If there is a deadline for our task, wherein we need to finish it before the deadline, we procrastinate until we reach the deadline. Suppose we have to make a presentation and submit it tomorrow, even this morning, you’ll feel like procrastinating and scrolling through Instagram. Only for 5 minutes before you begin the project. And we’re very familiar with how the 5 minutes turn into 1 hour without us finding out.
But even if you start working 1 hour later, you’ll be hungry and start raiding your fridge, so that you can get the energy to study. But after eating, you would want to set the mood to be productive. To do so, you will start watching comedy videos on YouTube. Another hour wasted in it, and you start feeling tired, so you think that it’s better to take a shower, get freshen up before starting work.
Hours pass by and day turns into night, and then an alarm goes off in your mind, you are left with 12 hours only, you need to finish it somehow. When it is time to sleep, you start making the presentation, you stay awake the whole night and work on it till the last minute.
Several studies have been conducted on college students. Such as the study by Ellis and Knaus in 1977 or by O’Brien in 2002. According to these, approximately 80% to 90% of college students procrastinate.
