The dictionary defines procrastination as the act or habit of procrastinating, or putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention. I chose procrastination as my topic for this exploratory essay because I, myself, suffer heavily from this awful problem and from the research I've conducted, so do many others. I wanted to see if there were certain causes of procrastination, what its effects were, and if there were any methods to help or solve the problem. About half of the sources I used are scholarly sources, and the other half are composed of a blog, magazine article, and several tweets. The scholarly sources supply more facts and studies, while the other sources provide a more personal stance on the issue and show some examples.

The first source I chose for my essay was a scholarly journal article on a study done by Sheila Brownlow and Renne Reasinger. Their study starts off talking about how common procrastination is, and its leading to low grades and more stress. The study then states that, according to McCown and Johnson, "procrastination is considered to be chronic and dysfunctional when such behavior disrupts everyday functioning by impinging on ability to work and creates psychological and physical discomfort." Procrastinators are known to seek perfection and fear failure, and they become anxious upon realizing their own procrastination or when the deadline quickly approaches. It is said in the study "the personal and practical problems that result from dysfunctional procrastination are particularly acute in academic settings, as the tendency to put off school-related tasks results in problematic levels of stress" (Rothblum, Solomon & Murakami, 1986). The exigency that the source is responding to is whether or not procrastination has a negative effect.

As for my second source, I used an interview conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) towards Dr. Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology and Vincent dePaul Distinguished Professor at DePaul University in Chicago. He is a leading international researcher in the study of procrastination and is the lab director of DePaul's Center for Social, Personality and Community Research. Already, this source is full of ethos in that the credibility of Dr. Ferrari is outstanding and really makes you listen to what information he has to offer. When APA asked if the immediacies of modern technology helped reduce our procrastination or if they fed into people's tendency to put things off, Dr. Ferrari answered with "We hear that technology today makes it easier to procrastinate. In 2006, a reporter phoned me and asked what I thought of the snooze button, which is one of the first technologies designed to give us more time, yet we have not gained anything. We still delay. Today's technology can help us not procrastinate if we use it wisely. We don't have to surf the Web for hours on irrelevant tasks." While it is refreshing to hear that technology may be able to help us, I believe that this is the problem because of course we don't HAVE to surf the Web for hours, it's that we WANT to and have such a problem with not doing so. Dr. Ferrari was also asked if procrastination is a sign of other problems that can become true disorders if not confronted, and he responded that procrastination is a real problem when it becomes evident in all areas of your life and that he has found some links with chronic procrastination and personality challenges like ADHD, passive-aggressive tendencies, revenge, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ferrari says "for those chronic procrastinators, it is not a time management issue  --  it is a maladaptive lifestyle," and I could not agree more.

A source from the European Journal of Personality, titled "Procrastination, Temptations, and Incentives: The Struggle between the Present and the Future in Procrastinators and the Punctual," conducted two studies, investigating the role of impulsivity in procrastinators' problems. The first study revealed that procrastination was closely related to a lack of perseverance, that is, the inability to complete projects. The second study revealed that all students tend to postpone the bulk of their study activities to the last week before an exam. The results also revealed that procrastinators postponed more of their intentions, mainly because of fun alternatives, but did not intend to study less or later. The study concluded that procrastinators emerged as highly motivated students who lack the ability to ward off temptations and distractions during their studying activities (Dewitte & Schouwenburg, 2002). I think that the author's goal in this study is to shed light on his reasons for procrastination and then back it up with two studies.

Another study is used for my next source, written by Tice and Baumeister, and titled "Longitudinal Study of Procrastination, Performance, Stress, and Health: The Costs and Benefits of Dawdling" in a report. The study talks about the possible costs and, believe it or not, benefits of procrastination. The bad side of procrastination is that is it correlated with depression, irrational beliefs, low self-esteem, anxiety, and poor study habits. It was also found that anxiety levels in procrastinators were higher during the exam period, as in my other source. The evidence of the study suggested that procrastination was linked to negative mental health outcomes. On the other hand, the study says that procrastinators might claim that focusing on the last-minute efforts and stresses is misleading. While procrastinators suffer late, non-procrastinators suffer and worry earlier on in the period, which may be worse. It could even be that procrastinators suffer less because they compress the stress into a short period (Tice & Baumeister, 1997). I chose this source because it offers a conflicting viewpoint than every other source and points out a possible benefit of procrastination. Although I disagree with this stance, I believe that the variety is good.

My next source is a Princeton article that addresses the problem of why we procrastinate, and what we can do about it. The article states that procrastinators tend to make statements like they do better under pressure or they enjoy the rush of having to meet a deadline and waiting, yet they forget the negative consequences such as anxiety, stress, fatigue and disappointment. It offers four steps to overcoming tendencies to procrastinate. First, you must be aware that you procrastinate and understand why. Second, you must come up with time management techniques, especially those that reduce anxiety and fear and emphasize the satisfaction and rewards of completing tasks work best. Third, you find motivation for productive reasons. A good thing to do here would be to set goals for yourself and focus on them. Finally, you must stay motivated! Stay engaged in your classes and do not destroy yourself by setting unrealistic goals. The article also relates procrastination to anxiety and doing poorly, as do a few other sources, showing that there is definitely a correlation between the two. This source demonstrates the "policy" party of stasis, since it provides techniques on what should be done.

An article in The Observer says that people have struggled with habitual hesitation going back to ancient civilizations. The Greek poet Hesiod, writing around 800 B.C., cautioned not to "put your work off till tomorrow and the day after." The Roman consul Cicero called procrastination "hateful" in the conduct of affairs (Jaffe,2013). Once again, it is pointed out that people who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower well-being. Jaffe states that, true procrastination is a complicated failure of self-regulation: experts define it as the voluntary delay of some important task that we intend to do, despite knowing that we'll suffer as a result. He does a good job at using pathos, because I know that I can relate to this. I know that as a result in procrastinating I will suffer and stress a good amount, yet I still delay my tasks. This realization tends to hit my emotions, as it makes me mad, annoyed, and disappointed in myself. Later on in the article Jaffe says, "the damage suffered as a result of delay doesn't teach them to start earlier the next time around. An explanation for this behavioral paradox seems to lie in the emotional component of procrastination. Ironically, the very quest to relieve stress in the moment might prevent procrastinators from figuring out how to relieve it in the long run." I couldn't help but chuckle at this because of how true it is.

A blog from the guardian titled "Procrastination: a student's worst enemy?" was chosen for my next source because it relates procrastination to technology. Milana Knezevic says, "We all know the feeling. Staring at the cursor blinking away on a blank Word document, desperately wishing you were somewhere else. But no, until the word count hits 3,000 you're staying put... Just need to make a cup of tea first. Before you know it, "a cup of tea'" has turned into a Lord of the Rings marathon, and the word count remains at zero." Ain't that the truth! An American study estimates that over seventy percent of students exhibit the behavior of procrastinating. Research has once again shown that fear of failure corresponds with higher levels of procrastination. As for those who say they produce their best work under pressure, allow Dr. Tim Pychyl to burst your bubble: the adrenaline rush is actually just relief that the task is done (Knezevic, 2012). The article offers three techniques in helping with procrastination. The first is to get rid of temptations and eliminate distractions; the second is to work with restrictions; and the third is to not be so hard on yourself. Like I said before, these are easier said than done...you have to WANT to put down your phone or set a goal for yourself, it does not simply just happen.

"Getting Over Procrastination," an article written by Maria Konnikova in The New Yorker magazine, is my next, and almost last, source. The article talks about the views of Piers Steel, a psychologist at the University of Calgary and former procrastinator himself. As early as 1400 B.C., Steel says, ancient Egyptians were struggling with basic time management. "Friend, stop putting off work and allow us to go home in good time," read some hieroglyphs, translated by the University of Toronto Egyptologist Ronald Leprohon. Already, this source is full of ethos due to Steel's standing, and logos due to the facts provided. This is one of my favorite sources because I like the way Steel thinks. He says, "For most of us, procrastination isn't a pleasant experience. It's not like blowing off a meeting or a class and feeling the freedom of rebellion; it's a feeling of growing pressure -- of knowing we'll have to deal eventually with whatever it is we're putting off." It's smart of him to point out that procrastinating does not lead to freedom...the stress does not go away like it does when skipping class, it only grows as the due date get closer. My favorite quote in the article is, "What if procrastination was simply the flip side of impulsivity? Just as impulsivity is a failure of our self-control mechanisms -- we should wait, but instead we act now -- so, too, is procrastination: we should act now, but instead we wait," said by Steel. This quote really made me think for some reason, and I found it to be extremely truthful.

Finally, my last source is made up of four tweets. The first one was tweeted by Emily Thompson and says, "I'm spending more time tweeting about this essay than I am writing it. #procrastination." The second one was tweeted by Laney McCartney and says, "Props to the people who have enough self control to not look at their phone while doing homework. #procrastination." The third tweet by Mike says, "Instagram is so much easier than homework though #procrastination." Finally, the fourth tweet by Allison Olean says, "honestly i have so much stuff I have to do before the game & im just sitting here watching gossip girl. #procrastination." Did you laugh reading these? Because I did. It's funny what our generation has become...so infatuated with technology. Don't get me wrong, unfortunately I add to this population and as a matter of fact, I tweeted about procrastinating too. When I searched the hashtag procrastination into twitter, an unbelievable amount of results appeared and most of them had to do with technology. I picked these tweets because although not much research elaborates on the effects of technology on procrastination, it is evident that it plays a huge part. Personally, it is the main, if not only, thing that causes my procrastination. We are given so many sources of distraction at the tip our fingertips, it's hard not to check your social media every five minutes when writing a paper you've been dreading. I mean, would you rather type a paper or catch up on your favorite TV show on Netflix? And the problem may not be checking your phone, it's the one thing that leads to another that becomes an issue. One second you're just checking the time or a message and next thing you know you've been on twitter for thirty minutes, where you see a YouTube video so then you proceed to watch thirty minutes of videos until you realize you only have thirty minutes left until your deadline.

In conclusion, my most interesting discoveries were the negative effect of procrastination on health and the little research provided linking social media to procrastination. All of my sources are credible except for the tweets, so choosing sources for my next essay will not be difficult, where I plan to go into more detail about the negative effect procrastination has on health, especially using Steel's research and point of view.
