Procrastination Self-Test

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 not always a very bad thing though; there are some points in your life that it could prove to be a plus. If done enough you will be use to doing things last minute, which could possibly help you in your career with handling pressure when you boss tells you do something within a set amount of time. Also extended amounts of doing this bad habit could help you learn to take pressure better, as example when you have a huge paper due by the next morning and you need to keep your self calm or else it will show when your writing the paper. Even though these sound like positive measures to procrastinating they are really not worth the

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:

5.      Though I’ve only touched on a couple, there are many more reasons for procrastinating such as fear of anxiety or failure and even personnel or financial problems. So, you might be asking, how do I know if I’m a procrastinator or not? Well, this brings me to my second point, symptoms of procrastination. One of the worst aspects of procrastination is postponement. When one is postponing an important task, it becomes very difficult to enjoy recreational activities. One is socializing with friends or watching a film, and there is this nagging thought, "I should be working." A dark cloud of guilt hangs over your head and dampens any pleasure you might be extracting from the distractions of the moment. So, by not getting things done in a reasonably and timely manner, or not done at all, precious opportunities have been lost.

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.

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.

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.

With many distractions around us, students across the nation struggle with procrastination daily and it is on an upper spiral. Both men and women students are struggling with putting things off such as work, school, and tasks at home or in their dorms. Unfortunately, 20 percent of males and females are labeled as chronic procrastinators in the United States (Ferrari). Those who are known as “procrastinators” are not born this way, however, their upbringing is what creates this habit. Parents that have high expectations counteract the want to complete tasks among young adults. This is because demanding parents prevent children’s ability of development that allows them to regulate responsibilities (Marano). On the other hand, there are several different types of procrastination according to J. Ferrari, Ph.D. One type is known as the arousal type; this includes people who wait to do homework or tasks until the last minute because they enjoy working quickly under pressure.

The Association for Psychological Science published in 2013 “There’s no single type of procrastinator, but several general impressions." A professor named Piers Steel from University of Calgary explain this in the following manner: “The act of dillydallying can be boiled down to three human traits: the person's confidence, values, and impulsiveness (how susceptible he or she is to immediate delight).” Sharing three ways of getting side-tracked. “One is the characteristic of people who simply have a hard time getting started on a project, or a classic procrastinator. Another deals with a person who gets started, but then gets bogged down in details, or a classic perfectionist. The last is the person who is distractible, i.e., the student who has the paper to do, but decides to go out when a friend calls.” While our personal characteristics drive our procrastinating habits, the behavior of others can also affect academic procrastination. In “The Self and Parental Attitudes as Predictors of Academic Procrastination” Ulukaya explains a study made in Turkey that investigates the correlation of parental, self-attitudes, and academic procrastination of undergraduate students. The “study group was conducted in which 697 students who were attending various universities during fall 2011.” The results found that parental supervision/control was indeed a predictor of

Procrastination is the act or habit of putting tasks on hold. It is the unnecessary postponement of starting or finishing an undertaking, which eventually leads to distress (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984). The intentional delay of due tasks is very common among students and lately, it has become prevalent in college settings (Rabin, Fogel & Nutter-Upham, 2011).

Procrastination is a bad habit of delaying or postponing something until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday. As Mason Cooley says, “Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.” I am sure that all of you here have procrastinated at one time or another. I most definitely have. Teenagers do it all the time with

“A Dictionary of the English Language” written by Dr. Samuel Johnson, defined procrastination as “delay.” This common issue mostly around everyone. Many people struggle with deadlines every day. It is one of the largest problems seen in college counseling centers. (Grohol, Psy.D.)

According to a study conducted by the University of Calgary, 75% of the students surveyed described themselves as “chronic procrastinators”, and an estimated “80-95% of college students engage in procrastination.” This number is larger than it should be, yet it isn’t limited to just college students, for they’re not the only ones with deadlines to meet. Everyone around the world is susceptible to procrastination, and people can and do lay back anything, from washing the dishes, to starting their dream garden. Procrastination can be short-term, like when a report is due, or long-term, for things that aren’t necessarily required by anyone, but needed for general happiness in life. Procrastination is a major roadblock in doing anything, and I

According to dictionary.com, the meaning of procrastination is “the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention”.

The questionnaire was posted online for psyc121 students of Victoria University of Wellington. “Please read each statement, and select the option that best describes how much you agree or disagree with each one” was the instruction given to the participants when completing a Pure Procrastination Scale (PPS) which was developed by Steel (2010). It had 12 items and on a one to five scale where one is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree. A statement “I generally delay before starting on work I have to do”. Higher scores meant higher levels of procrastination.