The Causes Of Procrastination Among University Students And The Solution To It

Procrastination is the act of delaying something that has to be done within a certain time. According to Ferrari and Díaz-Morales (2014), there are 20% - 25% of adults from all over the world affected by the issue of procrastination, it is a common problem that happens in everyone’s daily life, especially university students. When procrastination comes to university student’s life, it not only affected student’s academic but also health issues. Rushing and afraid of could not complete assignments before the deadline may cause students to feel stress and anxiety, these will cause health issue that may affect students’ life. This report will explain why university students often procrastinate and the solution for it.

Firstly, people sometimes procrastinate because of perfectionism. A perfectionist procrastinates, fearing the inability to accomplish the task perfectly; hence, putting it off. They put high expectations on themselves and fear disapproval. So, they will procrastinate until they have the confidence. Perfectionists take a longer time to accomplish tasks. Hence, if there is not enough time, they will delay it. For instance in university, most assignments are in groups. When a perfectionist works in group, they will be the last to complete the assignment as they want to check if the parts completed by other members is perfect. Another reason is the fear of limitation, it is due to the lack of confidence in oneself. People delay their work as they are not confident that they will do a good job. They delay with hope someone else will do it. The confidence shaker may include reasons such as physical impairment or financial instability. A scenario would be a John wants to learn dancing but his family is facing financial problems and he does not want to further burden his parents; hence, he says he will do it when he has the money.

Moreover, people unsure of the next step may procrastinate, as it’s their first time doing this kind of work, they don’t know how it should be done and how to start. They are not familiar with the work. This happens because there is a difference in teaching style between secondary schools and universities. Secondary schools practice spoon feeding while universities are more to self-learning. Students must be independent and learn to do research themselves. Teachings from some families encourage most students to not ask questions and figure it out on their own so they may even plagiarise from others. Furthermore, procrastination sometimes happen when people feel overwhelmed regarding to the task and the difficulty that they face. There are a variety of reasons how the feeling of overwhelm can occur, such as when the task is beyond the person's capability. People will choose to escape from the overwhelmingness of the situation. Eventually they will not be able to complete the task. For example, if you need to tidy up your room, but there is too much stuff to be rearranged, it might take a whole day to complete the task that might cause one to feel overwhelmed. Lastly, people only start working on their task when it’s close to the deadline, they delay their tasks with any possible excuses. For example, Ryan gives himself a reason to delay working on his assignment as he feels there is still plenty of time. Most students start working on their assignments one week before the due date. If it is a group assignment, one week is too short of a time to complete, as group assignments requires discussion among members and dividing the work; they can only start once the work has been divided.

On the other hand, there are also some methods to overcome or avoid procrastination. Perfectionist shouldn’t expect perfect work every time as it then becomes an unreasonable expectation; they shouldn’t give themselves extra stress by hoping the results will be perfect as that is rarely the case, as nothing is perfect. As the saying goes, the quality of endeavour is more important than a perfect outcome. Instead of striving for a perfect outcome, they should just do their best and try to complete the work. For instance, a perfectionist can draw up a rough copy and seek assistance from their lecturers if they are having difficulties understanding how it should be done. Secondly, everyone has delayed completing a task at least once, it could be tomorrow or even longer. To overcome procrastination, we must set a goal for motivation. Setting goals helps spark passion. “Without passion, you have no energy, without energy, you have nothing”, said Warren Buffett. When we want to read 100 pages of a book in a month, we have to read 5 pages per day; 5 days a week. It is an optimistic goal as it is realistic and achievable. The more books we read, the more knowledge we gain. It will be helpful to our future career and life.

Another way to overcome procrastination is to ask for help when you are stuck. Asking questions isn’t a sign of weakness but instead a sign of strength and courage. If one is unsure of the next step, and they are too shy to ask for help, it may cause them to delay the task. To overcome this, students must learn to ask for help. Students can ask for help from their friends, senior, or even their lecturers. Students shouldn’t be afraid of being judged by others when they ask for help, as they can learn even more in the process. Nowadays, procrastination is a universal problem in the world, regardless of age. A solution for it is to break it down. We break the task down into smaller parts to complete it more efficiently. Difficult task is easier to complete step by step. For instance, we should revise classes what we studied after every class promptly rather than trying to cramp all of the knowledge in at the last minute. This results in one having more time to prepare. However, most people assume they have plenty of time, but they don’t realize how fast time passes. Reward also a method that can give a person motivation to complete their tasks as fast as possible. Students have the tendency to delay to do their assignments because they feel that there is still plenty of time for them to do it. In order to avoid this case, students can reward themselves as motivation to complete their assignment early. For example, they can reward themselves with a movie or buy something that they have wanted to get, but the theory is to encourage people to start their work on time and finish the work early.

In conclusion, there are many reasons that cause university students to procrastinate in their daily life, and there are also solutions for each of the reason. Everyone should stop procrastinating because this is a problem that will cause some troubles to our life. There is no way for students to run away from their assignments just because they don’t like it, procrastination won’t help students to solve their problems but bringing more troubles and mental health issues to their life.