University students are mature enough to be responsible for their timetable and how they organize and manage their time. However, some failed to do so due to procrastination. Procrastination has now been a lifestyle for many university students. It is like a habit in them which is hard for them to neglect/avoid.
One of the reasons that causes procrastination is fear of limitation. English language is important in most of the Malaysian higher institutions for educational purposes. University life for a student will be packed of exams, presentations, and assignments. Therefore, they have to complete the task given by the lecturer using English. For students who are less fluent in communicating and writing English, they might find it difficult to complete the task. They might be afraid of making grammatical errors in their assignments. Hence, this might cause the student to procrastinate as they are afraid to try out.
Another reason of procrastination is facing overwhelming task. Students are to complete all their assignments and tutorials given by their course lecturers within the due date. In the meantime, students are also required to take part in extra-curriculum activities. The task given needs time to be completed and yet, some have to participate in extra-curriculum and other activities. As everything is packed together, they feel overwhelmed, stressed out and demotivated. Hence, this causes the task that actually need to complete by time delayed. The task that given by this week haven’t done, the new task following by next week, lastly the task accumulates more and more, procrastination getting longer and longer. Facing overwhelming task is the reason of procrastination. (They feel overwhelmed and stressed out) (As they become demotivated, they no longer have the desire/attention to do their work and this causes the accumulation of more and more works) Therefore, this is how procrastination starts.
The one of the reasons of procrastination is unsure of next step. It was a common problem faced by most university students when starting to do their assignment. Students are always given a theme of their assignment, but sometimes they will get lost and become confused. They will be indecisive whether their step or research methods are correct or not, so this leads them wasting most of their time on building self-confidence. For example, when assignment released, a lot of parts inside which all need to be done by students (?). As a student, we will be annoyed that how to start our first step or even which part need to be done first. Especially for the first-timer, they always worried about the accuracy of their information. This caused them stuck in a position and stop proceed the next step. Thus, they need certain ways to motivate them to move forward.
Perfection is one of the reasons most people faced procrastination. Procrastination occurs when one wants everything to go as smoothly and perfectly as what he or she has planned out. They have a deficiency which make them worry about publishing something out there. (Afraid of what people would think of them out there) Therefore, they won’t leave the job until it’s done. For example, the university has assignments that need to be completed in all subjects with plagiarism prescribed by the lecturer. If the authorities find out that students have a higher percentage of plagiarism than they should have, their assignment scores will be reduced. Therefore, they make sure every line they write is perfect from the beginning. Resulting in as perfectionism that make them faced for procrastination.
ome students are aware that they need to do something at some time, but they can’t refuse the desire inside their mind.What they say to themselves is(OK,let me do it at night, only a while for entertainment ),then,when they comeback at night,they want to do tomorrow,as thus ,procrastination happens.It is very common to see a student putting down his book with eyes staring at the screen.Yeahs,it maybe a notification from the YouTube or from best friend who is calling him out for shopping. Many students just open the applications to enjoy the videos or going out for shopping ,then it’s the beginning of the bad things and poor test points.
By promising yourself a reward on the progress when you step out of your comfort zone. First small step is the biggest step of your life. After reaching mini goals, reward yourself with a break, a movie or some kind of treat as you continue towards your ultimate goal. These little incentives will give you more energy to keep on going. Small reward will boost your motivation and give you a feeling of satisfaction sense of accomplishment. According to …, small things will light up your day, a smile a day, makes your whole day happier and more productive. This overcomes procrastination.
One of the best ways to avoid procrastination is to break big tasks into smaller parts. This can solve the feeling of being overwhelmed and stressed out. When you are working on an assignment, there must be tones of works that you have to search and settle one by one. Breaking all the big tasks into smaller tasks may help you separate all the works equally for you and your members. Breaking tasks into smaller tasks may also help you to keep your momentum going. If tones of works are not broken down into small tasks, we will feel exhausted and will try to procrastinate all the works until the last day of the deadlines.
For students who are unsure of their next step, one can set the reasonable goals to avoid procrastination. If one does not have a long-term project, you can plan the short-term project. For example, students unsure of first step when they do the assignment. They can make an appointment with their lecturers and ask them on how to start their assignment. This will save more time for them instead of sitting there and do nothing other than just thinking. Then, they can set the first reasonable goals like take the easier part to do. Making your goals measurable helps you feel more certainty and less overwhelm because you can tell where to start and finish. As the saying goes, people must have something to focus on. If not, the challenges will be more for the rest of your life (from Jack Ma).
In order for a perfectionist student to avoid procrastination, one must be able to replace the expectation of being perfect in everything he or she does. Leaving the social media world can be one of the biggest helps. By practicing this, students will focus less on others’ lives and will start searching and realizing the positives in life rather than trying hard to be like someone else and having idealistic goals that may even destruct themselves. Understanding that everyone has their own ups and downs, not like what is shown in the social media, will help them to practice self-forgiveness. Study has shown that self-forgiveness helps us to feel more positive about ourselves and reduce the likelihood of procrastination.
In order to overcome the lack of control ability, students need to improve their anti-interference ability to ignore affect from other people or other things. They can draw a timetable to plan their study time. They cannot change the plan on the timetable. Making an objective is the best way, once you have an objective, you will have a direction of study. Students also can learn behaviour management. Learning how to refuse desire, avoid telephone or other entertainments during their study time. Pay more attention on their study work or other important things to amend their bad habit and remind yourself when you feel like procrastinating.