The Inclination Toward the Procrastination Habit in American Teenagers

1132 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What factors influence procrastination

“Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today;” Abraham Lincoln, our nation’s 13th President, spoke about procrastinating over a century and a half ago. Did he foreshadow the new procrastination problem infecting our youth today? Maybe, but it’s become an epidemic, spreading across the nation like wildfire. Nevertheless, there’s a difference between those who procrastinate and those who are procrastinators. A non-procrastinator and a procrastinator both have to-do lists with 12 tasks to accomplish; the non-procrastinator finishes tasks one through nine and leaves the rest for another day, but the procrastinator tends to do one or two things before reorganizing the list and procrastinating on the rest (Jaffe). One can argue that procrastinators have symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder causing their lack in concentration, but many teens feel as if they don’t have enough time to finish everything they need to do. Procrastination is not a mental disorder; teenagers simply delay harder projects to do easier assignments, fear being rejected by their peers, and hope for a last minute sense of urgency that will propel them to do better on their endeavors.
Making a list and getting organized is one of the easiest things for teens to do; the hardest part is sitting down and getting the mentally demanding things done (Knaus). Teenagers tend to do their easiest homework first; depending on their personalities, math or writing might come with ease. Teenagers who have low self-control or self-discipline struggle to complete a task they find boring so they start early and get a head start but quickly fall behind when they sidetrack to work on less important assignments (Jaffe). Students complete various effortless jobs and leave the ...

... middle of paper ...

...to “just do it” is like telling a chronically depressed person to “be happy.”

Works Cited

Ferrari, Joseph, Dr. "Psychology of Procrastination: Why People Put Off Important Tasks Until the Last Minute." American Psychological Association. 5 April 2010. Web. 02 May 2014.
Jaffe, Eric. "Why Wait? The Science Behind Procrastination." Association for Psychological Science RSS. Association for Psychological Science. n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
Knaus, Bill, Dr. "Is It Procrastination or Distraction?" Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC. 4 Nov. 2011. Web. 03 May 2014.
Pickhardt, Carl E. "Procrastination: How Adolescents Encourage Stress." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC. 21 June 2009. Web. 01 May 2014.
Pychyl, Timothy, Dr. "Procrastination, Guilt, Excuses and the Road Less Traveled." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC. 18 Nov. 2009. Web. 02 May 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Procrastination: A Philosophical Examination of Willpower

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    Procrastination in terms of weakness of will has only been recently discussed in philosophical discourse. According to Richard Holton, weakness of will or the lack of willpower is defined as acting against one’s values or when one is too easily able to reconsider their intentions. Procrastination, by definition, is the act of avoiding completing tasks often until rearing that deadline. Procrastination has commonly been viewed as irrational and has held a negative connotation, partly due to being considered a willful act by an individual. Procrastination, like other aspects that resemble a lack of willpower, is naturally attached to the concept of weakness of will by not only laymen, but also theorists and philosophers. Only recently has procrastination

    Read More

  • Procrastination: A Biological or Psychological Phenomenon?

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a chronic procrastinator myself I would have to say from experience that I do more often than not make a decision to procrastinate. When I procrastinate it is most times because I believe that I don’t need the time that I am given to get my work done, or simply that I don’t want to work on the project that day. In a paper written by a Serendip Student entitled “Procrastination: Habit or Disorder,” the author sheds light on the psychological view point of procrastination. The author breaks it up into two categories, behavioral procrastination and decisional procrastination. The author relates behavioral procrastination to self-handicap, meaning that those people use procrastination as an excuse to blame something for the reason that they did not pass that test. In this article, the author uses an experiment conducted by Ferrari and Tic, “participants (men and women) perform an identical task twice. In the first study, participants were notified that they would be evaluated on their performance of the task. Time was allotted for practice or engaging in fun activities. Results found that participants procrastinated for 60% of the time. The second study described the identical task as a fun game. Results of activity during the time allotted showed that procrastinators, in comparison

    Read More

  • Why college students cheat

    787 Words  | 2 Pages

    “I’ll do it later this week, I have time” some of the most commonly used words for procrastinators. Individuals who are procrastinators sometimes feel they work best under pressure, giving them a way to self-sooth themselves when facing reality of the work that lies ahead. Many procrastinators have very busy lives, such as working full or part time, others are juggling family life with kids in addition to work. It seems as if finding the balance between their everyday lives while attending school are for many a recipe for disaster. Those who leave work until the last minute are really never able to find the time to accomplish the work. If we take procrastinators for face value we ca...

    Read More

  • Overcoming Writer's Block and Procrastination

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Klassen, Robert, Lindsey Krawchuk, and Sukaina Rajani. "Academic procrastination of undergraduates: Low self-efficacy to self-regulate predicts higher levels of procrastination." Contemporary Educational Psychology. 33.4 (2008): 915-931. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. .

    Read More

  • Procrastination

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    The computer is on, the coffee maker. is cooking, and I am under a lot of stress. "There isn't a lot of time left," I said. keep telling myself as I look at the blank piece of paper in front of me. " I know I can do it," I keep encouraging myself while my mind generates zero ideas for my essay which is due six hours from now. & nbsp; Everyone I know procrastinates, my friends, relatives, even people in government.

    Read More

  • Procrastination and College Students

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...rs tend to overestimate the degree of unpleasantness of a task” (Lay, 46). Procrastination is a problem that when left unchecked can cause serious problems in every aspect of a person’s life. The solution for students can be as easy as sticking to a goal or as hard as denying themselves a prize when they missed the deadline on a project. The type of solution a person uses depends on what works best for that student, but a schedule to help stay goal positioned never hurt.

    Read More

  • Academic Procrastination and Motivators

    2101 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ferrari, J. R. (2010). Still procrastinating: the no-regrets guide to getting it done. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

    Read More

  • Nonprocastonators Are Procrastination Is False

    288 Words  | 1 Pages

    One thing procrastination does is that people do nothing. I should know, because, again, I am one. I find myself doing something else like playing video games, or watching YouTube rather than writing a paper. It says in the article, This Was Supposed to be My Column for New Years Day, It says that “procrastinators seldom do nothing” This statement is false. We do it

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Procrastination

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    A. H. C. Chu and J. N. Choi, psychologists, distinguished two types of protracting, they discovered that active procrastination has attainable characteristics that lead to positive personal outcomes (Choi and Moran). These positive personal outcomes are a result of waiting at its finest. People with these adequate dilatory skills have probably learned from their deficient habits in the past that may help everyone know that the view of holding off can change. Writing this essay has changed my view on procrastination slightly, as I can see how it can be good for you. With my siblings, my free time is limited.

    Read More

  • Psychological Time Orientation

    1091 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our text book, authored by Richmond, McCroskey, and Hickson (2012), identified three psychological time orientations, pat, present, and future orientations. Past-orientation refers to people who “place high regard on the past, the reliving of past events, and cherishing past happiness” (p. 194). These types of people allow the present to shaped by past events. This orientation can be related to procrastination because, if you have a project deadline (i.e. essay or school project) but you didn’t get as good a grade on the last assignment, you may relive those moments and think that you 'll fail because thats what happened the first time around. Instead of looking at the current project as something new with new possibilities, your mind goes

    Read More

  • Solving the Problem of Procrastination

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    People all procrastinate at one time or another. Procrastination is the practice of delaying work on important tasks in favor of less challenging ones. Chronic procrastinating hinders productivity and affects our state of mind by creating anxiety and stress (Reichelt). As deadlines approach, one often feels frustration and guilt for not starting on a task earlier. We often assume that projects won't take as long to finish as they really will, which often results in a mad scramble to finish the project in the twenty-four hours before the projects deadline. One of the biggest factors contributing to procrastination is the misconception that we need to be inspired or in the mood to work on the task at hand (Reichelt). However, the reality is that if you wait for the “right time” you will most likely wait for an indefinite amount of time and the task will never get completed.

    Read More

  • The Pressures on Today's Teenagers

    1786 Words  | 4 Pages

    In today's society, there are many pressures in the lives of teenagers. The tornado of school crashes through their lives causing destruction. and the chaos of the world. This destruction causes so many demands and deadlines, that teenagers find it hard to cope. From this they turn to easier, less.

    Read More

  • The Negative Effects of Procrastination

    739 Words  | 2 Pages

    About 4 out of every 10 people avoid facing difficult task and deliberately look for distractions, and unfortunately there are distractors everywhere. When there is a significant period between when you intended do a job and the time you actually did it, you procrastinated.

    Read More

  • Cause And Effects Of Procrastination

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most humans have habits, habits in which they do simply because if they do not do them they feel uncomfortable. Procrastination is one of those habits that not all, but most people suffer from. Procrastination means to put off key things to do less important things that could possibly wait. It has been proving that all most everyone procrastinates, but procrastination does not determine what type of person one is. Procrastination is like a virus or a bad cold that does not want to go away. If one does not stop the problem it will get bigger; therefore, if people do not control their procrastinating they will start to do it more. However, the worst time to procrastinate is in college. College students often forget hoe important time is. Being a procrastinator can lead to several different outcomes. Procrastination can led to either good or bad outcomes. It all depends on the person doing the procrastinating. Procrastination is not always meant to happen; sometimes it simply happens because a person is too busy. Procrastination has both good and bad causes and effects, can cause failure, and bad decisions.

    Read More

  • Reaction Paper On Procrastination

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Procrastination has been connected to irrational behavior, and neurological disorders. I’m a procrastinator and I am going to try to change my behavior by reading a few articles. As of today, I tell myself that I will clean my room later tonight and a week goes by, before I actually do something. Not only do I procrastinate cleaning my room, I also put aside homework to do other things that I would rather enjoy, than the things that don't give me satisfaction. I have observed that we are all distracted by technology and there are many things that help us put aside important things we need to do. I feel that because I do not feel pleasure from doing homework or cleaning, I tend to procrastinate cleaning to do something I enjoy. I believe that procrastination is something I can work on and after reading articles about this behavior it will help me understand more on how to change this behavior. In this paper, I am going to explain how I will apply a few techniques to help me clean my room and not procrastinate.

    Read More

More about The Inclination Toward the Procrastination Habit in American Teenagers

Open Document