Concept of procrastination was noted before the dawn of industrial civilization Procrastination is an acute problem amongst college and university students. College life is regarded as a context wherein students learn healthy habits of managing and organizing their task at a limited time. Students intentionally delay things as they like to enjoy their college time with their peers. They avoid long term deadlines and extracurricular activities which ultimately lead to their academic incompetence. It not only affects student grades, but also academic performance, thereby creating academic and career problems. It is a phenomenon that can affect all areas of a person’s life. This topic is less studied in education but deserves much more attention. It is detrimental in cultures where performance and results are given due importance.

1. Dr. Rakhi Sawlani

2.  Concept of procrastination was noted before the dawn of industrial
civilization Procrastination is an acute problem amongst college and
university students. College life is regarded as a context wherein
students learn healthy habits of managing and organizing their task
at a limited time.
 Students intentionally delay things as they like to enjoy their college
time with their peers. They avoid long term deadlines and
extracurricular activities which ultimately lead to their academic
incompetence.
 It not only affects student grades, but also academic performance,
thereby creating academic and career problems. It is a phenomenon
that can affect all areas of a person’s life.
 This topic is less studied in education but deserves much more
attention. It is detrimental in cultures where performance and
results are given due importance.

3.  Procrastination comes from the Latin “pro,” which means
forward, and “crastinus,” which means of tomorrow (Mish,
1994).
 It is a tendency to put off, avoid or delay activities. It has also
been characterized as “delaying task completion to the point
of experiencing subjective discomfort” (Ferrari, 1992, p. 315),
 an “intentional delay of an intended course of action”
(Klassen, Krawchuk & Rajani, 2008, p. 916) or as a stable
personality trait with negative consequences (Choi & Moran,
2009).
 "to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite
expecting to be worse off for the delay” (Steel, 2007, p. 66).

4.  Hoover(2005) defines procrastination as not being able to set
goal priorities and hence not being able to complete
assignments on time.
 According to Lay (1986) procrastination means putting off
something which is central to reach some goal.
 According to Burka and Yuen (1983) procrastination is a self
induced strategy that guards against a susceptible sense of
self-esteem.
 Hence, Procrastination is not solely a deficit in study habits or
time management, but involves a complex interaction of
behavioral, cognitive, and affective components.

5.  The author differentiated two types of procrastinators:
 Passive procrastinators versus Active procrastinators.
 Passive procrastinators are procrastinators in the traditional
sense. They are paralyzed by their indecision to act and fail to
complete tasks on time.
 In contrast, active procrastinators are a "positive" type of
procrastinator. They prefer to work under pressure, and they
make deliberate decisions to procrastinate.

6. Procrastination is identified as a negative trait in individuals of all
ages. Even an academically strong individual may possess following
characteristics of procrastination:
 Procrastinators generally get lower scores than the non-
procrastinators as they underestimate the amount of time needed to
perform tasks and are easily distracted by fun activities.
 They work on less important responsibility, rather than fulfilling the
more important obligations, or may use their time extravagantly in
some minor activity or pleasure.
 Procrastinators keep themselves ready to work, but end up avoiding
the activity that needs to be accomplished on precedence.
 Procrastination considerably wastes significant time, if there is
something supposed to be performed.
 Low self esteem and unsteady feelings of self-worth is a central
constituent of procrastination.
 Procrastinators feel powerless and hopeless, less confidence and
future seems dark.

7.  Procrastinators usually avoid revealing information about their
abilities, prefer menial tasks, tend to focus on the past, and do not act
on their intentions.
 Procrastinators report feelings of dependency and self-defeating acts
and greater social anxiety. (Ferrari 1991)
 Procrastinators were high on the neurotic and also on the
rebelliousness stress, difficulty, low progress. ( Lay 1987)
 less delay of gratification, lower self-efficacy, and less control over
emotional reactions.
 low conscientiousness and self-regulatory failure.
 Procrastinators feel fear of failure and aversiveness of the task, with
no difference in study habits and week anxiety-related physical
symptoms.
 Individuals with an internal locus of control were found to
procrastinate less and complete their homework earlier than those
with an external locus of control.
 Procrastination can negatively impact learning, achievement,
academic self-efficacy, and quality of life.

8.  The study of procrastination and its effects have been getting attention
in the field of psychology.
 Procrastination is extremely common among college students (Schraw
et al., 2007) with 95% to 99% of students identifying themselves as
procrastinators, between 32% and 46% of students procrastinating in a
chronic manner.
 Procrastination has been found to be negatively related to examination
scores and grades, and positively related to symptoms of stress,
depression, visits to medical professionals, course withdrawal, and
course failure (Solomon & Rothblum, 1984).
 Given both the prevalence of procrastination among college students
and its potential adverse effects, having psychometrically sound
measures of procrastination is critical.
 Ferrari, 1994 labeled procrastination as “one of the least understood
minor human miseries” and has even stated that nearly one-quarter of
the adult population is affected by procrastination.

9.  The Procrastination Assessment Scale-Students (PASS)
developed by Solomon and Rothblum (1984) is a widely used
scale to assess procrastination.
 In the current study, a total of 50 participants from
responded to the scale. On an average, sample is between
25-40 years of age and came from diverse academic majors
and demographic backgrounds.
 PASS is useful in both identifying the potential focal areas
for intervention and in tracking changes in procrastination
over the time. It has been shown to possess fairly good
estimates of reliability and validity.
 Pass is a 44 item instrument The PASS was developed to
measure three areas of procrastination: a) prevalence b)
reasons c) behavioral indices.
 Reason part of the PASS refers to items 19-44. PASS has 13
possible reasons for procrastination: perfectionism,
evaluation anxiety, low self-esteem, aversiveness of task,
laziness, time management, difficulty making decisions,
peer pressure, dependency, lack of assertion, risk taking,
fear of success, and rebellion against control. Two items are
made for each of these reasons, for a total of 26 items.

10.  It consists of measuring procrastination tendencies in only six
areas of academic performance: writing term papers, studying,
weekly readings, administrative tasks, attending meetings and
general academic tasks.
 Students are asked to indicate both their 1) level of
procrastination and 2) degree to which procrastination is a
problem on each task individually.
 The scale is scored on a 5-point Likert scale where 1 indicates
that the student never procrastinates in that area, 2 indicates
almost never, 3 indicates sometimes, 4 indicates nearly always
and 5 indicates always procrastinates in that area.
 Likewise, on the degree to which procrastination is a problem, 1
indicates not at all a problem and the fifth anchor indicates
always a problem while the middle three anchors are similar

11.  Students procrastinate on a wide variety of activities and in a wide variety of
circumstances, whether it is putting off completing a project, grading papers
or assignments. Students do not typically procrastinate in their everyday
lives but procrastinate in their academic endeavors because of a lack of
understanding of the complexities of meeting numerous deadlines,
inadequate beliefs regarding studying habits or because of a false belief that
their high abilities allow them to perform such negative behaviors.
 It was found that over 70% of students admit that they procrastinate
regularly. 46% of college students reported that they nearly always or always
procrastinate on writing a term paper, 27.6% on studying for exams, and
30.1% on weekly reading assignments.
 Students needlessly delay completing activities, projects or assignments due
to stress or anxiety upon individuals as they hasten to meet deadlines and
complete assignments. Individuals fail to meet deadlines and commitments
and destroy relationships with their school personnel eventually leading to
more complex situations.
 Tasks that require students to use a greater variety of skills to complete an
assignment may also be perceived as being interesting, which may motivate
students to start earlier.
 They have found to carry a heavy cost due to inability to abide by these
values, whereby affecting all domains of life as it creates anxiety and affects
attention, concentration, quality of performance and work.

12.  Interest was found to be an important motivator and that if
instructors developed and used assignments perceived by
students as being interesting, procrastination could possibly
decrease.
 The researchers also found that clear instructions that enabled
students to understand exactly what was expected and
required to succeed on an assignment could reduce the fear of
starting.
 Students also lack initiative and they will not have a certain
drive to complete a task or assignment on time Procrastination
was also found to decrease when there were rewards or
incentives attached to the task.

13.  Students had an inability to manage their time and there was
a wide discrepancy between their actual intent and their
realized behaviors.
 They must also complete assignments and tests by
predetermined dates in addition to large course load,
homework and projects.
 Poor time management could result in forgetting to turn in an
assignment, unintentionally putting off studying until the last
minute or working on other less important activities instead of
academic work. Thus, failing to manage time effectively could
be a defining characteristic of procrastinators.

14.  Fear of failure/ success could also be a potential reason behind
some forms of procrastination. They lack initiative and have
an absence of motivation and enthusiasm to complete the
work because they fear failing at those tasks.
 Students are physically avoiding work and are merely putting
off all the work until the end of the semester. Sometimes, they
become more dependent on their peers for all their regular
tasks.
 They develop rebellious attitude against the authority who
continuously demand good work from the. Since they are
afraid of taking risks in their life and are a poor decision
maker, they try to run away from the responsibilities. Some of
the students are found to be too perfect to develop task
aversiveness.

15.  Students who exhibit higher levels of academic procrastinatory
tendencies could be given lessons in studying effectively and keeping
deadlines and goals.
 If identified early enough, students can be given the right tools for
overcoming procrastination and succeeding in college.
 Timely intervention can help students improve their skills like time
management, study habits and reducing anxiety levels.
 Researches have been done to understand the factors that produce and
maintain this troublesome behavior. Regular procrastinators could be
placed in instructive settings where they are educated on study tactics
and other factors which could possibly improve the effects.
 Improving self-esteem is a better way to cure procrastination in
students. Self-appraisal and self-worth leads students to do their
tasks and make important decisions on time.
 Student counseling and assessment centers should be set up in the
universities to help students for those in the habit of procrastination.

16.  Procrastination can be a vital predictor of success in college and
should be the focus of future researches. In modern industrial
society, time and punctuality are considered important standards.
 Procrastination prevents students from reaching their objectives
and goals inculcating a sense of discomfort in them. It also
prevents them from moving ahead in life; students find it difficult
to focus on performing other tasks till they have completed the one
in hand, which further effects quality of work in other spheres of
life.
 Psychological interventions designed for enhancement of self-
esteem and time management need to be incorporated within the
academic structure of colleges and universities.
 The implications are important for recruiters and those in
education for selection purposes. Administrators could gain better
insight into student actual behavioral tendencies.
 The obtained results may enhance understanding of the
neuropsychological correlates of procrastination and may lead to
practical suggestions or interventions to reduce its harmful effects
on students' academic performance and well-being.