BY JAC O B F LO R E S

PROCRASTINATION

WHAT IS PROCRASTINATION?

• Verb-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.

TYPES OF PROCRASTINATION

• There are two types of procrastination. Type one is resistant procrastination when delay results in putting a task off until the last minute before finally getting it done. Type two is refusal procrastination when delay results in the task being put on permanent hold and it never gets done. It is type one procrastination that most people struggle with, and it is expensive

HOW IT AFFECTS WORK• Putting off undesirable tasks can have serious

implications. For example, you may be viewed as unreliable, incompetent, or just plain lazy. It is important that when we have a responsibility at work that we execute it to the best of our ability for the sake of our integrity and relationship with colleagues and co-workers

HOW IT AFFECTS SCHOOL

• College students who procrastinate in their academic work are also likely to have unhealthy sleep, diet, and exercise patterns• It can lead to lower grades which in turn lead to

stress.• Procrastinating in school can severely lower your

GPA

STATISTICS• A study released in 2007 by Piers Steel, a Canadian industrial

psychologist, found that procrastination is on the rise and that increased procrastination makes us poorer, fatter, and unhappier on the whole. During his 10-year study, Steel discovered that while in 1978 only 5% of Americans thought of themselves as chronic procrastinators, today the figure is a whopping 26%

• With three out of four college students admitting to regular procrastination, many of them may be doing their academic performance a real disservice. A study at Ohio State University compared the grades of severe, moderate, and low procrastinators in a study skills class. The worst procrastinators got an average grade of 2.9 (on a 4.0 scale) while those who procrastinated very little earned an average of 3.6

STATS CONTINUED• In a 2011 study from Cumhuriyet University in Turkey, researchers set out to

determine who was more likely to procrastinate: high school students, undergraduates, or graduate students. The biggest culprits? Undergrads were found to be more likely to procrastinate overall, though all grade levels admitted to procrastination to some degree. High school students and undergraduates were found to procrastinate more when it came to exams and grad students when it came to writing papers.

• A 2007 study conducted at MIT compared three different classes using different deadline-setting techniques for a series of paper due for the class. In the first class, students were allowed to set their own deadlines. In the second, all the papers were due on the final day of class. In the third, students had to turn in papers on set dates throughout the semester. Which performed the worst? Despite having the longest amount of time to work, students who turned papers in on the last day got the worst overall grades, as most admitted to putting off the bulk of the work until the end of the semester. The class with the highest grades was that which required papers turned in at set intervals throughout the semester, perhaps because it helped to spread out procrastination and forced students to do at least some amount of work each week

HOW PROCRASTINATION HAS EVOLVED

• Whatever the case might be, it can’t be denied that technology has changed the way people avoid working. In the pre-digital era, people could doodle, do crosswords or other puzzles, read books, make small talk around the water cooler, or drink. The Internet also gives people thousands of different places to do the puzzles, read the books, or make small talk, and gives them millions of other possibilities on top of those. Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

WHO IT AFFECTS

• Procrastination can affect employees that range from local businesses to major corporations.• It can also affect students beginning as

early as elementary to their undergrad years in college

HAS MODERN TECHNOLOGY HELPED REDUCE OUR PROCRASTINATION OR DO

THEY FEED INTO PEOPLE’S TENDENCY TO PUT THINGS OFF?

• According to the study by McGraw-Hill, more than 50 percent of students felt “better prepared for classes” and had “improved studying efficiency” due to technologies that aided students in their studies. The study also reports that 45 percent of students experienced reduced stress related to studying and exams. However, the study did find that 40 percent of students reported that anything online is the “biggest distraction when studying” and that 50 percent of students said “they used computers, tablets and phones for non-studying activities while they were studying.”

HOW DO PROCRASTINATORS DIFFER FROM NON-PROCRASTINATORS

• "Non-procrastinators focus on the task that needs to be done. They have a stronger personal identity and are less concerned about what psychologists call "social esteem“

• According to psychologist Piers Steel, people who don't procrastinate tend to be high in the personality trait known as conscientiousness, one of the broad dispositions identified by the Big 5 theory of personality. People who are high in conscientiousness also tend to be high in other areas including self-discipline, persistence, and personal responsibility.

IS PROCRASTINATION A DISORDER?

• For these individuals, procrastination may be symptomatic of a psychological disorder. Procrastination has been linked to a number of negative associations, such as depression, irrational behavior, low self-esteem, anxiety, poor study habits, and neurological disorders such as ADHD. Others have found relationships with guilt and stress. Therefore, it is important for people whose procrastination has become chronic and is perceived to be debilitating, to seek out a trained therapist or psychiatrist to see if an underlying mental health issue may be present

HOW TO STOP BEING A PROCRASTINATOR

•Make a List •Make a Schedule •Begin Each Task On Time •Plan Your Deadline Before the DeadlineAll very easy and simples things to do