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 how it's leading to low grades and more stress. The study then talks about how procrastination is only deemed to be dysfunctional and a serious problem when the behavior disrupts everyday activities by affecting the ability to work while creating physical and mental discomfort (cited in Brownlow and Reasinger pg 16)." Procrastinators are pretty much known to seek perfection and they fear failure, so they become anxious when they realize their own procrastination or when the deadline approaches a little too quickly. 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" (qtd in Brownlow and Reasinger pg 16). 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) with 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" (qtd in Hamilton). 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. We can get systems that time us out after 10 minutes." 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 may lead to actual disorders, and he responded by saying that procrastination becomes a serious problem when it is seen in all areas of your life and that he has found some links with chronic procrastination and personality challenges. Some examples were 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 with that statement.

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 that investigated the role of impulsivity in problems of procrastinators. The first study showed that procrastination was related closely to lack of perseverance, which is the inability to complete tasks. The second study showed that all students seem to wait until the last week before an exam to study, pushing it off to last minute. The results also revealed that fun alternatives were the main reason that procrastinators postponed their tasks, but they did not intend to study less. The study concluded that procrastinators are actually highly motivated students who find it too hard to resist temptations and distractions while studying (Dewitte and Schouwenburg, pg 469-470). I think that the author's goal in this study is to shed light on their 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 it is "significantly correlated with depression, irrational beliefs, low self-esteem, anxiety, and poor study habits" (qtd in Tice and Baumeister, pg 454). It was also found that anxiety levels in procrastinators were higher during the exam period, as my other source pointed out. The evidence of the study suggested that procrastination was linked to negative mental health outcomes. On the other hand, the study talks about how procrastinators might claim that focusing on the last-minute things and stress is misleading. While procrastinators suffer late, non-procrastinators suffer early, which may be even worse. It could even be said that procrastinators suffer less since the amount of stress is forced into a small amount of time (Tice & Baumeister, pg 454). 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 from an online educational resource, 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 say that they do better under pressure or they enjoy the adrenaline rush of having to meet a deadline and waiting, yet they forget the negative consequences such as anxiety, stress, fatigue and disappointment. The article offers four steps to overcoming procrastination. First, the procrastinator must be aware that he/she has a problem and realize why the problem is taking place. Second, they must come up with time management techniques that do not cause themselves stress and come up with goals that are reasonable and allow them time to complete their task at hand. Third, they must find motivation for productive reasons. A good thing to do here would be to focus on the goals they have set for themselves and to take risks in order to learn new things. Finally, they must stay motivated! They must stay active and engaged in their classes and not destroy themselves by setting unrealistic goals. The article also relates procrastination to anxiety and doing poorly, as do many 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 about the problem.

An online article in the magazine, The Observer, which is published 10 times per year by the Association for Psychological Science and educates the Association on matters affecting the research, academic, and applied disciplines of psychology, 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" (Qtd in Jaffe). Once again, it is pointed out that people who procrastinate have higher levels of stress and lower well-being. Jaffe states that actual procrastination is just failing at self-regulation. We purposely put off important tasks that we have intentions of completing, even though we know that putting them off will hurt us in the long run. 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, there is a quote by Jaffe that says, "the damage suffered as a result of delay doesn't teach 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 had estimated that over seventy percent of students procrastinate. Research has once again shown that fear of failure corresponds with higher levels of procrastination. As for the people who say that they produce their best work under pressure, Dr. Tim Pychyl can 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 remove temptations and distractions; the second is to restrict yourself; and the third is to be easy 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 a former procrastinator himself. Apparently even ancient Egyptians found it difficult to manage their time, according to Steel. "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 (Konnikova). Already, this source is full of ethos due to Steel's standing. Piers Steel is a licensed psychologist at the University of Calgary, has written a book called "The Procrastination Equation," and even got his research published in 2007. Logos is also evident in the source 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 gets 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, as I found myself reading it over and over, 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 (no last name given) says, "Instagram is so much easier than homework though #procrastination." Finally, the fourth tweet by Allison Olean says, "honestly I [sic] have so much stuff I have to do before the game & im [sic] 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 witter, 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. See the problem?

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.
