Procrastination is biggest threat to students’ academic performance

Procrastination is the biggest problem harming students’ academic performance at university, according to a study of more than 65,000 young people. It ranked above ADHD, anxiety, and financial worries as a barrier to success. Nearly half of those surveyed said procrastination damaged their ability to do academic work.

That’s more than twice the number who named depression. The same proportion said procrastination caused significant distress, above family pressures and bullying. Itamar Shatz, the study’s author and an affiliated lecturer at the University of Cambridge, said he was surprised by how strongly procrastination affected the US students surveyed.

“Pretty much all of us procrastinate but it’s not a huge impediment for all of us,” Shatz said. “For the people that it is, it can be huge. It’s not just something we occasionally run into but, as we can see in these findings, it can be a major obstacle.”

A vicious cycle

The study, published in the journal Plos One, suggests procrastination could be a factor in a “vicious cycle” that causes or exaggerates other issues such as stress. For example, a student procrastinates on a task, feels stressed, has their sleep interfered with, and then procrastinates further. Fuschia Sirois, a psychology professor at Durham University and co-editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Health Psychology, said the salience of procrastination in students’ lives and its harms have been researched for almost 30 years. The first studies on its impact on health and wellbeing appeared in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Sirois, who was not involved in the study, said the established evidence base clearly highlights the negative impact of procrastination on students’ lives. She added that this descriptive study with a large sample offers additional insights into the relative impact of procrastination and a range of harms. But she cautioned that the study is just a snapshot, which limits conclusions.

“People procrastinate to avoid the difficult emotions associated with a task, which affords them short-term mood repair,” Sirois said. “But in the long run the feelings of guilt, shame and stress from procrastinating catch up to them and take a toll on health and wellbeing.” Shatz said procrastination should not be compared with laziness. Procrastinators are often highly motivated to tackle a task but are derailed by distractions such as perfectionism or burn-out. He added that universities should be aware that many students are likely hampered by procrastination. “They should understand that procrastination isn’t just a time management flaw that they can fix with a flyer, but it is one of the biggest obstacles that students face and needs to be treated with positive interventions,” Shatz said. “The good thing is that research shows that interventions can help.”