Procrastination: Habit or Disorder? Essay

I found I’m not alone according to two leading experts on procrastination, Joseph Ferrari, professor of psychology at DePaul University and Timothy Phikul, professor of psychology at Carleton University 20% of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators and up to 70 percent of students in one study said that they procrastinate. This habit affects so many and it one of the most difficult tendencies to kick but fortunately there are ways to go about solving the issue so today I would like to inform you all about why people procrastinate and the effects it can have and also ways to overcome it.

     Procrastination is something that you don’t naturally have an innate ability to do. It is often brought on by finding ways

Besides this omission by Kalat, he still provided an accurate and detailed account of the research article written by Ariely and Wertenbroch. This article is essential in understanding procrastination and answered throughly the three questions it posed. 1.) Are people willing to impose deadlines, with substantial consequences if they are not met, on themselves: yes. 2.) Are these self-imposed deadlines actually helpful in improving overall performance:

Procrastination is ignoring your responsibilities and avoiding them for no good reason. Experiencing procrastination can have a positive or negative reaction according to the amount of the behavior. The person that is procrastinating must first realize that they have a problem in order to find ways to overcome procrastination because they are putting their health, family and job at risk. Twenty percent of people realize they are procrastinators which in the end becomes a lifestyle. There are various reasons why people procrastinate.

Thesis: Procrastination is the main result of disorganization whether it’s at home, work or school.

Attention Getter: A famous author by the name of Wayne Dyer once said, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is incredibly heavy.”(1) In todays society it seems as if procrastination has become a normal and acceptable thing to do. It is often joked about amongst schoolmates and co-workers around the world. Nothing seems to get done until it absolutely needs to get done, then everyone runs around getting things done quickly and often times inaccurately. The trouble with this mentality however is that some things will never get done because something will come up tomorrow or the next day and what you are putting off now gets pushed even further back. Today I will persuade you to stop this habit from continuing. I will be explaining the problems we face when dealing with procrastination as well as how to deal with it and actions you can take to prevent it in the future.

Transition: After learning about the science behind procrastination, I want to talk about why we procrastinate.

(chapter 4) or the problem self-control and procrastination present (chapter 6) every chapter is applicable, and written

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.

Thesis Statement: Today, I will tell you about what exactly procrastination is, the causes, and the effects.

“I’ll stop procrastinating…Tomorrow.” This is a mindset that is possessed by a majority of students today. Although putting off writing that English paper until the night before it is due may not seem like a big deal, it has many harmful effects. In fact, what better topic is there for that English paper? Very few are spared from the epidemic known as procrastination. Even less overcome this issue. In order to successfully defeat procrastination, we must first understand it.

Procrastinating is a minor reinforcer and provides immediate reinforcement. It has negative short-term consequences e.g. stress, regret, academic failure and fatigue. The benefits attained from are

“Procrastination is a common form of self-regulatory failure with substantive connections” where the tendency is to put off tasks. (Steel, Farrari, 2013)

Procrastinating is a behavior that I engage in on a weekly basis. It is not uncommon for college students to procrastinate; in fact, about 58% of students tended to procrastinate when it came to online exams (Levy & Ramim, 2012). This figure may sound insignificant, however it only magnifies a small portion of a major issue for college students. In this entry, I will be using the Transtheoretical Model to demonstrate the stages that are needed to be completed in order for me to overcome procrastination.

They’ll have excuse after excuse or real interruptions that detour the mission at hand. On this list are usually a couple of things with real significance that deep down they suspect they’ll never accomplish. It is as if their conscience is peering back as if to say, “remember me or I know this will get done,” when in actuality it is a form of denial. It is likely they have put such things on the list to short-cut the truth. The truth is it only sent a subliminal message to the procrastinator’s unconscious mind; something like, ‘good intentions qualify as long as they’re on this list.’ Funny thing is usually one of the things on the list could have been done in the time it took to make the list. Procrastination is a behavior that must be addressed for smooth transitioning during the process of creating healthier habits. Researchers have suggested that inhibitions and good intentions can hinder or assist in the breaking of or creating a habit. Thus, although inhibition may be crucial, no research has yet been done on the role of inhibition in the context of pre-existing habits. However, understanding the cognitive mechanisms involved in successful implementation of intentions is highly relevant, and particularly so in the domain of health behavior, where people often try to change their habits by means of conscious intentions. The present study, therefore, was designed to examine how intentions can lead to the