• Student Name : Aya Grar

• Course : ARTS 1110

• Prof’s Name : Jim Honeyford

• TA's Name: Albert Boakye

• Date: 11/10/2023

Consequences of Procrastination in higher Education

Procrastination is a widespread issue that affects many people, causing a wide range
of difficulties, especially in education. It refers to the habit of delaying or postponing tasks
and assignments, even when they are important or have deadlines. This habit often comes
from a combination of factors, such as a lack of motivation, challenges in managing time, or
a fear of not succeeding. This essay asserts that procrastination is a barrier to effective student
learning in university. The impact of procrastination on student learning can be understood
through three key dimensions : firstly, how it worse the students’situation, secondly, the
adverse consequences it has on students' health and well, and finally, its detrimental effects
on academic performance.

First of all, procrastination will for sure worse the situation of a student. According to
Gareau, Chamandy, Kljajic, and Gaudreau (2019, paragraph 1), procrastination refers to the
act of intentionally delaying academic tasks, such as studying for an exam, despite being
aware that this delay will lead to a worsened situation, as previously highlighted by Steel
(2007). This tendency to procrastinate is a common experience among university students, as
indicated by research that suggests all students engage in procrastination to some extent, as
seen in studies by Schraw, Wadkins, and Olafson (2007) and Steel (2007). Within the realm
of education, research has underscored that procrastination is an undesirable behavior for
achieving optimal academic success, as demonstrated by Kim and Seo (2015). Furthermore,
several meta-analyses have provided evidence showing that students prone to procrastination
are more likely to miss deadlines and achieve lower grades in their assignments, final exams,
courses, and overall grade point average (GPA), as supported by Kim and Seo (2015),
Richardson, Abraham, and Bond (2012), Steel (2007), and van Eerde (2003). As can be seen,
studies have shown that students who procrastinate are more likely to miss deadlines and get
lower grades in assignments, exams, and their overall grades (GPA). So when students
procrastinate, it makes their situation worse. This affects their performance in all aspects of
school not just one assignment. It's essential to avoid procrastination for better situation.

In accordance with Zarick and Stonebraker's findings from 2009 (paragraph 1),
procrastination affects nearly everyone. Despite many students making promises not to
procrastinate again, they inevitably succumb to factors like salience, task aversion, and
uncertainty, which increase the barriers to beginning a project. As a result, this leads to
delays, resulting in lower-quality papers and projects, reduced exam scores, and, to a lesser
degree, assignments being turned in late or not at all. highlight that Procrastination happens
when you really don't want to do a task and you're not sure how to do it. This leads to doing
work that isn't very good, getting lower scores on exams, and turning in assignments late or
not finished. These facts show that procrastination is bad for students' success in school. It
makes you do poorly in assignments, exams, and your overall grades. To put it simply,
procrastination hurts how well you do in school and how you feel in general, so it's really
important for students to try to stop doing it for a better education."

Second, there is a consequence of procrastination for health and overall well-being. In

Sirois and Pychyl's research from 2013 (paragraph 2), it is suggested that a lack of self-
regulation over time could lead to various adverse effects on physical health and overall well-
being. The connection between procrastination, stress, and health was initially observed by
Tice and Baumeister in 1997 in a long-term study of students who procrastinate. However,
the presumed influence of stress on this relationship was not thoroughly examined in their
study. As can be seen, the text says that not being able to control procrastination might make
you stressed, which can affect your well-being, also some researchers found a link between
procrastination and stress, especially in students, but they didn't fully study how stress is
connected to it. According to Sirois and Pychyl's work in 2013 (paragraph 3), procrastination
is linked to a lower frequency of engaging in health-promoting activities. These activities
include regular exercise, healthy eating, reducing caffeine consumption, ensuring adequate
sleep, and effectively managing stress. This connection has been established through both
correlational studies (Sirois, 2004b, 2007a; Sirois et al., 2003) and long-term investigations
(Sirois, Voth, & Pychyl, 2009; Sirois et al., forthcoming). Note that Procrastination is when
you keep delaying things, and it's also connected to not doing healthy stuff like exercising,
eating well, cutting down on caffeine, getting enough sleep, and managing stress effectively.
This connection between procrastination and not doing healthy things is backed up by studies
that look at how things are related over time. These studies show that procrastination can
make your stress levels go up and cause you to skip the things that are good for your health.
And when that happens, it's not good for your overall well-being – how you feel and how
healthy you are in general. So, to sum it up, procrastination doesn't just affect how you do in
school, it also has serious consequences for your health and your quality of life. It's important
for people, especially students, to know about the health problems it can cause and try to stop
procrastinating to stay healthy and feel better.

Third, procrastination has a notable impact on academic performance, In line with

Gareau, Chamandy, Kljajic, and Gaudreau's research from 2019 (paragraph 2), students who
engage in procrastination are essentially diminishing the available time for dedicating
themselves to their academic responsibilities. Consequently, this behavior increases the
likelihood of achieving subpar performance and obtaining lower grades. So we see that this
passage discusses how procrastination affects academic performance.When students
procrastinate, they have less time to work on their school tasks, which often leads to them
doing worse and getting lower grades. According to the perspective presented by Gareau,
Chamandy, Kljajic, and Gaudreau in 2019 (paragraph 2), they argue that procrastination
serves as a mechanism that generates stress. This stress, in turn, hinders students from
effectively allocating their personal resources and coping strategies to handle the various
academic tasks they must complete. On one hand, research has demonstrated that students
who procrastinate typically experience higher levels of stress compared to their peers (Rice,
Richardson, & Clark, 2012; Sirois & Kitner, 2015; Tice & Baumeister, 1997). This shows
that students who put things off often end up feeling more stressed than those who don't
procrastinate. This evidence proves that procrastination really hurts students' grades because
it gives them less time for their work and makes them more stressed. So, students who
procrastinate have à harder time doing well in school compared to their classmates who don't.
To sum it up, procrastination affects students in many ways when it comes to their grades. It
gives them less time and more stress, which leads to lower academic success. It's important
for students to understand these effects and work on not procrastinating to do better in school

In conclusion, procrastination can be a significant barrier to effective learning in the

university environment. We've explored how it makes students' existing challenges even
tougher, negatively affects their well-being, and drags down their academic performance. It's
not a small problem; it's a big one. Students should understand its importance and take steps
to deal with it. By doing so, they can improve their academic success and overall quality of
life. This means not only doing better in school but also having more time for the things they
enjoy outside of their studies, like hobbies and friends, and less stress overall.

Refirence:

Source 1: Zarick, L. M., & Stonebraker, R. (2009). I'll do it tomorrow: The logic of
procrastination.
College Teaching, 47(4), 211-215. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567550903218687
Source 2: Sirois, F., & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood
regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2),
115-
127. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12011
Source 3: Gareau, A., Chamandy, M., Kljajic, K., & Gaudreau, P. (2019). The detrimental
effect of
academic procrastination on subsequent grades: The mediating role of coping over and above
past achievement and working memory capacity. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 32(2), 141-154.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10615806.2018.1543763