Leaving important deadlines and tasks to the last minute isn’t just a student problem but rather human nature, according to a Carleton professor’s research on procrastination.
Tim Pychyl, associate professor in Carleton’s psychology department, has been conducting research about the correlation between procrastination and well-being for almost 24 years.
“Everyone can procrastinate,” he said. “It’s part of being human.”
Pychyl also found that procrastination is not a time management problem, but a coping mechanism.
“It’s an emotion management problem,” he said. “What happens with procrastination is that we face a task that, for whatever reason, makes us feel bad . . . so the way we cope is to avoid.”
Since 2006, he has documented his findings through a podcast series, and in his book Solving the Procrastination Puzzle: A Concise Guide to Strategies For Change released in 2010.
Even though it’s human nature, Pychyl said procrastination can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental health, and overall well-being.
“You get this lifestyle of binge-working, working at the last minute, putting off eating well, putting off sleeping well, putting off exercise,” Pychyl said.
Paola Diaz, a second-year criminology student, affirmed Pychyl’s statement, saying that procrastination sometimes affects her well-being.
“I definitely got more stressed with procrastination, and eventually I sleep less, because I try to catch up with all the work,” she said.
Procrastination can sometimes have a harmful effect on students’ grades, Pychyl’s research reveals.
“There’s a negative correlation between positive performance and procrastination,” he said. “The higher the procrastination, the lower the grades.”
Stephanie Barrios, a first-year political science student, said procrastination affected her mood.
“When I procrastinated, I was a lot more annoyed, because I spent all this time and didn’t do anything.”
Pychyl’s research has found that students can reduce procrastination by improving attention.
“Your emotions are in your body. You can’t suppress them, that’s what research shows,” he said. “But what you have to do is redirect your attention.”
Photo by Lauren Hicks
