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Essay on Procrastination

Have you ever postponed your homework until the last minute? Or maybe you studied for a test the day before? 

Maybe it's too late to write a story until the last hour? We are all guilty of delaying jobs and postponing important work until the latest date. This is actually procrastination. It is the act of deliberately delaying any task or activity. In this case, we will look at the causes and solutions to this problem.

About Procrastination

As we shall see in this article, this is not a coincidence. Almost everyone is guilty of it at some point in their lives. So we ask ourselves this question - why do people procrastinate or are so busy all the time? 

We live in the 21st century when time is of the essence. However, we are wasting our precious resources by wasting our time.

Saint Kabir had advised: what you have to do tomorrow, do today; what you have to do today, do it now. Procrastination is the habit of delaying a task or an activity until a later date. The habit of procrastinating the doing things is one of the worst habits of a person. People tend to be slothful to put off the finishing of a piece of work, implementation of a plan till another time. Life is not certain and it is possible that circumstances may change and one may not be able to do the work at all. It is good to procrastinate on things that are bad, but we are right and what we have decided to do, we must do in time.

Reasons for Procrastinating

One of the major reasons for procrastinating on a task is slothfulness. When a person is indulged in luxuries and slothfulness, it will blunt his edge of urge for action. When a person starts fearing the outcome of the task, he tends to procrastinate the task for a later date. Other factors for procrastinating work for a later date are low self-esteem, weak determination, less focus and distraction and also high impulsiveness. 

Procrastination is Harmful

Procrastination is harmful in various ways. It maintains tension in mind. It will relieve you of this tension if you do the work right now. Putting off work till another time more often may keep us deprived of the benefits, which might have accrued to us from its having been done. Opportunity knocks at the door once. Opportunity lost once is lost forever. There is no guarantee that the circumstances will remain the same. They may change and you may have to repent later on over the fact that you missed the opportunity. Sometimes it may prove tragic and change the good side of your career to a bad one. 

A successful man is one who strikes the iron while it is hot. When procrastination becomes a habit, all cheerfulness and carefree living go out of life and we live a life of perpetual tension, which indeed is not a life worth living at all. While procrastination is harmful to individuals, it may be more harmful to groups, communities and nations. 

We must ask ourselves whether we do actually realise the dangers emanating from procrastination and, therefore, shun it. We will perhaps find the answer in the affirmative as well as in the negative. We are still procrastinating steps for development in certain sectors of our life. For example, we have been sadly procrastinating in the educational sector. Even after more than five decades of economic planning, we find half of our population illiterate. We have taken steps to eradicate illiteracy, but our steps are not fast enough. 

We have been procrastinating developing certain geographical regions of the country with the result that there are evident regional imbalances in terms of development. We have not yet been able to connect every village of India with a link road. This was the task of utmost importance, a task that ought to have been given priority in any scheme of development. Our pace of development could have been faster if proper planning and implementation had been done at the right time. 

While procrastination is regarded as a bad habit, undue hurry or haste is equally a bad tendency. Promptness of action is advisable, but an impulsive decision is fraught with undesirable consequences. One must not delay or procrastinate in arriving at a decision in crucial matters, but unless a well-thought-out decision has been taken, it is more often than not risky to convert into action. Decisions taken in a hurry or haste without cool and calculated deliberation are likely to lead one into blind alleys or unfathomed troughs which it is difficult to get out from. The golden rule is first to get satisfied with the correct decision. Action should immediately follow the correct decision. Action should immediately follow the correct decision. Evil actions contemplated as a consequence of anger, revenge, greed, larceny, lust should be put off as indefinitely as possible till they die their natural death. 

How to Avoid Procrastinating?

There are a few tips to curb the habit of procrastination. 

Slothfulness: 

We must shake off slothfulness altogether. One must be up and doing. Avoid indulgence in luxuries because this makes one blunt. 

Value of Time: 

Understanding the value of time is very important. Nothing great can be expected from one who does not understand the value of a minute, for seconds and minutes make an hour, a day, a month, a year and the whole life itself. If the value of a minute is descended deep into our mind and heart, sloth will disappear. 

Idleness: 

Idleness is fatiguing. One must, therefore oneself engage in some useful work like some household chores other than one's main occupation. 

To ward off procrastination, one must plan one's work. Detailed planning is necessary. The entire gamut of work may be divided into fragments and time fixed for completing each fragment will facilitate satisfaction and invigorating. What we must have to do right from the time we get up from bed down to the time we go to bed must be clear to us and we must stick to it religiously.

Prioritization:

One may arrange the array of work in order of priorities. How many things are to be done and in what order of priority they must be taken — once this is planned in advance, then most of the battle is won and we can get out of the habit of procrastinating tasks.

Why Do We Procrastinate?

Reasons for postponing a person may vary. It depends on the individual and the situation-to-situation. However, there are international reasons why people delay their activities and actions. 

One of the most important things is the fear of failure. When a person is slow to perform an important task or is not interested in completing it, the cause may be a deep fear of failure. It is human nature to avoid and fear failure. So by choosing not to complete the task, we can also avoid the consequences.

Another reason is a lack of focus and determination. Feelings of indifference and insecurity can often cause people to lose their will to do their jobs. 

This leads to self-control. Sometimes a lack of goals and objectives is also a reason for a person to lose focus. With no goal in mind, they end up wasting energy on other useless activities.

There are other reasons a person may tolerate it. At times, a person may be a perfectionist. This distracts them from other activities. And then there are other reasons like laziness, low energy levels, easy distractions, etc.

How Can You Stop Procrastination?

Although procrastination is a normal part of life for us, it can be extremely difficult to do so. Procrastination can ruin your life and cause you to lose control of your schedules and deadlines. So when procrastination fades, you need to be in control and in control.

One way to stop procrastinating is to turn a dreadful task into smaller steps. If a task or task is too difficult, we often put it off. But if the work is depleted, then we can deal with it one step at a time without frustration. You can also create a detailed timetable or timeline of some sort to help you with the steps.

Sometimes a change in the work environment can be beneficial. It can give you the energy you need to stop procrastinating and complete the task. If possible, get a friend or parent to check your progress. It helps keep motivation levels up and encourages you to complete the task on time.

The key is not to become too preoccupied with the mundane things of life. We are all victims of procrastination. As long as it doesn't interfere with your entire system, take a break and go back to work!

Short Essay on Procrastination

Procrastination is not a rare thing; nine out of ten people, mostly students, nowadays procrastinate their work until the very last moment and it is also realised that they often feel guilty due to continuous postposing of their important work. The reasons for procrastination vary from person to person and situation to situation.

However, some causes are universal and some may have a particular reason to delay their important actions or tasks. The fear of failure stands on the top and another reason why most people procrastinate is lack of motivation. 

Everyone needs motivation while starting a new task or action, but due to lack of motivation most, people procrastinate due to the hesitation of performing a new activity plus lack of motivation, while some procrastinate due to laziness, lack of interest and unwillingness to perform any work. 

However, the end product of procrastination is always negative, like people start feeling much guilty, less focused, worried about upcoming projects or actions etc. 

In conclusion, it should be stated that procrastination is rooted in many causes, such as numerous distractions, lack of motivation, fear of uncertainty and failure, and perfectionism. At the same time, the result stands the same with infinite consequences such as concern for career, studies, health, and personal qualities. Thus, procrastination prevents a person from rising through the ranks, succeeding in training, and developing a personality.

The major difference between a successful person and an unsuccessful person is that while the former put his decisions promptly into action and reaps the fruits, the latter procrastinates, thereby depriving himself of the fruit.

FAQs on Procrastination Essay

1. What is Procrastination really about?

Postponing or procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing activities until the last minute or beyond the deadline. Some researchers describe procrastination as "a form of self-indulgence that is characterised by unreasonable delays in performance despite negative consequences.

2. Why Are We Here?

We postpone activities that we find "difficult, unpleasant, contradictory or just boring or oppressive." If a task seems overwhelming or raises serious concerns, it is usually very easy to avoid it. Another reason people put things off, says Sirois, is lack of confidence.

3. What Are The 4 Types of Retreat?

They say that there are four main types of archetypes to avoid or procrastinate: the perpetrator, the negligent, the excessive, and the person who seeks new things.

4. Is procrastination a mental illness?

Some people spend a lot of time in the monastery until they can finish important daily tasks. They may have a strong desire to stop procrastination but may feel that they will not be able to do so. Delaying yourself is not a diagnosis of mental health. But yes, less control over your mind is a sign of mental illness.

Procrastination Essay for Students and Children

500+ words on procrastination essay.

Have you ever put off your homework till the last minute? Or perhaps studied for the test only a day before? Maybe delayed writing an essay till the last possible hour? All of us are guilty of delaying tasks and putting off important work until a later date.  This is essentially procrastinating. It is the action of purposefully delaying any task or activity. In this procrastination essay, we will see the reasons and the solutions to this problem.

As we will see in this procrastination essay, this is not a rare phenomenon. Almost everyone is guilty of it at some point in their lives. So we ask ourselves this question – why do people procrastinate even when they are so busy most of the time? We live in the 21st century, where time is our most precious commodity. And yet, we waste this precious resource procrastinating our time away.

Why do we Procrastinate?

The reasons for a person procrastinating can be varied. It depends on person-to-person and situation-to-situation. However, there are some universal reasons that cause people to delay their tasks and actions. One of the most important ones is the fear of failure. When a person delays doing an important task or is disinterested in finishing it, the cause could be a deep-rooted fear of failure. It is in human nature to avoid and fear failure. So by choosing to never finish the task, we can avoid the consequences as well.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Another reason is the lack of focus and determination. Feeling directionless and unfocused can often cause people to lose their wills to do their jobs. This leads to procrastination. Sometimes the lack of goals and objectives is also the reason a person loses their focus. Since they do not have an end-goal in mind, they end up wasting energy in other useless tasks.

There are other reasons a person may procrastinate. Sometimes, a person may be too much of a perfectionist. This distracts them from other tasks. And then there are other reasons like laziness, low energy levels, easy distractions, etc.

Read 10 Ways to Stop Procrastinating here.

How to Stop Procrastinating?

While procrastinating is a very natural fault we all share, if it gets out of hand it can get quite troublesome. Excessive procrastination can disrupt your life and cause you to lose control of your schedules and deadlines. So when the procrastination gets out of hand, you need to reign it in and get back in control.

One way to stop procrastinating is to break down the dreaded task into little steps. If the work or the task is too overwhelming, we tend to procrastinate about it. But if the job is broken down, then we can tackle one step at a time without being overwhelmed. You can also create a detailed timetable or a timeline of some sort to help you with the steps.

At other times changing your work environment may be beneficial. It can provide you with the boost necessary to stop procrastinating and finish the task. If possible get a friend or a parent to keep a check on your progress. It helps keep the motivation levels up and encourages you to finish the task on time.

The main concern is not to over-focus or blame yourself for procrastinating sometimes. We are all a victim to procrastination from time-to-time. As long as it does not derail your entire schedule, give yourself a break and just get back to work!

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Essay on Procrastination

Students are often asked to write an essay on Procrastination in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Procrastination

Understanding procrastination.

Procrastination is when you delay or postpone tasks. It’s a common issue among students. It often leads to stress, as tasks pile up.

Why We Procrastinate

There are many reasons why we procrastinate. Some feel overwhelmed by tasks, while others lack motivation or fear failure.

Effects of Procrastination

Procrastination can lead to poor grades, stress, and a lack of self-confidence. It can also create a cycle of delaying tasks.

Overcoming Procrastination

To overcome procrastination, break tasks into smaller parts. Also, set deadlines and rewards for completing tasks. It’s important to start tasks early.

250 Words Essay on Procrastination

Procrastination, a ubiquitous phenomenon, is the act of delaying or postponing tasks. This habit, often perceived as harmless, can lead to detrimental impacts on productivity, mental health, and overall life satisfaction.

The Psychology Behind Procrastination

Psychologically, procrastination is not merely a lack of time management or laziness, but a complex interplay of fear, anxiety, and perfectionism. Individuals procrastinate due to the fear of failure, the anxiety of the unknown, or the desire to perfect a task, which can lead to a paralysis of action. This cognitive dissonance between the ideal self and the actual self fuels the cycle of procrastination.

Consequences of Procrastination

Procrastination can lead to a plethora of negative outcomes. It often results in poor performance, as tasks completed in haste lack quality. Moreover, it can cause stress, guilt, and a decrease in self-confidence. In extreme cases, it can lead to serious mental health issues like depression and anxiety disorders.

Overcoming procrastination requires a multifaceted approach. Techniques such as time management, goal setting, and mindfulness can help. However, it is crucial to address the underlying psychological issues. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has shown promise in helping individuals understand and change their procrastination habits.

In conclusion, procrastination is a complex issue that requires a comprehensive understanding and targeted strategies to overcome. It is not merely a character flaw but a psychological issue that can be addressed with the right tools and mindset.

500 Words Essay on Procrastination

Introduction.

Procrastination is not merely a matter of time management or laziness; it’s a complex interplay of psychological factors. The Temporal Motivation Theory, for instance, posits that individuals are more likely to procrastinate when the reward for a task is distant in time, and the task is perceived as unpleasant or challenging.

Moreover, procrastination can also be linked to self-regulation failure, where individuals struggle to control their responses and give in to immediate gratification. This is often exacerbated by factors such as fear of failure, perfectionism, and low self-efficacy, which can create a vicious cycle of avoidance and further procrastination.

Impacts of Procrastination

In the workplace, procrastination can result in missed deadlines, subpar work quality, and strained relationships with colleagues. Furthermore, on a personal level, chronic procrastination can lead to increased stress, diminished mental health, and a pervasive sense of guilt and regret.

Overcoming procrastination requires a strategic and multifaceted approach. One effective strategy is time management, where individuals plan and allocate time for tasks in advance, breaking larger tasks into smaller, manageable parts.

Lastly, self-compassion can be instrumental in mitigating procrastination. By being kind to oneself during instances of failure or delay, individuals can reduce the associated guilt and anxiety, thereby breaking the cycle of procrastination.

In conclusion, procrastination is a complex, multifaceted issue that extends beyond mere laziness or poor time management. It is deeply rooted in psychological factors and can have significant impacts on various aspects of life. However, with strategic interventions like effective time management, cognitive restructuring, and self-compassion, it is possible to overcome procrastination. Understanding and addressing procrastination is crucial in today’s fast-paced world, where efficiency and productivity are highly valued.

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Home — Essay Samples — Psychology — Social Psychology — The Impact of Procrastination in College: Causes and Strategies

The Impact of Procrastination in College: Causes and Strategies

• Categories: Social Psychology

About this sample

Words: 455 |

Published: Mar 8, 2024

Words: 455 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Defining procrastination, causes of procrastination in college, consequences of procrastination, strategies for overcoming procrastination.

• Create a schedule: Developing a schedule can help create structure and provide a sense of direction towards academic and personal tasks. Make sure to include ample time for study sessions as well as leisure activities.
• Break tasks into smaller chunks: Break up long-term projects into smaller and more manageable tasks. This way, students can avoid feeling overwhelmed, make consistent progress, and remain motivated.
• Set goals: Specific and achievable goals can help track progress and maintain productivity. Goals should be measurable, attainable, and time-bound.
• Remove distractions: Minimize or eliminate the distractions that may be causing procrastination, such as social media applications and games.
• Utilize the Pomodoro technique: This technique involves working for a specific period, usually 25 minutes, followed by a short break. This method encourages focus and productivity while allowing for a necessary break to recharge.

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84 Procrastination Ideas & Essay Examples

Is procrastination good or bad? Some people judge procrastination and call it “lazyness”. Others insist that procrastinating helps them to do their best under pressing deadlines.

If you assigned to write an essay on this topic, we’ve got your back covered! In this article you will find 51 interesting procrastination essay topics. Keep reading!

🏆 Best Procrastination Topics & Essay Examples

📌 interesting procrastination essay topics to write about, 👍 good procrastination research topics, ❓ research questions about procrastination.

• A Critical Analysis of Hamlet’s Constant Procrastination in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Claudius is successful in his ambition and Hamlet is left with the decision on whether or not to kill his uncle so as to avenge his father’s death.
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• Procrastination and Time Management In case the available time is not properly allocated to all activities to be achieved within a given period, then the available time will not be allocated to the correct event.
• Procrastination Among College Students It is not the fear of failure that keeps people from taking on assignments, but their personality traits and desire to have fun instead of putting in the effort.
• Procrastination as a Means of Improving Creativity The work’s author is Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The point of the essay is to talk about the benefits of procrastination.
• Procrastination: Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methods Due to the nature of the research questions of the study, open-ended questionnaires and interviews will be used to gather the required information for the study.
• Procrastination Predictors in College Students This is a show of autonomy, the evading of the aversive task, avoidance of a state of anxiety, a response to their fear of failure or they are said to suffer from perfectionism and usually […]
• Procrastination Concept and Reasons The term procrastination is relatively new to psychology, despite the fact that the psychological essence of the phenomenon indicated by this term is familiar to everyone.
• Time Management: How to Beat Your Procrastination? In order to manage time effectively the following solutions can be applied: The most popular solution is to make a schedule to keep track of important facts and ideas that can be of any use […]
• Procrastination in Undergraduates and Graduates In this article, the researcher was interested in investigating the differences in procrastination and the motivation between undergraduate and graduate students.
• Procrastination in the Fields of Education and Psychology Although two articles discuss the topic of procrastination, writings in the fields of psychology and education are similar only in relation to the chosen IMRAD format, vocabulary, and rhetoric appeals, and the articles are different […]
• Frequent Tests as the Ways to Overcome Procrastination and Anxiety The problem can depend not only on the level of the students’ knowledge but also on the degree of the tension and anxiety which are associated with the preparation and review of the material during […]
• Procrastination Issues: Cause and Effect Procrastination is said to be the avoidance of starting or going through on a task that is deemed to be important and necessary.
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Procrastination-Proofing Students

By  Steven J. Corbett and Michelle LaFrance

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For many of our students, procrastination is a monster hiding in the closet.

At least once a semester, one of us will receive a last-minute email from a student with a question that, had that student been working on a project in advance, he or she would have asked days before bumping up against the deadline. Or, similarly, we will sometimes receive questions from students an hour before class claiming that the link that we sent for the day’s reading did not work.

These are the telltale signs of students suffering from procrastination syndrome. And it would be easy to say, “Start earlier next time,” and then move on. But as we note the level of anxiety, panic and supercharged emotion that our students express when they come clean about a botched timeline or poor planning, we realize that working through a habit of procrastination is too important a quality-of-life issue for our students to dismiss so easily. As we’ve asked them: Isn’t it better to know what sort of monster is hiding in the closet than to wait for it to come lurching out unexpectedly -- and at the worst possible moment?

It seems to us that the more we understand procrastination and think it through with our students, the more we can help them build lifelong habits that allow them to be successful in our writing classes. Indeed, antiprocrastination habits can also help students manage the many competing priorities in their busy schedules as well as help us all remember what’s really important in life.

The Many Faces of Procrastination

When you get right down to it, procrastination really involves the what-ifs of Murphy’s Law that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. This should be the main motivator behind procrastination awareness. It’s always a good idea to have a backup plan. Don’t put off getting started on a project because it feels like it will be easy to put together. Start assembling resources, outlining, thinking forward and scheduling activities to avoid the unexpected. When a project is due, leave yourself plenty of wiggle room for issues with printing, traffic, parking, finding the drop-off place for paperwork, etc.

A health sciences team that one of us once worked with famously told and retold the story of a National Institutes of Health grant application that was five minutes too late for the FedEx truck. An important project was delayed funding for a whole year because a copy machine ran out of paper and the team had not allotted enough time to the final stages of the job. The more we can help our students realize that these sorts of habits -- being prepared, starting early, problem solving in advance -- can make or break a project, the sooner they can start taking action.

But what about students who have writing or performance anxiety? Such students stand to gain the most from developing antiprocrastination tactics. If they experience the gains that can occur if they start on projects earlier, they will begin to feel their anxiety lessen. If the paper is due in two weeks, they can start right away by analyzing and note taking on the assignment sheet, breaking the assignment down into discrete stages or tasks. That simple act will activate the composing process, launching the task in their minds. Starting earlier on the assignment or task might lead to better time management, including catching any unforeseen time sensitivities well in advance.

Complicating the picture slightly, procrastination does offer some positive possibilities. Sometimes writers need to put a project aside for a later time to let it stew or to allow thinking to mature. And if we teach our students that this approach can be a productive conscious part of their own processes, we can again help them to build more conscientious tactics. People who work hard not to procrastinate develop a good working sense of when to put something off strategically and when to dive into something more forcefully. Sometimes procrastinating on a project might be a sign that we aren’t quite ready to grapple with something about it -- perhaps for good reasons.

Helping Students Develop Procrastination Awareness

Procrastination syndrome is a tough phenomenon to deal with. It can take many subtle and not-so-subtle forms: the student who always seems to have a rough draft, no matter how much time he’s been given to write a paper; the student who always goes missing on the day a draft of a paper is due; the student who just always seems anxious about something.

In line with the context that we’ve offered above, we can take further steps to help students develop strategies to manage and work toward overcoming procrastination:

• We can discuss with them valid reasons why people procrastinate. If you ask students whether they consider themselves procrastinators, most will say that they are. But then if you ask why they tend to procrastinate, they have to think about it a bit. The beginning of any procrastination-awareness intervention starts with the question of why we procrastinate: because we’re feeling overwhelmed, because we are uncertain about where to start, because we are fearful of failure, because we really would rather not do what we know we have to do.
• We can start nudging students to think about the different reasons for procrastination and to start to make distinctions between wise waiting and unhelpful delaying.
• We can share with students our own experiences with procrastination. If we are anxious about writing or performing, we can confess that to students -- many of whom share this anxiety and would appreciate hearing it from an instructor. If we’ve ever lost a significant amount of work due to not saving it in more than once place, students will see that it can happen to anyone. And if we tell students the story of how we arrived late (and embarrassed) to that important interview or conference presentation because we simply did not leave enough time to find what turned out to be a labyrinthine locale, we will be reiterating a lesson applicable to many other circumstances.
• As teachers of writing and other creative performances, we can try to build antiprocrastination fail-safes into our curriculum. Portfolio assessment systems, for example, offer students the opportunity to experience their writing tasks as works in progress. We can give students opportunities to see just how good a piece of writing can become if they have enough time, space and opportunity to revise multiple drafts of their work throughout the course of a term. The peer pressure involved in working together closely and extensively with a peer writing group can also nudge them to meet deadlines more responsibly.
• Finally, students can internalize this (almost) procrastination-proof process more deeply if we ask them to write reflectively and critically about what they learned from the process. Most of our students come to realize the benefits of starting early and staying persistent.

Life, Work, Time

So what if students procrastinate? The cream will always rise to the top. The good students will always be more proactive and thoughtful. It’s not really that big of a deal, is it?

Well, it might actually be about as big as a deal can get. In her memoir The Top Five Regrets of the Dying , Bronnie Ware details her experiences working as a palliative nurse with people in their last three to 12 weeks of life. She discusses the top five regrets, or things they would have done differently, that repeatedly surfaced in all their stories. All of those regrets seem to revolve around important things people kept putting off: not living a life true to themselves and their dreams, not taking time away from work, not sharing their feelings with the people they loved the most, not keeping in touch with friends, and not letting themselves be happy. We always seem to think we will have enough time to get to, start or restart the big deals in life … later.

These quality-of-life questions remind us of Thomas Carlyle’s antiprocrastination exhortation in Sartor Resartus (“The Tailor Retailored”). Carlyle proclaims the importance of what he learned from Professor Teufelsdrӧckh about not waiting too long on the most important life choices and actions:

I too could now say to myself: Be no longer a Chaos, but a World, or even a Worldkin. Produce! Produce! Were it but the pitifullest infinitesimal fraction of a Product, produce it in God’s name! ’Tis the utmost thou hast in thee; out with it then. Up, up! Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it, do it with thy whole might. Work while it is called To-day, for the Night cometh wherein no man can work.

(And we might well replace the words “work” in the last sentence with “start.”) If we try, we can perhaps also help our students retailor some of their most pernicious procrastination habits of mind.

But, of course, we must not wait too long in starting to offer our students some of this potentially lifelong good advice.

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Procrastination Essay

500+ words procrastination essay.

Procrastination is a tendency, attitude or behavioural trait of a person lacking willpower and vitality to do work. Most people have a tendency to not complete their work, and leave it for some other time. When people procrastinate, instead of working on important meaningful tasks, they find themselves performing trivial activities. They spend their time watching TV, playing video games, checking Facebook, obsessively cleaning, pacing back and forth through the office, or maybe just sitting and staring at a wall. Afterwards, they feel powerless and are overcome with feelings of guilt and frustration. They often end up doing nothing. So, the habit of procrastination is very harmful as it wastes so much time. This Procrastination Essay will help in understanding the meaning of procrastination, its effect on students’ lives and ways to overcome procrastination. So, students must go through it and take ideas which help them write an effective essay on this topic. Moreover, they can also get the list of CBSE Essays on different topics for their practice. It will help them to participate in various essay writing competitions.

What is Procrastination?

Procrastination is the tendency to delay an intended action or decision. It is defined as the act of needlessly delaying tasks to the point of experiencing subjective discomfort. The illusory idea underlying procrastination is a feeling that ‘later is better. This is also the common reason behind the ‘tomorrow’ outlook on life, which forces people to postpone everything for a ‘tomorrow’ that never comes. When the next day dawns, the pattern resurfaces, and procrastinators excuse themselves by promising again that ‘I will do it tomorrow. Hence, procrastination is seen as a ‘tomorrow syndrome’.

Effect of Procrastination on Students’ Life

Since the dawn of time, people have suffered from procrastination. It is a serious problem, especially among students. Most of the students put off their homework and studies for later, thinking that they have plenty of time to get it done. However, the work gets delayed and results in compromising the quality of education. Research has shown that it takes more time to complete a task when a student allows his focus to drift and the task becomes more difficult for him.

Some students waste up to one-third of their time procrastinating. Procrastination can take many forms. For example, a student has a paper due on Monday morning, but he went skiing with friends all weekend instead of studying. When students procrastinate, then they always have the excuse of “not having enough” time. The reasons for delaying and avoiding tasks for students are rooted in fear and anxiety. This fear is about doing poor, losing control, looking stupid, and having one’s sense of self or self-concept challenged. They avoid doing work to avoid their abilities being judged. So, what can students do to overcome their tendencies to procrastinate? Below are a few tips and methods that can help them.

Tips and Methods to Overcome Procrastination

There are many ways to break the vicious circle of procrastination. A good first step to overcoming procrastination is to identify distractions and their possible solutions. Another is to finish the work in the allocated time. If a task seems too big or overwhelming, break it down into a series of smaller, more achievable tasks or steps that will add up to completing the job. Concentrate on taking the first step, then the next, until you complete the full journey. Whenever students find themselves procrastinating, they should think about the good things that will happen when they stop procrastinating. Set specific dates and times to begin or continue the work. Put up notes or reminders in prominent places like the fridge or a mirror, to remind them that work needs to be done.

It is difficult to leave a bad habit. It also takes time and can’t be done overnight. So, don’t expect from yourself that you will suddenly break up with your procrastinating behaviour. Be realistic and figure out the strategies that work best for you. Practise them, notice small improvements in procrastinating behaviour and reward yourself. There is no quick fix for procrastination – it takes time and effort, and surely, no one else can fix it for you.

Students must have found “Procrastination Essay” useful for improving their essay writing skills. Visit BYJU’S website to get the latest updates and study material on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams, at BYJU’S.

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