What Are The Causes Of Procrastination Among University Students

Each college student will face procrastination at some point in her college career. It is an epidemic of the academic world. Depending on the student it will impact her sleeping habits, grades, and overall health. However, each student will handle it differently. Some will depart from college with minimal stress and others with grey hairs. Either way, procrastination will surely be a part of the college world

I myself have been guilty of procrastinating on a daily basis. Seniors still want to make solid grades depite their lack of motivation to get them. As a result of putting off studying, students often cheat to maintain decent grades. Furthermore, some of them wait until the night before the test to cram in study time. Because of the desire for money and freedom, many upperclassmen spend their time working instead of completing homework assignments. A year of procrastination and negating responsibilities can turn into bad habits that follow some students for years to

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.

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

Since the high school, some students develop a certain way of reflection, including myself. To only learn what the teacher teach, to see that your grade reflect what you really are, when you struggle in a subject you cannot improve yourself. Procrastination is one of the greatest feedback of a student who tend to delay his homework, his study in reason of some distraction which will worth him. All this difficulties was a stumbling block for a

Procrastination and putting things off can have many consequences in your life. I know this because I am always waiting until the last minute to do anything whether it is getting ready for work or getting my homework done. Although you can still get your work done on time, procrastinating can drastically impact a student’s life by leading to decreased grades, an increase in stress, and a lack of responsibility ultimately reducing the student’s chances for success.

During my time as an undergrad and now graduate student at Florida International University, I have dealt with a fair share of procrastination. After discussing this topic with other students I came to the realization I was not alone. Procrastination is quite common in university students and can adversely affect one’s life in a wide variety of ways. For students, procrastination may be especially troublesome, as it can interfere with the ability to

In my study, laziness is the most common reason student procrastinate. Timothy A Pychyl, a professor who specializes in the study of procrastination says “procrastinators often remark that they lack the motivation necessary to act. They have an intention to act, but they fail to act in a timely fashion even though they recognize

College students have to balance work, family, and college activists and any delaying behavior from within can cause an unbalance. This behavior is called procrastinating and it can lead to problems in many areas of a student’s life. College students are the worst hit by this type of behavior because they have many different activities to focus on instead of studying. These activities can cause students to study when they have time which often is usually too short amount of time. There is a time and place to relax and enjoy life, but if students focus on playing around instead of getting their assignments done, college life will be stressful.

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.

Zeenath and Ocrullo (2012) indicated that university students procrastinate because of its affective consequences. External factors, such as peer influence and coping strategies, surrounding them also contribute to this. Furthermore, the way of teaching of the professors also affects the performance of the students toward the tasks given to them. Procrastination is the reason behind the poor academic performance and unhealthy lifestyle of the students. However, even if the individuals receive negative consequences, they still choose to

A great deal of students don’t develop effective study habits and this ultimately results in feeling a decreased sense of self-esteem, stress, disorganisation, poor academic success, and a negative sense of self-efficacy which is linked to poor self-control (Pychyl & Dann, 2010). This is primarily caused by procrastinating. Procrastination is delaying an activity that possesses important benefits for us in the long-term but is voluntarily delayed in the short-term because of short-term impulsive temptations which offer greater immediate rewards (Steel, 2007). I chose to modify this problematic target behaviour because it was where I exercised poor self-control.

Students can avoid procrastination by following the S.M.A.R.T. goal guidelines. All of your goals should be specific (s), measurable (m), achievable (a), realistic (r), and time-sensitive (t). A specific goal is clear, focused, concise, and well-defined (“Ensure Your Success”). Instead of a general goal like “I want to get my degree,” turn that into something more specific like “I am going to get my Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from George Mason University” (“Ensure Your Success”). To make goals measurable, establish timelines and dates so you can measure your progress and stay on track to meet targets. Goals need to be achievable. Evaluate your own work ethic, see what you’re willing to do, and shape your goal around that so you know it is something you’re capable of doing. A goal needs to be realistic, something that you are

“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.

An equally important cause for procrastinating could be the laziness one might have. For a college student, several amounts of homework could be assigned within the first week of school, but the professor might state that those specific assignments to that class will be due at the end of the semester. So, one would say to themselves that there is plenty of time not to worry, so the student kicks back and worries about other things. Once, the end of the semester comes the person could have forgotten about the assignment that was given in the beginning of their school year. Now, there is little time to get the tasks finished and turned in, while other teachers in other classes might have assigned homework for the same due date as the other professor. Of course, at this point, the student regrets the decision that he or she might have made to procrastinate until a couple of days before the due date, now the