How Procrastination Impacts Students Academically

Procrastination is avoiding doing a task that needs to be accomplished by a specific deadline. It has become the most common issue that causes interference in an individual’s daily life, particularly when it connects to the context of academic factors.

Procrastination is an issue that many people deal with regularly. Students may feel like they have a lot of work to do, but if they don’t prioritise it correctly, they may feel overwhelmed. Organizing their to-do lists can eliminate the feeling of being overwhelmed and help them start working on their tasks.

Writing down their tasks helps them remember and frees up mental space, allowing their mind to concentrate on completing the task. Keeping their to-do list up-to-date will also help them to prioritise their tasks.

Effects of procrastination on students

Students who procrastinate are usually unable to complete essential educational tasks on time, and this may, later on, cause significant distress in their academic functioning. Here are some of the effects of procrastination:

• It develops discipline problems: Students can quickly procrastinate because they lack discipline and don’t understand the value of the domain; disciplined people always complete their work as per their priorities, but students with a lack of discipline quality often do the opposite.
• Students with procrastination have a fear of failure: Students who procrastinate easily face the fear of failure in them. They feel that they can’t do specific work. What will others say and think about them if they try and fail? This fear of failure triggers them mentally and physically and doesn’t allow them to complete the task correctly.
• It increases the stress and tension in students: As the students start delaying their work for the next day, they begin to meet with anxiety because, at that time, they only think about the deadline given to them, which increases the chances of the burden on them to complete the task in the given time.

Benefits of procrastination

• Boosts creativity: Delaying the work means the students have more time to think about a creative way of performing any task and provides them with a more efficient solution. When they finally reach down to complete the work.
• It provides the Energy Boost: When you procrastinate, it is found to be a tiresome task. An imminent deadline brings with it a boost of energy.
• It directs to prioritisation: Prioritisation is crucial to help the students focus on what is most important and work toward it. It allows them to eliminate unnecessary tasks and things they might have begun, making them feel more productive.
• Enhances motivation: It makes the tedious task interesting and exciting because it provides enough time for students to gain more information and knowledge regarding the tasks.
• Lowers stress levels: Procrastinators experience less stress and have better physical health when the deadlines are far out. It makes a lot of sense when they think about it; through procrastination, they also slow down any anxiety or stress and limit it to the least amount of time possible.

Strategies to overcome Procrastination

There are many strategies to overcome procrastination and some of these are as follows:

• Removal of the source of distraction: Remove all the distractions that become an obstacle to your attention and concentration, whether it is social media or other distractions; try to turn them off.
• Prepare a to-do list: It helps the students track their tasks. Consider putting a scheduled date next to each item.
• Compliment yourself for completing the task: When you finish a task on your to-do list on time, compliment yourself and reward yourself by indulging in something you see as fun.
• Divide the task into smaller parts: Break the task into numerous effortless tasks, which you can do in one attempt, and then the study seems too easy and understandable to the students.