standard Slacker ( Approximately 700 B.C):
An Ancient Greek poet, Hesiod, warns his brother against procrastination in his poem “ Work
and Days”, emphasising that delaying works leads to ruin and lack of success.
The Roman Senate: Stymied by Fear (1st Century B.C):
Cicero, in his philippics speechless, strongly condemns procrastination as “detestable” in the face
of the urgent need for war against Mark anthony, yet the senate hesitated due to fear of
consequences despite acknowledging the necessity.
Geoffrey Chauser: A Quarter Done (14th Century):
In the “ Canterbury Tales” Chaucer character Dame prudence advises immediate action, stating,
“the goddess you may do this day, do it: and delay it until narrow”. Ironically, Chaucer , the
author, did not follow this advice, as he left more that 100 planned tales unfinished, completing
only 24 before his death.
Leonardo da Vinci: Gone Doodling ( 1519 )
Leonardo da Vinci, despite spending only 16 years on the Mona Lisa, completed fewer than 20
paintings in his lifetime, often procrastinating with doodling in notebook. However, his
procrastination yielded groundbreaking inventions and design including the helicopter and highly
advanced maps turning what seemed like idleness to a remarkable body of work
Wen Jia : Watching the work pile up (1501)
The Ming dynasty poet and painter emphasises the importance of taking action in the present in
his “ poem of today”, warning against delaying tasks and urging one to work diligently starting
from today. The Poem stresses the limited number of opportunities one has and the regret of
inaction if today's tasks are postponed.
Related Studies
Title of the Study: Procrastination Stress and Academic
Performance in Students
Author/s: Elena B. Kuftyak
Publication Year: 2021
Abstract: As postponing action strategy, for the last
moment the procrastination is one of the
factors causing the problems in study. The
objective of the study is identification of links
between indicators of academic
procrastination, stressors, responses to
stressors and academic achievements. The
research was implemented on the base of
sample which amounted to 435 from 17 to 25
years old (М age = 19,03). The comparative
procrastination analysis among groups of
students with different levels of academic
performance has shown that students with low
levels of achievement are inclined to more
often suffer from procrastination, be lazy
impulsively make a decision during the
establishing of their personal time, care,
frustration, stress and anger. The correlation
analysis data allow for the conclusion that a
high level. Procrastination is related to stress
and academic failure. The analysis of links
between procrastinations and stressors, and
also reactions on it among students has shown
that the higher the social anxiety, failure
avoidance, procrastination, frequency, lazy,
worse perfectionism and impulsive, the higher
he values all stressors and impressive
reactions on it. In this way, academic
procrastination impedes the effectiveness of
student study, effects on performance,
contributes to stress, that undoubtedly impacts
on professional development of future
specialists.
Research variables: Procrastination, Stressors, Responses to
stressors and academic achievements.
Research problem/s: Analysing the interaction of procrastination,
student stress and academic performance;
determination of the severity of the
components of procrastination and stress in
students with different academic
achievements.
Research Hypotheses: The following hypotheses were tested:
procrastination is positively associated with
stress; low-performing students are more
likely to procrastinate and have stress.
Conclusion: The analysis of the relationship between
procrastination, stress level and academic
performance of students has allowed for
drawing the main conclusions:One of the
topical focus areas of the modern education
system is studying the causes and
consequences of procrastination in people of
different ages.Students who delay doing their
homework are more susceptible to stressors,
and their response to them is more acute.
They are more likely to experience frustration
and dissatisfaction, as well as psychological
stress, which manifests itself in nervousness,
headaches, gastrointestinal disorders,
exhaustion, fear, anxiety, anger, and a sense
of guilt. In general, stress levels are
significantly higher in the low-performing
Group A comparative study of procrastination
coping strategies for groups of students with
different academic performance showed that
low-performing students are more prone to
experiencing procrastination, laziness
and a lack of discipline. Successful students
are capable of self-control, they can organise
and structure their activities. The correlation
analysis data allow for the conclusion that a
high level of procrastination is related to
stress and academic failure.
Recommendation:
Title of the Study: Academic Procrastination in College
Students
Author/s: Samantha Mortensen
Publication Year: 2022
Abstract: Academic procrastination has become a
prevalent issue facing students, especially
college-aged students. There is a large body of
research investigating the reasons behind
academic procrastination and why it continues
to be a growing problem for students.
Researchers want to understand why
procrastination affects most college students
when it is associated with many long-term
negative implications. Following this
problem, there have been several studies
conducted in hopes of finding a solution to
help students procrastinate less. While there
has been research about possible treatment
options, there has been a lack of research
specifically targeting the important predictors
of procrastination. In this study, we took data
from 239 students from a large, private
Christian university in Virginia. We
conducted bivariate correlations and a
multiple regression analysis between
procrastination and “self” related variables
such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, self-
regulation, and self-forgiveness to assess
which variables have the strongest correlation
with procrastination to better create treatment
plans. The findings of the study indicate that
self-regulation had the strongest, unique
inverse relationship with procrastination
which can help future researchers specifically
target that variable when creating treatment
plans.
Research variables: Self-efficacy, procrastination, self-regulation,
self-esteem, self-forgiveness.
Research problem/s: What these results can mean for future
researchers is that there should be an
expansion of research looking specifically
into self-regulation.
Research Hypotheses: Hypothesis and research questions about
which “self” variable would essentially have
the biggest impact on procrastination was
supported with self-regulation being the most
significant.
Conclusion: The problem of academic procrastination has
been a prevailing and persistent issue faced by
college students. Previous research has
attributed one’s tendency to procrastinate with
their levels of self-efficacy, trait anxiety, and
task aversiveness as well as other
self-regulatory emotions (Constantin et al.,
2018). The goal of many researchers and
clinicians is to find a long-
lasting solution that would modify student’s
behaviours and reduce levels of academic
procrastination. Commonly researched
techniques have been the use of acceptance
and commitment therapy and cognitive
behavioural therapy, and the newer form of
intervention being technology based. While
more research confirming positive effects
from technology-based interventions needs to
be performed, internet-based or smartphone-
based treatment plans appear
Enter to have the best results. Understanding
the complexity of how emotions can impact
behaviour is important in learning how people
function and how psychologists can help
modify people’s problem behaviour. In the
study I performed, I was able to determine
that self-regulation and self-efficacy had the
strongest inverse relationship with
procrastination, which means future
researchers and clinicians can apply these
findings to further investigate individualised
solutions to reduce procrastination.
Recommendation: By targeting self-regulation skills such as time
management, organisation, motivation, goal
setting, and self-monitoring, teachers,
counselors and mentors can use this
information to help more people decrease
their levels of procrastination and decrease
this undesirable trait. Self-efficacy also had a
somewhat moderate impact on procrastination
as one of the “self” related variables. It did
explain for some unique variance in
procrastination, which means that exploring
further and conducting further studies about
self-efficacy’s correlation with
procrastination could provide helpful
information for future treatment plans.
References
Klingsieck, K. B. (2013). When Good Things Don't Come to Those Who Wait.
Procrastination, 18(1).
https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/full/10.1027/1016-9040/a000138?fbclid=IwAR0-
VwbYqr5sNwtSBZlV-rRhFM2AOoHLVV-I5cdMm7Z7l_58Kw_Hno-fTHU
Kuftyak, E. (2022). Procrastination, stress and academic performance in students.
https://ap.pensoft.net/article/24340/?
fbclid=IwAR2cigOyUtJqi4Dsja6rxySUnacEQ3RABUeq9CxUXJYomB8gnwEviPEfqd8
Mortensen, S. (2022). Academic Procrastination in College Students.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/1165/?fbclid=IwAR26gPBfQUnXMBaaJ9-
hgQRrajwbIPABloA_ziKYvCZLbEXayXh1ynvDWI8
Rad, H., Soheila, S., Serois, F., & Goodarzi, H. (2023). Mindfulness intervention for
academic procrastination. A randomized control trial, 101.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1041608022001315?
fbclid=IwAR3EbPf2R5LnBjHsWTfGQ3JkEqZOhINaYbuwCHH0Wm72DpTGGZjC0a
NAd3A
.
