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Procrastination: Why we do it and how to stop
PROCRASTINATION: WHY WE DO IT AND HOW TO STOP
Researchers discuss the negative effects that come with waiting till the last minute.
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WORDS BY Paige Bennett
ILLUSTRATION BY Sophia DelCiappo
Catherine Swank, a junior majoring in accounting, does everything she can to stay on top of her schoolwork, but sometimes she can’t help but procrastinate.
“There’s definitely been times where I’ve had to stay up way later than I would have [wanted] to finish off an assignment before it was due,” Swank says.
Procrastination is a widespread issue among students. According to research unveiled at the Procrastination Research Conference in 2017, one in five people is a chronic procrastinator.
For many students, procrastination seems to be an unavoidable consequence of being in college. Swank believes procrastination can be hard to avoid because students have more control over their schedules than they did in the past.
“You have, in general, more free time [in college]. In high school, your time is more structured,” Swank says.
In addition, Ganga Bhandari, a senior majoring in nursing, says the heavy workload students experience in college can sometimes make it impossible to not procrastinate.
“When you have two or three exams a day, it’s too much,” Bhandari says.
Grace Vonder Brink, a senior majoring in Spanish translation and a tutor at Kent State’s Student Support Services, frequently works with students who have issues with procrastination. Vonder Brink says she once had a student who came in for a session looking for help with a paper that was due in less than two hours.
Vonder Brink believes students overestimate their ability to get assignments done quickly, which puts them in positions where they have no option other than to procrastinate.
“A lot of people think they can get it done quicker than they do or they just tend to put it off … and all of a sudden, the deadline hits them,” Vonder Brink says.
WHY DO SOME PROCRASTINATE?
Although the majority of college students procrastinate, some are more likely to put off tasks than others. Procrastination often emerges in people with poor time management skills, says John Dunlosky, a professor in Kent State’s Department of Psychological Sciences.
“If you don’t have good time management skills,” Dunlosky says, “it’s natural to wait till the last moment.”
Procrastination can also be a product of impulsiveness, says Piers Steel, a professor in the Department of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources at the University of Calgary. Steel runs a research lab devoted to procrastination and wrote a book in 2012 on the subject, “The Procrastination Equation.”
Steel says people have a tendency to focus on the present rather than the future, and procrastination happens because they prioritize small, immediate rewards over large, delayed ones. This is a concept known as hyperbolic discounting.
“[Procrastination] gets its power from immediacy,” Steel says.
The structure of college can worsen procrastination, says Amanda Shah, the assistant director of Kent State’s Academic Success Center.
“A lot of students procrastinate because they haven’t yet learned how to project manage,” Shah says.
Shah explains that in high school, students can mostly rely on teachers to guide them and provide them with study tools. However, when they get to college, they no longer have that same level of support, making it easy for them to feel lost or overwhelmed.
“Students sometimes get worse in college when it comes to procrastination because there’s not as much guidance and there aren’t as many study tools,” Shah says.
While it might be unavoidable at times, procrastination can have a negative impact on a student’s ability to learn material and prepare for exams, Dunlosky explains.
Some students put off assignments and cram before exams because they believe they perform better under pressure. While the stress of a fast-approaching deadline may give students the motivation to push through and get an assignment done, Steel says it is not the most effective practice.
Steel encourages people who wait until the last minute to consider two questions: “Would [the assignment] be better if you would have started earlier?” and “If I could give you that motivation way before the deadline, would you want it?”
Steel says these questions show that although people may think they work better with time constraints, their procrastination habits leave them with no other option.
“Those who say they perform best at the last minute have not had much experience working any other way,” Christine Li, a clinical psychologist and procrastination coach based in New York City, writes in an email.
Another downside to completing work right before its deadline is that it does not allow students the opportunity to fully absorb information.
“In order to really process and understand information, you need time,” Shah says.
In addition, Shah says rushing to finish an assignment can sometimes cause students to overlook things and make careless mistakes because they are not allowing themselves to thoroughly comprehend the material.
For many, the tendency to procrastinate stems from a desire to avoid disappointing their own expectations. Dunlosky explains that procrastination can act as a “built-in excuse” students use to explain why they do poorly on projects and exams. Rather than start an assignment as soon as it is given out and gradually work on it over an extended period of time, chronic procrastinators may delay their work until the last minute so they can preserve their egos upon receiving a bad grade. This behavior affords students the opportunity to blame failures on a lack of time management skills instead of a lack of academic skills.
PROBLEMS LINKED TO PROCRASTINATION
A common misconception about procrastination is that it reduces an individual’s overall stress level. Some procrastinators assume delaying major tasks will allow them to compartmentalize their stress. Although it may seem that way, research reveals that chronic procrastinators not only have higher stress levels, but they are also more vulnerable to hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
In addition, procrastination has been linked to mental health issues, such as depression. Common symptoms of depression include feelings of hopelessness, fatigue and a lack of energy and concentration. These symptoms can make it harder for people to stay motivated when it comes to their work, often resulting in procrastination. While procrastination does not cause depression, people who suffer from mental health issues, including depression, are more likely to procrastinate.
HOW TO STOP
For those looking to procrastinate less, Steel says the first thing they must do is give themselves a break. Procrastination can be challenging to overcome, and students should not be ashamed of it.
“You’ve got to forgive yourself for being a procrastinator,” Steel says.
Steel recommends students keep potential distractors, such as cell phones, at least a few feet away when they are trying to do work. By putting distance between themselves and their devices, students can decrease the temptation to frequently check them.
Dunlosky advises students to focus on improving their time management skills. Establishing specific times for work, keeping a planner, rewarding oneself for completing tasks and setting deadlines can help reduce the likelihood that one will procrastinate.
Shah also suggests that students create task lists, which they can use to track their progress and split large assignments into smaller, more manageable pieces.
“Starting to create and use a task list every day is really helpful and helps break down study times into smaller pieces,” Shah says.
Additionally, Shah advises students to use the “Pomodoro Technique,” a time management strategy that encourages people work into 25-minute intervals and intersperse periods of work with short breaks.
The key to avoiding procrastination, Shah says, is to start small and gradually “build that inertia and get over that hump.”
PAIGE BENNETT | pbennet8@kent.edu
