Reducing academic procrastination
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Statistics show that 80 - 90 per cent of students engage in some level of academic procrastination, a behaviour that can seriously hinder performance. The good news is that help is at hand, thanks to a program designed at Macquarie University.
Postgraduate study can be a particularly high-risk time for students in terms of procrastination problems. This may be partly due to the often large workloads and associated high stress, as well as the challenge of undertaking and completing a large body of work such as a thesis.
The costs of procrastination are high and include:
- Poor performance/lower grades
- Lower overall academic achievement
- Stress
- Increased health risks
- High co-morbidity with anxiety and depression
- Lower general quality of life
A collaboration between Jonathan Gaston, Clinic Director at the Macquarie University Anxiety Research Unit (MUARU) and Dr Julie Erskine, from the Macquarie University Counselling Service, has lead to the development of a 'task aversion' model of academic procrastination which they recently used as the basis for two half-day workshops for postgraduate students.
"Procrastination is part of human nature and people procrastinate over things that are traditionally aversive to do," explains Gaston. "They are usually things that are tedious, take time or are downright unpleasant, like completing your tax return. The model suggests that the more you reduce the aversiveness of a task, the more likely it is you will subsequently engage in it. The key for academic work therefore is to identify what factors are making study more aversive for you, and make changes in those areas."
Making study more palatable
Gaston and Erskine looked at the typical things that make study more aversive than it needs to be and devised some basic strategies to make the task of study more palatable:
Task management - Students can look at breaking down a large study task into smaller, more achievable tasks and set specific and concrete time goals to achieve each task.
Time management - While study is important students should be realistic in their predictions, identify their prime study time as well as time-wasting activities. Free time is a must and should be enjoyed guilt free.
Stress management - To minimise stress students can limit noise and distractions, provide a good environment for study and have adequate rest and recreation.
Fearful and self critical thinking - If students are thinking negatively and unrealistically in relation to study or themselves they can learn to step back and re-examine how realistic these thoughts really are and challenge them.
Perfectionism - Students can use realistic thinking skills to address perfectionistic (black and white) thinking styles and should try to reduce perfectionistic behaviour gradually.
Coping with aversive emotions - To cope with feelings such as anxiety, depression, guilt etc students can set goals to improve their tolerance level of these emotions before needing to avoid or escape (ie procrastinate).
"In general, students should be aware that procrastination could be a problem," says Gaston. "If you have it on your radar you are more likely to pick it up early and be proactive."
For further information visit www.sss.mq.edu.au/counselling/ or if you would like a similar program run in your department or faculty contact Jonathan Gaston jonathan.gaston@mq.edu.au or Julie Erskine julie.erskine@mq.edu.au