Procrastination Hits Students example essay topic

Procrastination, and my college experiences Joaquin CabreraHCOP Summer Program Mrs. Andrea Reply Helzner Monday, july 17, 2000 According to the article (Magazine: Journal do- Genetic Psychology, December 1999), procrastination is referred as the act of needlessly delaying a task until the point of some discomfort. This is a behavior problem that many adults experience on a regular basis. In this paper I will be talking about two studies that researched about how procrastination hits students. It will also talk about ways to put an end to procrastination and give stories about people who overcame procrastination and achieved their goals.

Toward the end I will talk about how procrastination effected me in my first semester. Procrastination Research In the first article (Magazine: Journal do- Genetic Psychology, December 1999), they decided to do a study about locus of control of reinforcement. This refers to the way students think about their papers or research. If external they do not care about the papers and do other things.

If they are internal they will do their paper really fast, since their desire comes from having the paper done. In previous research they have found that there is no relation between locus of control and academic procrastination. They have also found that procrastinators had a greater external locus of control than non-procrastinators did. They say that procrastinators were more likely than non-procrastinators to have better success on exams due to the "cramming" that they do. All of this was about to change when scientists decided to do the present studies about procrastination. In these present studies they found out that the students with internal control expectancies would procrastinate more than those with external control expectancies.

They found out that the students would procrastinate more when given a hard project than when they are given an easy project. In the same article they did another study, this time 42 undergraduates were enrolled in two psychology courses. They were to complete assignments to see who were more likely to procrastinate. When the results were finished they found out that the mean for gender, meaning male or female, was not significantly different. As they expected, the students with internal control began assignments earlier than those students with external control expectancies.

The students with internal locus of control took fewer days to return the assignments than those with external locus of control. Most importantly of all, they came with the conclusion that procrastination involves much more than poor time-management skills. Stopping Procrastination Before procrastination can be stopped, it is necessary to understand what makes people procrastinate in the first place. We know that procrastinators will purposely let enjoyable activities get in their ways, making their priorities wait. They do this via watching TV, socializing with others, or playing computer games. The students may want to escape from some difficult or boring assignments.

The students will procrastinate if they do not have good time-management skills. It is not due to laziness or lack of discipline, believe it or not. The biggest one of all is that they do it because of fear of failure. Why should we procrastinate?

Well, procrastination will use up all of the emotional energy that could have been used for work. The student will feel remorse because he knows that there is so much to do. Of course this can lead to depression. Then once you procrastinate it is hard to get back to work. This is like the physics concept that states that a mass at rest will remain at rest. To stop procrastination it is necessary to have a time plan, and estimate how long an assignment will take.

Remember that your priority is the assignment that it is due first. A good idea is to break up jobs into sessions "inch by inch, life is a cinch, yard by yard, life is hard". (Sr. Maureen's saying to me.) Have a goal on what you want to achieve. When an assignment is done, reward yourself! Here are some helpful hints to help you stop procrastinating.

Have positive statements around your room. Use a timer. Get all materials in place before you start. Get started!

Conclusion As you can see procrastination is a problem to students since it will get in the way of their schoolwork. As I said before procrastination is to put things off for later, and this is why it gets in the way. I have talked about the different studies, stopping procrastination and some helpful hints. Hopefully this paper will open the minds of most students out there and prevent them from procrastinating, and show their real talent at schoolwork.

Bibliography

Gard, C.J. (1999, December).
Getting Over The 'I'll do it Tomorrow' Blues. Current Health 2; October 1999.
1-2 Jiao, Q.G. & Onwuegbuzie A.J. (2000, January).
I'll go to the library later: The Relationship between Academic Procrastination and Library Anxiety. College & Research Libraries 61 no 1.45-54 Janssen, T. (1999.
December). The effects of Locus of Control and task difficulty on Procrastination. Magazine: Journal of Genetic Psychology, December 1999.