The Importance Of Procrastination In College Students

Students vary greatly in their tendency to procrastinate, that is, willingly yet unreasonably delaying an intended course of action (Gustavson, Miyake, Hewitt, & Friedman, 2015). Approximately 30% to 60% of undergraduate college students report regularly delaying of educational tasks such as studying for tests, writing term papers, and completing daily assignments, to the point at which completely well on an assignment becomes highly unlikely (Rabin, Fogel, & Nutter-Upham, 2011). The habit to postpone working across the lifespan goes hand in hand with personality qualities such as careful kindness and behavior that shows no self-control and is strongly related to people’s age, race, income, education, and whether have been married or divorced (Gustavson et al., 2015).

Internal discomfort can be from irritation, nervousness, anxiety, or regret. There is also external discomfort such as failure in academics, the loss of opportunities, stress in relationships, or increase of health risks (Rabin et al., 2011). The difference between procrastinators and non-procrastinators is that one group of students are more goal-oriented than another. College students who delay completing tasks also do not make use of internal and external signals to control when to start, maintain, and end goal-directed actions (Rabin et al., 2011). There are many ways to minimize the effects of procrastination among these individuals. If students do not learn the proper way in concentrating and paying attention, their performance in their academics and work are destined to fail. This paper will be discussing the negative and positive effects of procrastination and how it relates to self-control and emotional well-being among college