Factors that Become a Reason for Procrastination Amongst University Students

Procrastination is something that a lot of research and studies have indicated is on a rise in today’s times. Moreover, Hussain and Sultan (2011) studies have shown that nearly 46% to 95% of the students enrolled in universities procrastinate while completing their assignments. With specific studies selected and subsequently mentioned in the section, this paper aims to highlight the factors that become a reason for procrastination amongst university students of Finland and Pakistan.

First, Edwards (2012) defines procrastination as a contraption that is based on a deliberate choice that one makes to take part in less essential or more pleasurable acts in spite of them being less urgent, to nonsensically putting of less appealing or more critical jobs till the latest possible time. In addition, to be slow or late about doing something that requires attention in the present time frame due to perhaps unwarranted laziness may also be considered as a form of procrastination.

Moreover, Hussain and Sultan (2010) state that procrastination influences college students to delay and postpone their academic work making them irresponsible in nature that results in them disregarding their academic duties. Furthermore, Hussain and Sultan state that procrastination lowers the value and importance of tasks as students keep on delaying their academic tasks. In addition to this, Hussain and Sultan illustrate the negative consequences of procrastination as well such as stress which affects the self-efficacy, impulsiveness and organizational behavior of the students. Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief about their abilities to be able to deliver a certain level of performance that is achieved as a result of continuously succeeding in situations and accomplishing task over time. It acts as a positive source that helps individuals to feel in a certain way, think and motivate themselves. Moreover, other reasons that lead to procrastination are working in groups, lack of commitment, lack of guidance and encouragement, lack of confidence to complete task by themselves, social and family problems, lack of motivation and interest, laziness, negative comments of teachers on their work, too much work at the same time to complete resulting in academic stress. Furthermore, Hussain and Sultan argue that students procrastinate when they cannot set a pace of their figuring out how to meet superior performance inside a due course of time. Moreover, a portion of the students appear to be acclimated to delay their work and some of the students postpone their academic work as it becomes their habit and later on it turns into their propensity. It unfavorably has an impact on students’ identity, their learning and accomplishment nearly at all levels of studies and in all subjects. In addition, an abnormal state of procrastination makes students unable to manage and sort out them to accomplish their scholarly objectives causing them sadness, nervousness and stress.

Furthermore, according to Lindblom-Ylänne, Saariaho, Inkinen, Haarala-Muhonen and Hailikari (2015) the process of procrastination is being utilized to depict distinctive kinds of procrastination shifting from active to passive procrastination. Passive procrastination is delaying tasks and assignments until the last moment due to an inability to make the decision to act in a convenient way. Moreover, postponing the chosen time for starting study process, moving booked organised study periods for the future and taking part in study insignificant behaviour in which it affects students assignments in contrast to active procrastination which is exceptionally energetic by time weight, and can finish assignments before due dates and accomplish attractive results. In addition, typical of active procrastinators is an inclination for working under strain. Furthermore, active procrastination is distinct from procrastination in general, and should be alluded to as 'active delay.' Whether an individual is a passive or active procrastinator is influenced by the cultural dimensions. The norms and values that greatly vary from place to place, which individuals are conditioned to grow up with eventually shape the way they tend to lead their lives.

Moreover, Svartdal, Pfuhl, Nordby, Foschi, Klingsieck, Rozental, and Rębkowska, (2016) state that procrastination is a common problem across all countries and is defined as a logical and hypothetical review of quite essential self-regulatory failure. Furthermore, self-regulatory failure is ones inability to differentiate between what is to be given a priority and what would eventually reap positive results. Many a times, students fail to balance between their work and leisure activities. Since leisure activities are more likely to excite individuals at this age, they tend to postpone their work.

Further contribution to the topic has been made by Lindblom-Ylänne, et al. (2015) who claims that motivational; the drive to do something, volitional; the cognitive process of an individual to put your mind to something and deciding on the best suitable ways to achieve it, and situational; depending on a set of circumstances, are factors that give rise to procrastination in Finland. Low inherent study inspiration, issues in self-control, poor time management and sorting out skills convictions have been appeared to be the main factors in prompting procrastination in Finland. According to Hofstede (1980) Finland with its low power distance is inclined towards procrastination and influencing time management that affects students’ academic performance. Moreover, Schwartz (2006) argues that egalitarianism compels students to recognize one another as moral in which students act and promote to laziness which effects their academic achievements.

In addition to this, Hofstede (2010) argues that restraint countries such as Pakistan are less likely inclined to procrastinate in contrast to indulgence countries such as Finland. Hussain and Sultan (2010) state that in Pakistan the time management of students when it came down to doing their assignments was effected by laziness, lack of accurately prioritizing their work and critical thinking. These indicators caused them to suffer in their academic performance as work was either not done, remained incomplete or was not up to the mark to be awarded suitable grades. Furthermore, Lindblom-Ylänne, et al. (2015) states the characteristic of self-control which is observing one's actions, using metacognition, and controlling motivational and passionate states, is extremely important to possess. If such essential abilities are missing or if they are ineffectively created, it becomes more difficult for a student to control his or her insight, inspiration, actions and feelings, and this absence of control can increase in procrastination of assignments. Moreover, self-handicap includes making impediments to effective performance on duties that the individual thinks about critically. Lindblom-Ylänne, et al. (2015) maintains that panicking of disappointment and feeling stressed about work that needs to be completed in a given set of time could upset individuals as well causing them to simply not approach the assignment soon enough thus leading to procrastination.

Rosseti (2011) argues that another reason that students may procrastinate in their studies is due to a sufficient amount of motivation. Motivation can be an important driving force behind having people do certain things with focus and dedication. In addition, two types of motivations were highlighted namely intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a drive to achieve an errand or movement that comes from within and extrinsic motivation is a drive to achieve an undertaking or action in view of outer elements, for example, prizes. Furthermore, Nasrullah and Saqib Khan (2015) argue that most of the time students confront issues like tasks and uncertainty, so they begin to procrastinate due to the fact that they need organizational skills. Thus, students will not have the capacity to arrange duties as indicated by their needs, so they get confused effectively ending up in procrastination. Time management is very basic to any college student, and it is one of the keys to higher academic accomplishments.

The one main finding that is prevalent in almost all the research papers analysed and discussed, amongst other factors, is the lack of time management skills. When we particularly consider Finland and Pakistan, we see that, for example, although the former has low power distance and the latter does not, students in general grapple with the idea of time management (the extent to which may vary) that does to a degree becomes an issue linked with procrastination and eventually poor academic performance.