REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Procrastination is a self-handicapping behavior that occurs when people delay

completing
a task they intend to complete, potentially leading to lost productivity, poor
performance, and
increased stress (Steel, 2007). In this review, the concept of procrastination and
more
specifically academic procrastination will be examined. Procrastination is a
pervasive human
event that there are over 600 self-help books addressing solutions to this
phenomenon (Ferrarri,2010). This behavior is so significant that in 2010 alone,
120 new books were written and published on this topic (McRaney, 2010). Even
though procrastination is a common occurrence, the behavior is not fully
understood.
Academic procrastination is considered a domain-specific form of self-regulation
failure.
Although academic procrastination is the form of procrastination most often
researched, there is much to be explored. Current research does not support a
theoretical model for academic
procrastination. In addition, there is a significant lack of literature regarding
the prevalence of
high school and college students who procrastinate in international settings,
and more
specifically in the United States. This review will also examine literature
regarding the
relationship between academic procrastination and achievement. It is hoped
that this review will contribute to research to assist educators in constructing
interventions tailored to an individual student’s specific profile and needs to
minimize academic procrastination. This review will begin by discussing
procrastination’s history.

Definition of Procrastination

Due to procrastination having timeless origins and being a common-language

term, researchers define procrastination in a multitude of ways. Currently,
there is no absolute consensus among researchers for procrastination’s
definition because different researchers highlight various aspects of the
behavior. However, the definition has evolved as more research has been
conducted, and therefore, deeper understanding of procrastination has been
reached.
For this reason, in scholarly communities and for the general public, delay is a
needed concept in understanding the accepted criteria for procrastination and
fundamental due to the word’s Latin origins (Lay, 1986; Solomon & Rothblum,
1984). The word procrastination originates from the Latin “procrastinatus,”
which is divided into two parts. The first part “pro” means “forward” and the
second part “crastinatus” means “of tomorrow” (Klein, 1971). Thus,
procrastination translates to delaying something until tomorrow.
A commonly used definition in procrastination research is “the putting off of
that which is necessary to reach some goal” (Lay, 1986, p. 475). Some
additional common definitions are
“the tendency to delay or completely avoid responsibilities, decisions, or tasks
that need to be done” (Tuckman & Sexton, 1986, p. 503). In addition, the
Oxford English Dictionary defines
procrastination as "the action or habit of postponing or putting something off."
Nevertheless,
these definitions are not adequate because a person could put off a task without
having any
intentions to work on the task. Thus, to exclude people who have no intention of
completing a
task a layman’s definition for procrastination is “to be slow or late about doing
something that
should be done; to delay doing something until a later time because you do not
want to do it,
because you are lazy, etc.” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, n d.). In other words,
procrastination
is to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done. Therefore,
many
researchers include in the definition the concept that a person must intend to
delay completing a task. Beswick and Mann (1994) stated that “procrastination
is when we delay beginning or
completing an intended course of action” (p. 391). Thus, this definition is more
comprehensive
but it is still not complete.

Procrastination cannot be simply defined as a person intentionally delaying

completing a task due to people having differing perceptions regarding delay
(Van Eerde, 2003). In addition to a person intending to delay a task, another
component to the definition is that procrastination
is “needless” in nature or avoidable. This concept is needed because some
people delay completing a task on purpose in order to complete more important
tasks. Thus, when more
important tasks are needing to be completed delaying working on smaller or
less important tasks would not be considered procrastination. When people
delay completing the smaller tasks, a person is managing their time efficiently.
An example of procrastination being avoidable is when a person choses to delay
completing an important task in order to a more favorable and less important
task such as socializing with friends.

Thus, in addition to the concept of intentionally avoiding a task, many

researchers
frequently include various additional concepts such as the delay being
dysfunctional or a person
experiencing emotional upset (Schouwendburg, 1995). Research has repeatedly
demonstrated
that when people delay completing a task it is a maladaptive response.
Soloman and Rothblum(1984) define procrastination as “the act of needlessly
delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort” (p. 503).
Ferrari (2010) uses a similar definition and defines procrastination as, “the
process of delaying is voluntary or purposeful and deliberate. And the process
feels uncomfortable, experiencing emotional unease from delaying” (p. 17). In
addition to the delay aspect, many times there is also some aspect of
psychological pain involved. However, some research definitions do not include
the aspect of psychological pain.

While many people who delay completing a task will feel stress and other
negative emotions,
others may not. Many researchers debate whether people need to experience
negative effects
such as discomfort from anxiety or diminished performance to be classified as
procrastinating
(Steel, 2007). Therefore, research is burgeoning that examines a subtype of
people who do not
experience negative effects when procrastinating (Chu & Choi, 2005). This
population reports
they work better under pressure and their work quality does not suffer due to
the delay. Thus,
due to this emerging population, one proposed criteria for a behavior to be
classified as
procrastination is being counterproductive, needless, and delaying (Schraw,
Wadkins, &
Olafson, 2007). Therefore, the most commonly used definition that includes
these criteria is “to
voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off
for the delay”
(Steel, 2007, p. 66). Thus, this definition includes all three aspects of
procrastination: delay,
Counter-productivity, and needlessness.

REASONS WHY STUDENTS PROCRASTINATE

Forgetting about it: For whatever reason missing class, being distracted when
the teacher
announced the homework, not writing it down, or forgetting to look at the class
website.
Sometimes students leave their work until the last minute because they
genuinely have no idea that there’s any work to be done. (That is, until a friend
mentions it the day beforehand or until they walk into class the next morning.)
Technically speaking, this wouldn’t be classified as “procrastination” because
the student is not resisting their work they simply don’t realize they have any
work! But this is definitely a common cause of leaving things until the last
minute.

Lack of clarity about the desired outcome: When students are confused by
an assignment,
or don’t know exactly what is expected of them, they often put off the
assignment in hopes that they will understand it better later. This is especially
problematic for students who are
uncomfortable with uncertainty or unknown situations. Unfortunately, when
they look at it the night before the deadline, they usually have no more
information than they did before and no time left to ask their teacher for
clarification. Optimistic time estimates. Optimism is a
wonderful quality in most situations. But when it comes to estimating how much
time it will
take to complete an assignment, optimistic time estimates can create big
problems. Students
commonly overestimate the amount of time they have left to complete
assignments, and
underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete them. Consequently,
they fail to
leave themselves enough time to complete the work.

Girl staying up late working on overdue assignment Overly-lenient

deadlines: When
teachers don’t enforce deadlines and allow students to turn in late work without
a penalty,
students learn that deadlines aren’t meaningful and cease to take them
seriously. Without
meaningful consequences, external deadlines can start to feel as arbitrary as
internal deadlines, which while helpful are not as effective at discouraging
procrastination.
Not knowing where to start. When students think of papers or projects as a
whole, rather than
as a series of steps, they can seem overwhelming and they don’t know where to
begin. So,
they end up putting the whole project off, until it’s so close to the deadline that
their worry
about not knowing the “right” place to start is overshadowed by their fear of not
having enough time to complete the work at all. Poor study routines. Students’
after-school routines tend to be fairly habitual. Once they are established, these
behavior patterns are followed automatically, with very little conscious thought.
For example, students sometimes will start watching TV as a break after school,
which automatically leads to procrastination because it’s hard to turn it off. Or,
students will have a pattern of leaving their most difficult work, their studying,
or their long-term projects until the end of their homework time, when they
have the least energy and the smallest amount of willpower. These habits can
cause students to procrastinate automatically, without even thinking about it.

Distractions: Sometimes students set aside time with the intention of

completing their work,
but end up distracted with other things. These distractions can be external
(Face book, text
messages, etc.) or internal (their own thoughts & impulses). Either way, this
results in them
spending time that had been budgeted for their work in other ways. Overwhelm.
When an assignment seems very complex or time-consuming, even thinking
about it can seem scary and stressful. So, students often fall into the trap of
putting it off. Unfortunately, this ultimately backfires when they eventually do
start the project because now the inherent difficulty of the project is
compounded by the fact that they have insufficient time to complete it. So, they
end up with far more stress than they would have had if they had started
earlier.

Perfectionism /Fear of failure: Students preoccupied with making their

projects “perfect”,
nervous about making mistakes or “messing them up”, or afraid of criticism, are
often so
concerned about doing assignments incorrectly that they will put them off to
avoid the anxiety they feel when they are trying to work on the project. This can
lead to the seemingly irrational behavior of avoiding the project even more as
the deadline approaches (because they become less and less likely to be able to
do a good job on it) until, at last, they are so close to the deadline that
producing an ideal assignment is no longer possible, and their only options are
to do an imperfect job or turn in nothing at all. Difficulty regulating emotions.

Recent studies have suggested that procrastination is less of problem with time
management than we had once believed, and more of a difficulty with emotional
regulation. Students who feel bored, tired, frustrated or nervous when they
work on assignments will often pursue a strategy of trying to make themselves
feel better in the short-term by downplaying the assignment (“it’s no big deal; it
won’t affect my grade much anyway”) and distracting themselves with fun,
rewarding activities in order to improve their mood.

Too many commitments: If a student has so many scheduled activities and so

little free time
that their life feels like an endless string of obligations and chores, with little or
no time off,
they may use procrastination as a method to artificially create “free time” for
themselves.
Unfortunately, this type of “free time” is usually not very satisfying because it’s
also
accompanied with a sense of guilt for avoiding the things they “should” be
working on.

Resistance: Students will sometimes procrastinate as a form of rebellion when

they view work as something that is being “forced” on them by an unreasonable
teacher or authoritarian
parents. Procrastination becomes their way of resisting this authority. When
students think of
assignments as something they “have to” do, schoolwork becomes a chore
rather than a choice and they are more tempted to procrastinate on it.
Procrastination can then become their way of resisting the message that they
are “supposed to” complete their work by showing teachers and parents “you
can’t make me do it”.

Girl asleep staying up late to work on homework .The solutions to use with
students are
different for each of these scenarios which is why it is so important to identify
the root cause
for a student’s procrastination before giving them tips or advice about how to
fix it. For
example, reminders about the consequences of an impending deadline may help
a teen who
hasn’t been taking deadlines seriously but, for a student with a fear of failure or
difficulty
regulating emotions, it could actually make things worse by increasing their
anxiety about the
assignment and their desire to do something else in order to avoid these
negative emotions.