Essay Example on Overcoming Procrastination: The Keys to Academic Success

Introduction

Procrastination has been described as the behavioral or trait disposition to delay or postpone making decisions or performing a task. Primarily, it has been seen as an impediment way to academic success as it decreases the quantity and quality of learning while at the same time increasing the adverse outcomes and severity in student's lives. Primarily, perfectionism, identify the style, and self-consciousness is integral parts of procrastination. Consequently, procrastination is also linked to self-esteem and anxiety (Mohammed et al., 5). Procrastination has become an essential part of the study because it mainly involves behavioral, cognitive, and affective mechanisms (Zhang et al., 492). Perfectionism has indicated a significant relationship with anxiety and depression. Primarily, academic procrastination is mainly described as the intentional delay by students in the completion or beginning of critical educational activities. It has become a widespread activity in school as more than 60 percent of students in undergraduate level indicating that they have at some point had to postpone educational tasks including exams, studying, reading weakly assignments, writing term papers, to a point when the optimal point at which god performance becomes unlikely.

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Although occasional delays are acceptable most of the time and they may be advantageous, what mainly distinguishes habitual or problematic procrastination for deciding to undertake an activity at a later date or time is the accompanying internal subjective discomfort. In most cases, this discomfort may be due to anxiety, regret, self-blame, and despair (Cebi et al., 447). Moreover, there are also external consequences to chronic academic procrastination, and they include decreased learning, increased health risks, strained relationships, and compromised performance and progress (Zhang et al., 499). Because of these negative aspect's researchers have made several studies on procrastination, and they have made several possible predictions. Moreover, several studies have found out that worry, depression, and anxiety are associated with procrastination.

Effects of Procrastination

Each individual is guilty of procrastination at some point in their life, and no one is a stranger to it. Some people are lucky to identify it early enough and take control. However, others are not able to identify it in time, and it ends up destroying their lives (Mohammed et al., 7). The reason why people procrastinate depends on individual to individual. In most cases, it is the hidden fear that people do not want to acknowledge or do something that does not motivate them (Cebi et al., 447). The effects of procrastination include the following.

Losing Precious Time

People postpone activities either to get free of engaging in other activities that are not constructive. This mostly affects students, and they come to realize the impact later in their life how much time they have wasted (Cebi et al., 447). The worst thing is that no one can change back time. Moreover, this is a terrible thing because one cannot turn back time, and he or she will live the feeling of regret (Rabin et al., 356). There is no worse feeling for a student that frustration knowing that the situation could have been much different if he or she has taken the correct step or decision.

Blowing Opportunities

Most students miss a lot of opportunities because they did not take advantage of them when time allowed them to do so; instead, they engage in activities that were not constructive. Primarily, what most students do not understand is that when they decide to procrastinate, they will miss several opportunities (Mohammed et al., 12). Primarily, most opportunities only come around once, and there is no guarantee of a second chance (Munoz-Olano and Camilo 176). When these opportunities come around the students, need to take them with open hands.

Not Meeting Goals

For instance, when students decide to postpone writing a term paper to another time. He is likely to write a poor essay because he will be writing the paper under pressure and will likely lose some marks (Ann-Marie et al., 29). The student should uncover the leading cause of procrastination if it is preventing him from achieving his goals and objectives.

Ruin Career

Most students miss their career targets because they try academic procrastination. Through this, they miss important deadlines for their class works, such as term papers and even exams. Most of them end up failing their course or graduating with lower degrees (Zhang et al., 493). Others also end up not graduating as they did not complete their course work, and in the long run, they will ruin their career and not discover their potential (Rabin et al., 355). Consequently, most people miss on promotion because they failed some exams due to academic procrastination.

Lower Self-Esteem

There is no question that academic procrastination leads to lower self-esteem. Most people who do academic procrastination have low grades, and this affects their self-esteem when they are with their friends (Mohammed et al., 10). Primarily, having low self-esteem destroys most lives in several ways. People with low self-esteem are likely to hold themselves back as they feel less than they should, and this leads to self-sabotaging acts.

Making Poor Decisions

Academic procrastination results in poor decisions about the place the student is coming from. This is because students who procrastinate will make decisions that they would did not have made if they did not procrastinate (Zhang et al., 498). Moreover, for students to procrastinate, they are mainly influenced by emotions, which heavily influences how they make their decisions. Primarily, poor decision making has negative effects on life, happiness, and results (Munoz-Olano and Camilo, 178).

Demoing Reputation

Academic procrastination results in poor reputation as an individual are mainly associated with poor grades (Cebi et al., 447). Moreover, no individual will want to be associated will an individual with a poor reputation.

How Can Students Learn to Avoid Procrastinating?

Procrastination has several negative impacts on student's grades, overall health, and schoolwork. Primarily, students who engage in procrastination have high levels of frustration, anxiety, guilt, stress, depression, and low self-esteem (Rabin et al., 348). This results in bad grades and low self-confidence that is difficult for students to overcome (Mohammed et al., 8). To avoid procrastination for college students, they need to adopt the following methods.

Break Projects into Smaller Tasks

Engaging in big projects can be overwhelming for a student at the outset. The student should break down an activity or project into smaller, manageable parts such as editing, research, and writing (Ann-Marie et al., 23). This is crucial as it will help the student develop and practice time management and project planning skills.

Make the Activity or Project Meaningful

Finding ways to make the activity or project meaningful and engaging to the student is a crucial way of ensuring that the student connects and creates interest with the project (Zhang et al., 491). Relating to the project is essential as it makes the students learn how to relate to real-life scenarios and activities.

Build Confidence

Some students are afraid of failing, and that's the reason why they decide to procrastinate. This dramatically affects their self-confidence and esteem (Rabin et al., 352). When the student boosts his confidence, he or she can develop a positive attitude towards the work of activity, and it will become easier to start.

Create a Dedicated Study Space

Students who do bot have proper study space become distracted easily aby activities going around them, and this results in procrastinating the activity. In order to avoid such situations, it is advisable to have a quiet space to study and do other academic activities (Ann-Marie et al., 20). Moreover, it is essential to make sure that space has all the necessary materials to facilitate the study or activity.

Eat Healthy and Get Lots of Sleep

Healthy eating and having an adequate sleep increase the amount of energy as well as the focus and brainpower. This is crucial as it will ensure that the student will be performing as his or her level best (Zhang et al., 495). Having regular sleep routine and sticking to the set bedtime is essential in ensuring that the student remains focused.

Set Clear Goals

For students to avoid any failure in the future, they should set a goal as these goals will prevent them from academic procrastination (Rabin et al., 349). The goals should be realistic and achievable. Moreover, the student needs to understand that it is okay sometimes to fail, and that is acceptable.

Stick to the Project if Activity Plan

Every student should create a plan and stick to it to ensure that they achieve their goals. This is crucial as it will enable him or her to assign time to activities that are more important and urgent (Cebi et al., 447). Having a plan is essential as it allows the student to achieve his goals and objective within a limited time.

Develop Good Study Skills

Each student needs to improve on his study and activity skills to avoid academic procrastination (Rabin et al., 346). For instance, they are focusing on areas and activities which are essential, and the student will have active thinking and critical thinking in solving problems.

Causes of Procrastination

Academic procrastination is becoming a significant problem among college students. To be able to tackle this problem, it is essential to identify the causes of procrastination. The cause includes:

• Low self-confidence
• Fear of failure
• Perfectionism
• Low energy levels
• Poor organizations skills
• Lack of motivation
• Trouble concentrating
• Lack of understanding

Each student must make sure that he or she does not have any of the above causes, as this would impact their capability (Mohammed et al., 9). Identifying these causes early enough makes it possible for a student to become more active and achieve his set goals and objective.

To sum up, academic procrastination is the intentional delay by students in the completion or beginning of critical educational activities. Being able to identify the causes of academic procrastination early enough is crucial in ensuring that they avoid academic procrastination.

Works Cited

Ann-Marie Kuchler, et al. "Effectiveness of an Internet-Based Intervention for Procrastination in College Students (StudiCare Procrastination): Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial." Internet Interventions, no., 2019. EBSCOhost, DOI:10.1016/j.invent.2019.100245.

Cebi, Ayca, et al. "The Relationships among Academic Procrastination, Self-Control, and Problematic Mobile Use: Considering the Differences over Personalities." Addicta: The Turkish Journal on Addictions, vol. 6, no. 3, Sept. 2019, p. 447. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=140498631&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Mohammed, Adel Abdulla, et al. "Academic Procrastination among College Students with Learning Disabilities: The Role of Positive and Negative Self-Oriented Perfectionism in Terms of Gender, Specialty, and Grade." Online Submission, vol. 2, no. 1, 1 Apr. 2013, pp. 3-14. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=ED565623&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Munoz-Olano, Juan F., and Camilo Hurtado-Parrado. "Effects of Goal Clarification on Impulsivity and Academic Procrastination of College Students." Revista Latinoamericana de Psicologia, vol. 49, no. 3, Sept. 2017, pp. 173-181. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.rlp.2017.03.001.

Rabin, Laura A., et al. "Academic Procrastination in College Students: The Role of Self-Reported Executive...