STUDENTS ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION

A CONCEPT PAPER

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for English for Academic and Professional
Purposes (EAPP)

Alvarez, Charisse F
Chua, Henessy T.
Dela Cruz, Luke Patrick C.
Enriquez, Sofia Moira R.
Gutierrez, Reneé N.
Lara, Maria Theresa A.
Meyn, Alyssa G
Tolentino, Katelin Joan S.
Tomas, Ellain Anne B

CINCO

HUMSS 12-A

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BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The word “procrastination” was derived from a Latin word “procrastinare” that translate s

into: the prefix pro – ‘forward’, and the “suffix crastinus” meaning ‘till next day’. Procrastination

is defined as intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite expecting to be worse off for

the delay. Students in this generation usually postpone the task or assignments they are

supposed to perform. Students frequently misunderstood why they always came up to lay their

hands down when it comes to bunch of homework and projects to do. Some will say that it is

only a usual negative reaction to various activities that they need to finish. This is known to be

lazy at the first place and cramming on every possible way, then they will rush to finish their

obligation at the end, like “beating the red light”. There are 8 reasons why people procrastinate

according to Allen (2014),

1. We do not know where to begin

2. A task feels too big or too hard

3. We are big fat liars

4. A task feels unimportant

5. Distractions

The aim of this study is to help the students to overcome procrastination through the help

of iCoach. This iCoach is a virtual assistant that will help the students through motivating them

and keeping them on track of their schedule. Through this iCoach, people would help overcome

their procrastination or if not, lessen it.

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STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The purpose of this research is to know and understand the cause and effect of

procrastination and how we could avoid, if not lessen academic procrastination. This seeks to

solve the students of today dilemmas which are:

1. Being unmotivated.

2. Not being on track of things to do and schedule.

3. Not having a time management.

To do this, the researchers will make a virtual assistant that will motivate and remind the

students of their schedule. This could help pinpointing the cause of procrastination and the

effects of it on their academic and social life.

PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW

Eric (2013) stated that “people have struggled with habitual hesitation going back to

ancient civilizations. The Greek poet Hesiod, writing around 800 B.C., cautioned not to “put your

work off till tomorrow and the day after.”

Jansen (2015) explains that some researcher defined procrastination as a variety of ways

because it has timeless origins and is a common-language term. He said that there is currently

no absolute consensus among researchers on the definition of procrastination, as different

researchers point out different aspects of behavior.

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 Steel (2007) defines procrastination is one of the self-regulatory failures that can't be

explained until now; it's also a current and destructive behavior in this era.

Mortazavi, Mortazavi & Khosrorad (2015) adds that academic procrastination indicates

delaying assignments and tasks may lead to serious problems.

Kandemir, M. (2014) points out that “there are two basic problems; one of them is that

academic procrastination is a common problem among students, while the second is that

academic procrastination causes undesired results such as failure, anxiety, failing from

courses and low life satisfaction.”

Verešová (2013) emphasizes that procrastination is related to the personal features

shown by behavior, which is characterized by delaying the tasks, with the stress and the

strategies to cope up with stress. Ferrari (2001) tells that procrastinator experiences more

anxiety and stress in completing the time bound activities.

Xu (2016) reveals that in her studies that students who procrastinate can have adverse

effects on their health as they don’t utilize their time from the beginning and rush their work under

stress and high pressure at the last minute which may lead to poor sleep and unhealthy diets.

Khan, Arif, Noor & Munner (2014) shows that procrastination is common and serious

trend which people does not seem to notice the important and does not understand it fully. But

in some cases, procrastination is a way for other people to be efficient.

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As stated by Ferrari, J., Johnson, J. & McCown, W. (1995):

Procrastination does not always lead to inefficiency or poor behavior. Procrastination

is often a deliberate self-motivating technique for people who need a high degree of

motivation to be motivated properly. In fact, only after procrastinating can some

people work effectively. Many people work incredibly well and perform quite well

under stress from self-manipulated deadlines.

From this perspective, procrastination is understood as a tendency to postpone

initiation of tasks, which may be associated with either positive or negative outcomes. This

perspective is certainly contradictory to the definitions that says procrastination is an irrational

delay or maladaptive behavior.

ABRIDGED METHODOLOGY

With this virtual assistant, iCoach, it will help the students to keeps you track of their

schedule, it will have a reminder and alarm to help them be aware on what they have to do. Also,

it can help the students by reminding them of the possible outcomes and consequences if they

continue to procrastinate. The invention of this virtual assistant, iCoach, will help not just the

students who struggle from academic procrastination but people around the world who struggle

procrastination in general, as well.

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TIMELINE

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REFERENCES

Allen, S. (2014). 5 Reasons We Procrastinate and How to Stop Doing It: Advice from a Champion

Procrastinator. Oxford Royale Academy. Retrieved from https://www.oxford-

royale.com/articles/stop-procrastinating.html#aId=b1926549-369e-493d-944b-

10d4852ea002

Arif, H., Noor S, S., & Muneer, S. (2014). Academic Procrastination among Male and Female

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Eric, J. (2014). Why wait? The Science Behind Procrastination. Association for Psychological

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the-science-behind-procrastination

Ferrari, J. R. (2001). Procrastination as self-regulation failure of performance: Effects of cognitive

load, self-awareness, and time limits on working best under pressure. European

Journal of Personality. Doi:10.1002

Ferrari, J., Johnson, J. & McCown, W. (1995). “Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory,

Research and Treatment” Plenum Press. Retrieved from

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Jansen, J. (2015). Academic Procrastination: Prevalence Among High School and

Undergraduate Students and Relationships to Academic Achievement. Scholar

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Kandemir, M. (2014). Reasons of academic procrastination: self- regulation, academic self-

efficacy, life satisfaction and demographics variables. Science Direct. Retrieved from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281405246X

Mortazavi, F., Mortazavi, S. S., & Khosrorad, R. (2015). Psychometric Properties of the

Procrastination Assessment Scale-Student (PASS) in a Student Sample of Sabzevar

University of Medical Sciences. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. Retrieve from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26473078

Steel, P. (2007). The Nature of Procrastination: A Meta-Analytic and Theoretical Review of

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Xu, Z. (2015). Just Do It! Reducing Academic Procrastination of Secondary Students.

Intervention in School and Clinic. Doi:10.1177/1053451215589178

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