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With 88% of the workforce admitting that they procrastinate at least one hour a day, it’s safe to say this is a widespread issue. This result is also in stark contrast with previous research that showed 25% — 75% of people procrastinate. It’s more common than we assume.Jul 4, 2019
Dr.
One of my favorite sayings is, “Everyone procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator.” We all put tasks off, but my research has found that 20 percent of U.S. men and women are chronic procrastinators.
To be a procrastinator, she wrote, entails much more than just putting off a task on occasion, and isn’t quite as widespread as you may think: One out of five people, researchers have found, fall into a category they call chronic procrastinators or procs (rhymes with crocs).
Procrastination is widespread. Eighty-six percent of high school students said they procrastinate on assignments. In college, that number goes up slightly to 88 percent. College males are the worst procrastinators – a whopping 92 percent of them said they procrastinate on school assignments!
Just 15.6% of people claim never go procrastinate. In other words, more than 84% of the population has experience of putting off those all important must-do tasks: 14.4% admit to procrastinating rarely. 27.4% do so sometimes.
With 88% of the workforce admitting that they procrastinate at least one hour a day, it’s safe to say this is a widespread issue. This result is also in stark contrast with previous research that showed 25% — 75% of people procrastinate. It’s more common than we assume.
As hypothesized, procrastination was highest in the youngest cohort (14–29 years). Only in the youngest and most procrastinating cohort (aged 14 to 29 years), men procrastinated more than women.
“What I’ve found is that while everybody may procrastinate, not everyone is a procrastinator,” says APS Fellow Joseph Ferrari, a professor of psychology at DePaul University. He is a pioneer of modern research on the subject, and his work has found that as many as 20 percent of people may be chronic procrastinators.
The study, published by the lending company RateSetter earlier this month and based on a YouGov survey of 2,000 adults, revealed that we spend, on average, 218 minutes procrastinating every day, which amounts to 55 days of lost time each year.
A strategy that couldn’t be easier to use is the two-minute rule, which is designed to help you stop procrastinating and stick to good habits at the same time. The rule is simple: Starting a new habit should never take more than two minutes to do.
Working at the last minute can give you a lot of flexibility to improvise. If you can boost creativity, you can look at the same problem from different angles and find actionable solutions. Therefore, you spend less time solving your problem and it makes you more productive.
20 percent of students pull all-nighters at least once a month and 35 percent stay up past three in the morning once or more weekly.
When it comes to procrastinating using the internet in specific domains, people procrastinated the most when they were home (57% of the time, amounting to 1.12 hours on average out of 1.96 hours spent on the internet), then at school (40% of the time, amounting to 0.26 hours out of 0.65), and finally at work (32% of …
You might postpone a meeting because of a schedule conflict, or to give yourself time to prepare. Procrastinating becomes a problem only when it hinders your relationships or getting your work done. For about one in five adults, procrastination is a real, long-lasting problem.
“Estimates indicate that 80 to 95 percent of college students engage in procrastination, approximately 75 percent consider themselves procrastinators, and almost 50 percent procrastinate consistently and problematically.”
Assistant Professor of Instructional Systems Design and Technology, Sam Houston State University. If you take classes online, chances are you probably procrastinate from time to time. Research shows that more than 70% of college students procrastinate, with about 20% consistently doing it all the time.
Stressed out because you know you might miss getting where you need to be on time? You are definitely not alone. Procrastination is a common human tendency. About 20 percent of adults have regular bouts of procrastination, but as many as perhaps 70 to 90 percent of undergraduates are chronic putter-offers.
Procrastination across the life span
As hypothesized, there was a significant main effect for age (F(5, 2504) = 27.0; p <. 001). Post hoc analysis revealed that procrastination was highest in the youngest group (14 to 29 years) declining across the older age groups.
Many studies result in the same direction, concluded that procrastination behaviour is more commonly found in male students than females. Balkis and Duru (2009) studied a sample of 580 individuals (329 female students and 251 male students). … Younger individuals tend to procrastinate more than the older individuals.
They say that there are four main types of avoidance archetypes, or procrastinators: the performer, the self-deprecator, the overbooker, and the novelty seeker.
Procrastination can be a common problem for many people with anxiety-related conditions, including panic disorder. There are numerous symptoms of panic disorder and common anxious personality traits that can contribute to procrastination.
Associated with OCD are symptoms that feed directly into procrastination: repetitive behavior, compulsive avoidance, and anxiety about the future. Understanding OCD can help us recognize and escape the cycle of procrastination — whether or not one has the disorder.
As it turns out, procrastination is natural — it’s a response from our brain to protect us from mental burnout. … These people have a lot on their plate, and procrastination is a form of stress relief.”
Procrastination is a destroyer of blessings. It can rob you of self-confidence, reliability, and personal peace. In Proverbs 18:9, the Bible says, “He also who is slack in his work Is brother to him who destroys.”
The link between procrastination and higher IQ is down to greater abilities, the authors think: “This suggests a slower internal pace among more intelligent people that more easily allows for interruptions or the incorporation of new information while completing a task.
As for the cons, procrastinating often leads to an increase in stress and anxiety, as well as the likelihood of making errors when rushing toward completion of a project. In worst-case scenarios, putting things off until the last minute can cause you to miss an important deadline.
Research shows that up to 20 percent of people are “chronic” procrastinators. Procrastination has traditionally been pinned on motivational factors (or lack thereof). But in 2014, research revealed that procrastination is moderately heritable, meaning it can be passed down genetically to one’s offspring.
The 5-minute rule is a cognitive behavioral therapy technique for procrastination in which you set a goal of doing whatever it is you would otherwise avoid, but only do it for five minutes. If after five minutes it’s so horrible that you have to stop, you are free to do so. Mission accomplished.
If to procrastinate is “to put off doing something,” then its antonym is anticipate — “to deal with beforehand.” So you can say the opposite of procrastination is anticipation. If you can live with more than one word, a clearer antonym of procrastination is being proactive.