Homework Procrastination: Why You Procrastinate on Homework and How to Stop
Procrastination is something almost everyone, especially students, has done at some point in their lives. Questions like, “why can’t I do my homework?” or”why is it so hard for me to do homework?” are common among college students.
Studies show that approximately 50% of college students say that they procrastinate homework in a consistent and problematic manner; about 75% consider themselves to be procrastinators; and about 80%–95% procrastinate to some degree. However, it’s essential to know that postponing tasks doesn’t make them go away, and putting off jobs has adverse effects beyond your academic performance. Compared to being lazy, procrastination refers to putting off demanding or challenging activities.
It is hardly shocking that those who procrastinate receive lower grades. However, they also go through more stress, which has a lot of unfavorable side effects. Procrastination is ultimately a decision. It entails putting off doing your assignment even when you realize it could be a better idea. Do you need help with ways to tackle procrastination and avoid the side effects that come with it? Don’t worry; you’ve come to the right place. Thankfully, there are numerous strategies for college students to begin forming better habits against procrastination. Continue reading as we help you with practical tips to help you permanently end procrastination.
Table of Contents
What Is Procrastination?
When students put off working on schoolwork, such as studying or writing, it is considered procrastination. It impacts students at all levels and may result in significant problems like poorer academic performance and decreased well-being.
Students who procrastinate experience stress and may produce lower-quality work as a result. We all experience a general sense of things hovering over our heads and never being free from obligation when we put things off.
Students who put off doing something can find it challenging to self-regulate. It’s harder for a student’s brain to be engaged in thinking and problem-solving when they are not well-regulated, which is to say, when they feel moderate to high anxiety about their schoolwork.
Since different students postpone for various reasons and can benefit from multiple remedies for conquering their procrastination, it is also a challenging problem.
Risks Of Procrastination Among Students
Students who procrastinate may experience problems with managing their time, academic achievement, psychological wellness, and mental and physical health.
Time Wastage
Procrastination can consume a significant amount of time. Students frequently indicate that procrastination takes up more than a substantial part of their daily activities, typically in habits like napping, watching TV, or playing video games. They might also start missing deadlines or rushing through work because of other time management problems brought on by it.
Bad Academic Performance
Poor exam results, poor grades, more failed courses, and more course withdrawals are just a few problems that can arise from procrastinating. Many of these problems can be attributed to time management problems brought on by procrastination. For instance, if students repeatedly put off preparing for an essential examination due to poor time management, they will probably be uninformed and receive a lower grade.
Deteriorating Mental Health
Higher stress levels and a spike in illness rates are two problems that might result from procrastinating. According to Psychology Today, procrastinating students typically had lower marks and decreased well-being. Many of these problems are linked to students’ difficulties with time management and academic success. For instance, a student may experience anxiety, guilt, and stress if they procrastinate and submit an assignment late, which results in a poor mark.
Common Reasons Students Procrastinate Homework
With different studies showing the rate at which students put off their homework, it’s natural to ask why procrastination is widespread among students. Contrary to popular belief, students are not lazy or careless with their coursework; this is not the basis of the problem. Instead, some of the most frequent explanations for putting off doing schoolwork include the following:
- Forgetfulness
Students occasionally postpone their work until the last minute because they honestly have no idea there is any work to be done. This can happen for various reasons, including missing class, being preoccupied when the teacher announces the assignment, failing to write it down, or forgetting to check the class website.This behavior won’t be considered procrastination since the student isn’t delaying their tasks. Instead, they are unaware that they have any work to complete. But this is undoubtedly a frequent reason for waiting until the last minute.
- Lack Of Clarity
Students frequently delay completing assignments in the hopes that they will grasp them better later if they need clarification about them or need to know precisely what is required of them. This is especially difficult for students who find uncertainty or uncharted territory uncomfortable. Sadly, they frequently have no more knowledge than they did prior and no other opportunity to ask their teacher for elaboration when they examine it the night before the deadline. - Flexible Deadlines
Students learn that deadlines have no value and stop taking them seriously when teachers don’t hold students accountable for submitting work on time and without being penalized. External deadlines can begin to appear as arbitrary as internal deadlines, which, while beneficial, are less successful in preventing procrastination. This is because they lack significant repercussions. - Ignorance
Students may feel overwhelmed and need help figuring out where to start when approaching papers or assignments as a series of parts. So they keep postponing the homework until it is close to the deadline and they worry that they won’t know their starting point is overwhelmed by their fears that the deadline will pass too quickly. - Bad Study Habits
Following school, students follow a fairly predictable pattern. Once established, these behavioral patterns are automatically carried out with little thought. For instance, students may occasionally begin watching TV as a break after class, which instantly encourages procrastination because it is difficult to turn off.
Students may also habitually postpone their most challenging tasks, study sessions, or long-term projects until the end of their homework when they are most fatigued and weak-willed. Students who engage in these behaviors may procrastinate without even realizing it.
- Distractions
It is common for students to become sidetracked by other activities when they set aside time to finish their work. In addition to internal triggers, such as their ideas or urges, external factors, such as social media, can also lead to diversion. It doesn’t matter how they do it, they diverge from the allocated time. - Overwhelmed Emotions
Even the thought of an assignment that sounds extremely difficult or time-consuming might be frightening and unpleasant. Students so frequently commit the mistake of delaying it. Unfortunately, this eventually falls apart when they finally start the project since their intrinsic difficulty has increased now that they need more time. As a result, individuals experience far more stress than they would have if they had begun earlier. - The Fear Of Failing
Students who have a problem with perfecting their projects, are anxious about making mistakes or messing them up, or are fearful of criticism frequently worry about completing assignments wrong, to the point that they may postpone doing them to escape the discomfort they experience while trying to work on the project.
Because they grow increasingly less inclined to be able to complete it well, this can result in the seemingly unreasonable behavior of delaying the task even more as the deadline draws near. A perfect assignment can only be produced at the very last minute. At this point, the only options left to them are to submit a subpar assignment or nothing at all.
Tips On How To Stop Procrastinating On Homework
Now you can checkout some of these useful tips to help you perhaps stop procrastinating, or limiting your levels of procrastination:
- Take distractions away: Don’t try to deceive yourself, first and foremost. Studying for an exam with friends has a slim possibility of being successful. Indeed, it’s more enjoyable, but because you’ll be interacting with others, your attention will be scattered and erratic. Additionally, your companion’s progress can discourage you rather than inspire you. When everyone has memorized the content, reviewing together is a good idea so you can check each other’s understanding later. Put your phone in airplane mode, close your social media tabs, and attempt to study in a neat, uncluttered area. A jumble around you is the same as a jumble inside your head.
- Use your strongest feeling: Every student has a unique learning style. Some people enjoy creating mental maps and using colorful stickers. In contrast, others enjoy watching or listening to music or videos while writing lengthy phrases by hand. Use trial-and-error tactics to determine what approach works best for you rather than blindly adhering to what others claim to be successful. It would make sense to read more and highlight the most crucial passages with your stationery, be it small stickers or markers, if you have a photographic memory that records everything with vision. If you learn best through listening, record the lectures ahead and listen to them often until you have the information down pat. It also works well to read aloud.
- Give yourself deadlines: It is ineffective to work without deadlines because you are unable to monitor your progress. If you think you are behind schedule, you will become anxious. Divide your labor into equal portions and reward yourself for each small triumph, such as watching an episode of your favorite TV show. Don’t take on more than you can handle, and approach your work realistically. It will be easier to concentrate if you have less time.
- Work when you feel the most active: Most people detest getting up early, but society and schools have convinced us that being productive is necessary. What if you started working at midday and finished later, around 9 p.m., instead of feeling drowsy all day and fatigued by lunch? When you yawn less, pay attention to your biological clock. Avoid torturing yourself with energy drinks and coffee. It is preferable to get a few more hours of sleep to stay up later that day.
- Key into projections: Consider many scenarios of what might happen if you succeed or fail in a specific endeavor whenever you feel anxious or unmotivated. If you fail this tough statistics test, would the world end for you? It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care, but try not to worry too much about your grades. Suppose you ask a graduate what occurred after they failed an exam. In that case, they’ll probably reply, “Nothing really,” so take this as a warning.
Homework Procrastination: Tips For Parents And Teachers On Motivation
In several cases, students often need more skills to succeed, despite their best intentions. Some people delay things for fear of making mistakes or not being flawless. To assist your student or child when they solve homework, attempt the following steps:
- External Method: This entails implementing effective anti-procrastination strategies to lower students’ procrastination without engaging them directly in the procedure. Setting a succession of intermediate project deadlines for each student in a course is one way to do this.
- Student-based Approach: This entails giving students little to no outside assistance to help them battle their procrastination. In this instance, external guidance could be as simple as bringing up the issue of procrastination and informing them of a pertinent resource, like this article, when a ward or student says, “I can’t do my homework.”
- Combined Method: This entails providing pupils with outside help and motivating them to actively participate in their efforts to quit procrastinating. For instance, this could entail discussing pertinent anti-procrastination strategies with students and assisting them in selecting and putting their favorite ones into practice.
Get Homework Help Today!
While occasionally delaying tasks isn’t bad, it’s vital to remember that persistently lingering tasks could harm your body and health. Even if you’ve been putting things off without consequence since high school, it’s time to kick the bad habit that might be interfering with your ability to sleep and produce high-quality work.
With any of these tips we’ve provided, using an effective and trustworthy service also comes in handy to not procrastinate homework. You can now “pay someone to do my homework!” Our online expert writers ensure that you get custom and high quality homework that’ll guarantee you good marks. Employing their services also help you focus on other school work, giving you ample time to rest and relax.
Remember that while people might motivate you to tackle your procrastination, this is ultimately your problem, not theirs. So put your phone away now and stop browsing the internet because your homework and other obligations won’t disappear with time. Use these tips and information to avoid procrastination right away, not later.
