What Causes Procrastination

Procrastination is something that everybody has dealt with in one way or another, it is a natural feeling, a human "habit" that many have developed and now they feel like stuck in this procrastinating environment. But what causes procrastination? There are four main reasons for this: fear of failure, excessive perfectionism, lack of motivation, and resistance and rebellion. First of all, people tend to procrastinate because they are afraid of failure, and they believe that not trying something, and procrastinating will protect them from it. Research has shown that between 80 and 95% of college students procrastinate, as they claim to work better under pressure, but this is not always the truth. Therefore, students postpone studying for a major test, and then pull a “all-nighter.” The final grade may be poor, but …show more content…
Procrastinators believe that if they do not feel motivated to start working on something, they should not do it till they feel ready. But this is not true. People tend to believe that they need motivation to start working, but it is actually the opposite of that. Burns wrote in his 1998 book, “The feeling good handbook”, that “doing” comes first, and then motivation. So when there are tasks, which we do not find easy or pleasant to complete, we should first start working on them, and then motivation will come while doing it. Often taking the first step on doing something, no matter how small that step is, can serve as stimulation for further actions. Research has shown that over 70% of the students in the United States procrastinate over assignments, and papers because of their lack of motivation. They tend to be distracted by everything around them, like Facebook, Twitter, making a cup of coffee or tea, talking to a friend, or their parents, and so on. Best ways to solve this problem, according to Dr. Steel, is getting rid of temptation (as the ones mentioned above), and working under