When someone procrastinates on one assigment or work-related task by working on a different assignment or ask, generally one that is less important or easier. i.e. instead of studying for an exam, you're organizing notes.

Academically productive procrastination

Problematic mobile phone use has been labeled as an addiction by many academic papers, but there is no official diagnosis for mobile phone addiction in the DSM 5th Edition.
- Although, behavioral addiction is similar to gambling disorder which is in the DSM-5.
- Researchers argue against the idea of gambling disorders being used in the case of problematic mobile phone use for addiction. On the other hand, researchers believe that any behavior like gambling disorder (ex: addiction, replase, tolerance) should be diagnosed with the disorder.

Problematic Smartphone Use

Where one intentionally delays studying or completing the academic work that they need to submit. 
Factors that contribute to procrastination levels:
- time management
- self-regulation
- participation levels

San Jose State University

Grinnell College

Pulling from the Latin roots "*pro*" (meaning forward, forth, in favor of) and "*crastinus*" (of tomorrow), procrastination is an irrational, but voluntary decision to delay an intended behavior or task.
- *Irrationality* is defined as "... choosing course of action[,] despite expecting that it will not maximize your utilities..."
- *Intended* is defined as something that one wants to interact with; the avoidance of random or irrelevant tasks would not be considered procrastination.

Procrastination

R.M. Klassen, L.L. Krawchuk, S. Rajani. (2008). Academic procrastination of undergraduates: Low self-efficacy to self-regulate predicts higher levels of procrastination. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33. pp. 915-931

Academic procrastination of undergraduates: Low self-efficacy to self-regulate predicts higher levels of procrastination

Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) explains the behavior of procrastination by providing a quasi-mathematical framework, by examining the underlying behavioral components that contribute to (or combat) procrastination. The five components are:
- Value: the tangible and intangible rewards that an individual would receive from completing a task.
- Expectancy: the individual's belief and self-confidence in completing said task.
- Delay: the the period of time an individual needs to wait before receiving the reward from completing said task.
- Sensitivity to delay: the willingness of an individual to tolerate longer delays.
- Utility: the likeness for the individual to perform said task.

Temporal Motivation Theory

References on Procrastination

Procrastination in an Academic Setting

Note that, in addition to causing people to put off their work till the last minute, procrastination causes people to postpone engaging in healthy behaviors (e.g., exercising, meditation, improving eating habits) until the "last minute" (e.g., when they are diagnosed with a life-threatening chronic illness). "1 day later" often becomes "1 year later," which then usually becomes "1 decade later." Hence, overall health is harmed, and the risk for chronic diseases increase.

Procastination | Connection to Health and Chronic Diseases

People can be any combination of -

- Productive/Unproductive procrastinators

- Active/Passive procrastinators

Types of procrastination

Much of the research has been conducted on binary gender identifying participants. The data has problems with inconsistent results, but it appears that men have greater risk for procrastinating in academic life. 

- men are more likely than women to procrastinate
- women show higher levels of academic performance, correlated with less procrastination
- men's procrastination adversely impacts their performance and satisfaction

Gender differences with procrastination

Academic procrastination is the practice of avoiding or postponing academic tasks. It is associated with various negative impacts, including a reduction in the quality and quantity of a student's work, lower goal commitment, less time allotted to studying, decreased course achievement, and a decline in long-term learning. In addition to poor academic performance, academic procrastination can elicit negative emotional reactions such as frustration, anxiety, shame, and guilt.

Academic Procrastination

Procrastination can help promote creativity when intrinsic motivation is low.

Creativity and Procrastination

The expectation that a person who is intrinsicly motivated will show less procrastination is not backed by research. Less than 10 persent of variance in procrastination is due to high levels of inttrinsic motivation. It may have an influence on how people will directtheir attention during the time they are procrastinating, possibly causing specific types of procrastination or more thought focus on the task.

Intrinsic motivation does not mediate procrastination

There is a curvilinear relationship between procrastination and the quality of work, and the creativity of work. 
- Low procrastination can causally influence low creativity and moderate productivity.
- Moderate procrastination can causally influence high creativity and, with intrinsic motivation, high task efficiency.
- High procrastination tends to influence low creativity and low task efficiency, possibly due to time crunch.

Levels of procrastination

This study aimed to see if self-reported procrastination is correlated with people's actual procrastination behavior. The researchers found this to be the case.

Links between self-reports of procrastination and actual procrastination study

Procrastination is often acknowledged in therapeutic treatment of ADHD, but it is not officially seen as an ADHD-related symptom. As a result, little is known about the role of procrastination in symptomology of ADHD. This study aims to explore the relationship between procrastination and ADHD-related symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity in undergraduate college students. Results indicated that only inattention was correlated with general procrastination, as well as susceptibility to temptation.

The relation between procrastination and symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in undergraduate students

This could consist of learning how to break down large tasks into smaller chunks, how to set more realistic deadlines for themselves, and reconsidering perfectionistic beliefs.

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