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Being a procrastinator can have positive effects such as increasing the speed of work,
improvisation skills and improving the work efficiency of MUIDS students. The purpose of
this research report is to find out the reason of procrastination and its effects on MUIDS
students work efficiency. The importance of this research report is to point out how
procrastination is not always a negative habit, instead, can be transformed into many other
positive habits. The pieces of information are based on five sources. First, Joseph Ferrari, a
Psychology of Procrastination: Why People Put Off Important Tasks Until the Last Minute
describes the reasons why most people procrastinate based on US statistics. Second, Amy
causes and effects of procrastination on graduate students. Third, in the journal of social
Behavior on Attitudes and Performance compares active and passive procrastination and
their effects. Fourth, Dianne Tice and Roy Baumeisterthes research about Longitudinal
Study of Procrastination, Performance, Stress, and Health: The Costs and Benefits of
Dawdling shows detailed psychological analysis about people who procrastinate. Finally,
Howell and Watsons article Procrastination: Associations with achievement goal orientation
performance. Furthermore, this research report will include information from an online
Procrastination
procrastinator refers to a person who puts off something that needs to be done, despite
knowing that he/she will suffer by doing so. Although procrastination is vastly perceived as a
negative, or even dysfunctional habit, it can be classified into two major types; passive
procrastinators and active procrastinators. Passive procrastinators delay tasks because they set
up high expectations for themselves, which brings self-doubt and fear of failure alongside.
These factors cause them to be unable to make quick decisions, lack time management skills,
and eventually fail to complete tasks. In contrast, active procrastinators are able to complete
their tasks in time because they are adapted to work well under pressure. Their only problem
is that they intentionally put off tasks by doing other tasks. Active procrastinators are
showed that 80 to 95 percent of college students procrastinate. A later study in 2014 revealed
that 87 percent of approximately 1,300 high school and college students claimed that they
Procrastination has been highly associated with motivation, a force that drives people
to delay or not delay their work. As stated in the Journal of Social Psychology, motivation is
categorized into two types; intrinsic and extrinsic(Chu & Choi, 2005). Intrinsic motivation
refers to an internal drive from oneself. Extrinsic motivation defines the drive from possible
positive or negative outcomes, for example failing an exam or getting rewarded. Several
studies have shown that non procrastinators are eager to learn everything they could,
therefore full of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. In contrast, passive procrastinators
lack of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Fortunately, there is a middle ground between
OUNPIYODOM 3
two of them, active procrastinators. They have low intrinsic motivation but high extrinsic
motivation, due to the fact that they complete their work within the last minute but choose not
health, which are possible to occur during and after the act of procrastination. Especially
depression, low self-esteem or even poor study habits are often experienced. Moreover,
anxiety levels were found very high in procrastinators who delayed their studying until the
exam period. In 1997, Dianne M. Tice and Roy F. Baumeister studied on the costs and
the results showed that it is possible that procrastinators experience the same amount of stress
the course, when their work was assigned. In contrary, passive procrastinators did not
experience stress until later, when their work was nearly due. Active procrastinators tend to
be more tolerant to stress because they cope with problems at hand with realistic solutions.
Theoretically, there would be no difference between the quality of work whether the student
procrastinated or not. However, realistically, it is also plausible that procrastinators will run
out of time needed to perfect their work. However, procrastinators reported stressing out for a
shorter period of time. Researches have shown that this form of stress can promote task
performance, which includes being able to work well under pressure, a crucial characteristic
of active procrastinators. The above study has found that the key to working under pressure is
Contrary to popular belief, one possible reason to why many students procrastinate is
because they think deeper and harder before acting, meaning they had the chance to explore
the possibilities and approaches towards their work farther than non-procrastinators who
OUNPIYODOM 4
finish their work right away. This act of forward thinking promotes the opportunity for
students to explore their suitable learning strategy. Procrastinators who are unmotivated tend
conducted. The survey was sent out to 10, 11 and 12 Graders inside MUIDS. The final results
have shown that 48% of students described themselves as a moderate procrastinator. 19.4%
claimed they are chronic procrastinators. Surprisingly, not one student denied that he/she is a
followed by watching tv shows and doing hobbies in second place. The leading factor that
over 80% of students feel drives them to procrastinate is laziness, followed by boredom with
54.8%. As predicted, 67.7% of students choose to procrastinate writing papers the most
compared to other types of works for example short exercises, visual and speaking
presentations. Almost half of the students said they feel the same amount of stress during the
Since procrastination leaves little time for students to complete their work, being able
to work fast and deal with pressure are considered necessary skills. According to the survey,
53.1% claim themselves as fast workers, but only 37.5% said that they were fine with
working under pressure. This shows that adjusting their speed is not as difficult as coping
with pressure for MUIDS students. Finally, 62.5% of them said that what they have learned
most from procrastinating is to start working earlier next time. This concludes that students
Conclusion
The purpose of this research report was to find out the reason of procrastination and
its effects on MUIDS students work efficiency. This research report concluded that most
motivation, boredom and laziness which is the most dominant cause according to MUIDS
students. The school survey showed that procrastination has some positive impact on students
such as faster speed of work and adaptation to working under pressure. This research report
procrastinating habits.
References
Chu, A. H., & Choi, J. N. (2005). Rethinking Procrastination: Positive Effects of "Active"
Procrastination Behavior on Attitudes and Performance. The Journal of Social
Psychology, 145(3), 245-264. doi:10.3200/socp.145.3.245-264
http://www.motivationalmagic.com/library/ebooks/motivation/motivation%20%20An
%20article%20on%20procrastination.pdf
Ferrari, J. (2010, April 5). Psychology of Procrastination: Why People Put Off Important
Tasks Until the Last Minute. Retrieved March 24, 2017, from
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2010/04/procrastination.aspx
Howell, A. J., & Watson, D. C. (2007). Procrastination: Associations with achievement goal
orientation and learning strategies. Personality and Individual Differences, 43(1),
167-178. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2006.11.017
Novotney, A. (n.d.). Procrastination or 'intentional delay'? Retrieved March 28, 2017, from
http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2010/01/procrastination.aspx