We Must Work to Overcome Procrastination 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.

Another thing I could relate the procrastination to is a lack of motivation. In high school I didn’t have to do much studying or spend time writing long papers or doing assignments. So when I came to college I thought it would be the same way and I quickly learned that the college work load is much different and more intense than a high school work load. This was a major factor in my GPA being where it was. I was not extremely motivated to be taking all the general education classes I was enrolled in and therefore did not invest the time that I should have. Having a good GPA is not a primary instinct like hunger or thirst, it is taught to you that you should strive to have a good GPA. Hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex are all primary drives of motivation and are all biological needs.

     To procrastinate is to put off doing something out of casual carelessness or common laziness. It often needlessly postpones or delays events or objectives in your life which can effect others. Procrastination is almost like a drug in your life, because once you start doing it a little bit, it slowly adds up to a dependency that you will find to be common habit. Although this is what we all perceive procrastination to be bad, there are some benefits to it. It can have beneficial impact on how you take pressure, or how well you can act when time is limited.

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:

1.      What am I talking about? I am the thief of productiveness and time. I sound simple, but in fact I’m quite complex. I am a strange phenomenon. My purpose seems to make my life more pleasant, but instead it almost always adds stress, disorganization, and frequent failure. I want to achieve some outcome, usually something myself and others can value and respect; “I’ve got to start.” I delay briefly thinking of real and imagined advantages of starting to change later; “I will do it tomorrow.”

People procrastinate because they are afraid to fail, they have poor time management, they avoid things that seem difficult or they feel depressed or they feel guilty. Some people believe that other procrastinate out of laziness or lack of discipline, but I know there are perfectionists that often procrastinate as well. For example, a perfectionist may put off writing a paper until the night before it is due and then they will have an excuse saying, “I restarted because I didn’t like what I had written.”. Another example is that some philosophers and scientists, such that Aristotle questioned if time even exists, and Einstein believed that time was a muddle in which the past, present and future were only illusions.

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

The problem of procrastination starts when a student waits until minutes before a class to study for a class. This may seem like a solution for students who are pressed for time; however, this doesn’t allow time for the information to be solidified and vital information can be lost. These behaviors form because students have found that in the past they were able to successfully pass the class by doing their homework literally hours before the projects deadline. This reckless learning may help pass the class, but doesn’t give the information the time needed to be solidified into memory. This reckless learning also produces effects within projects that are often below the students’ academic level and can cause

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.

According to Semb, Glick and Spencer (1979), the level of procrastination increases as an individual stays longer in universities. It was stated by Ellis and Knaus (1977) that approximately, over 70% of college students engage in this activity. Undergraduates tend to start papers during the last minute; they fail to prioritize what should be accomplished first, and as a result, their academic performance is greatly affected. A detrimental effect on their studies leads to having poor grades and eventually, failure in class (Semb, et.al., 1979).

Many people believe that procrastination is derived completely from laziness but the culprit could be multiple things, including perfectionism. This can become a huge problem for perfectionists, especially perfectionist students. They most likely will overthink projects and put off getting started because they’re afraid they won’t be able to make them as perfect as they want them to be. Luckily this is a common issue among students and there are many different techniques to cope with it. Students can overcome procrastination due to perfectionism by setting S.M.A.R.T goals, creating detailed to-do lists, and by just getting started.

(Piers Steel, Thomas Brothen, Catherine Wambach 2001) study looks at relationship between procrastination, personality, performance and mood in 152 undergraduates. The study relied on self-evaluations from the participants. The participants first had to complete a

Every student sets goals and deadlines to get their work done on time, but some wait until the last minute. As the grade level increases, the work load and difficulty increases, leading to more procrastination. Most students in high school procrastinate, and the question is, why? Is the work too hard? Do their teacher’s leniency cause them to? Do students not have enough time? Do extra-curricular activities take up too much of their time? There has been many other research studies on this topic, but I wanted to see if the students in my survey and interviews had any different correlations.

No worries! You are not the only one. Truth be told, numerous individuals delay to some degree – however, some are so chronically influenced by procrastination that it stops them satisfying their potential. Ultimately, it disturbs their career.

There are all always two types of students in this small world, first, the students that come ready to class with a three to five-page essay all proofread, nice and stapled with three transition sentences highlighted turned. Second, there are those students who come to class with not even half of a paper written out, unstapled, not a single transitional sentence highlighted and may have plenty of errors due to not proofreading the essay. Those second group of students are procrastinators, which are people who delay an assignment to do the task right before the deadline. Now, why do most of all 99.99% of school boys and girls procrastinate? Well, most people might have problems with lack of focus, or the person might be lazy and decide to