The Link Between Procrastination And Personal Well-being

Procrastination is repeatedly seen as self-regulatory failure, affecting many people in their everyday lives. From putting off tasks on the basis that they will later complete them. It has been suggested from research that procrastination may negatively impact professional advancement and our general well-being, such as an increase in anxiety and depression, meaning procrastination can become dysfunctional resulting in distress. Procrastination has been considered to have detrimental effects on educational and work success, studies on university students have shown these effects. More studies and articles have now come to light investigating the prevention of procrastination habits. Throughout the essay I shall be examining the relationship between procrastination and personal well-being, debating whether procrastination really has any serious negative effects on one’s well-being and health.

Well-being can be affected in many different ways, procrastination being one of these. In some cases, depression and maladaptive thoughts have been linked to procrastination, along with anxiety and high levels of stress. Procrastination can also be used as relief from stressful situations, creating a temporary repair to mood, this may be linked to academic situations, for example leaving assignments to the last minute creates temporary relief having no negative effects on well-being however will later build tension resulting in an excessive amount of stress having an effect on mental health. Procrastination has also been found to have a negative effect on academic performance with those having low academic performance also having lower self-esteem (Duri, Erdinc, Balkis, Murat, 2017). Furthermore, creating intervention programs for students focusing on academic performance and the prevention of procrastination, creating techniques to stop procrastination may result in higher levels of self-esteem. Procrastination is also an uncommon theme in educational institutions, some students put off work in order to not be singled out, doing the same as their friends to fit into peer groups. Creating support for students will allow them to feel more confident and teach them how to tackle these habits that may bring down educational grades, and relive the negative impacts of procrastination. Further studies should be longitudinal to test the long-term impacts of procrastination on well-being and academic performance as there may be many other factors having an influence on one’s well-being.

Our sleeping schedules and patterns are very important when keeping our physical and mental well-being healthy and regular, having irregular sleeping cycles can possibly cause changes to our body and moods. Previous research has shown that procrastination positively correlates with sleep disturbances, having negative effects on well-being, and once again leading to academic challenges. However further research has discarded a one-way relationship of procrastination and well-being, taking into account different factors affecting both. For example, research has indicated to two different types of people, those who are morning types and those who are evening types. Evening types had been reported to procrastinate more often and have many aspects of sleep disturbance, some even reported to have more depressive symptoms. Research into procrastination has shown that there is more than one type of procrastination, both active and passive procrastination. Active procrastinators being those who tend to prefer to work under pressure, for example, students who leave their work last minute may say they do this because they work well under pressure and can complete the work to a higher standard. Those who are passive procrastinators have been found to be more pessimistic with their lack of belief in themselves suggest an element of self-doubt, and less likely to have high psychological well-being. 

All of this research leads to further treatment processes that can help to avoid negative effects of procrastination as they will be tailored to different types of procrastination to allow people to work more effectively. Although this research has mainly been done on students further research could be done on non-student samples to further the current studies findings.