Think about this instance:
Its 1pm: You think to yourself I’ll start my assignment at 1:30pm
You go to TikTok watch some reels.
You go to Instagram to check what’s on the stories section.
You go to Facebook to look at new updates on your family and friends life
Looking at the time you see its: 1:45pm
You think oh well, I’ll just start at 2pm then…
This continues on and on… until the final hours of the time a person has for the assignment must be submitted.
What is Procrastination? A lot of students fall under this, and it is the delay in doing a task and it depends on the reason for using it and what kind of student you are; it can be an adaptive or maladaptive coping mechanism (Gruman et al., 2016). There are two types of people based on our book that do procrastinate: (1) one of them is that they take pleasure in working under pressure to meet the deadline, making them pull an “all nighter” (2) The other is that the person with a task is afraid of failing they don’t know how to complete a task it is unpleasant to them to finish the assignment (Gruman et al., 2016).
Self-regulation is linked to Procrastination; task management, planning, and completion depend on one’s capacity for self-regulation of behavior and motivational factors (Gruman et al., 2016). There is a negative view of students dealing with this. Research by Hailikari et al. (2021) has shown it is associated with lower academic performance, more stress, and a lack of mental health—individuals who deal with this need to work on self-regulation, as the long term can be harmful. For example, more stress, low quality of work, relationship complications regarding their schedule messing up their plans with others, and even health issues can arise due to the high-stress level.
But how do we procrastinate? Nowadays, we are in our digital era. The internet is to inspect this phenomenon on the issue. One study found that in part due to their design features that encourage immersion and continual interaction, it lures them into digging deeper into the media (Alblwi et al., 2021). An example is if let’s call this girl Erika, she does her assignments and submits them just in time for the deadline to close. How did she get there? She was using her phone, scrolling through Instagram or watching YouTube videos on her phone. She sets up a timer that in 10 minutes she start, but it never happens until it is stretching close to the deadline. Luckily, she made it on time with a few seconds to spare. The internet can be good and bad. It’s just the time management of how a person can behave and have self-control.
So, what can we do? One could be to set a realistic goal; this can be I’ll read a couple of chapters in (How to Stop Procrastinating: Tips and Techniques for Overcoming Procrastination, 2023). Two can be do something in your list that is the easiest; if you can’t do your primary assignment, what is a small step into tackling your task? The action can be reading the lessons on the site or researching the topic. Another could be a change in your environment, such as working in your bedroom and switching it to a place that wouldn’t distract you from what you need to complete, so find a quiet place that can help you be in a better state of mind (Bokari & Larson, 2021).
Resources:
(1) Alblwi, A., McAlaney, J., Al-Thani, D., Phalp, K., & Ali, R. (2021). Procrastination on social
media: predictors of types, triggers and acceptance of countermeasures. Social Network Analysis
and Mining, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-021-00727-1
(2) Bokari , D., & Larson, J. (2021, April 20). 5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating. Mechanical and
(3) Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering.
://www.boisestate.edu/coen-mbe/2021/04/20/5-ways-to-stop-procrastinating/
(4) Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology (3rd ed.).
SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781506353968
(5) Hailikari, T., Katajavuori, N., & Asikainen, H. (2021). Understanding procrastination: A case of
a study skills course. Social Psychology of Education, 24(2), 589–606.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-021-09621-2
(6) Jones, I. (2021). Year two: Effect of procrastination on academic performance of undergraduate
online students. Research in Higher Education Journal, 39.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1293903.pdf
(7) How to Stop Procrastinating: Tips and Techniques for Overcoming Procrastination – Solving
Procrastination. (2023). Solvingprocrastination.com. https://solvingprocrastination.com/how-to
stop-procrastinating/