This is when someone busies themself with a different task than what they are meant to be doing. It is one adaptive behavior - doing your work - being replaced with a different adaptive behavior that is still productive, like organizing your work space. 

Productive Procrastination

These tend to be malataptive or neutral behaviors that are replacing the productive task. 

Unproductive procrastination

This is the type of procrastination used least. It shows non-academic unproductive only and is the description that most beliefs about proscrastination are based around.

Classic Procrastination

Also known as "deadline seekers", Active procrastinators prefer to delay tasks in order to self-induce pressure, motivate, and challenge themselves. Active procrastinators exhibit the following behaviors and characteristics:
- Strong perception and control of time.
- High reports of self-efficacy.
- High reports of extrinsic motivation, but low reports of intrinsic motivation.
- Preference for task-oriented coping strategies.

Unlike Passive procrastinators, Active procrastinators are more likely to report lower levels of stress and depression, while reporting higher levels of task completion and satisfaction. Active procrastinators may be hard to distinguish from non-procrastinators without proper learning analytics tools.

Active Procrastinators

Considered to be the classical definition of a procrastinator. Passive procrastinators are pressured by deadlines negatively, and exhibit the following behaviors:
- Weakened perception and control of time.
- Low reports of self-efficacy.
- Low reports of both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
- Preference for avoidance-oriented and emotion-oriented coping strategies.

Unlike Active procrastinators, Passive procrastinators are more likely to report pessimism, depression, and guilt, especially when drawing closer to the deadline. Passive procrastinators are often paralyzed by their indecision to act.

Passive Procrastinators

People can be any combination of -

- Productive/Unproductive procrastinators

- Active/Passive procrastinators

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

Westgate, E., Wormington, S., Oleson, K. & Lindgren, K. (2017). Productive procrastination: Academic procrastination style predicts academic and alcohol outcomes. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 47(3). 124-135. DOI:10.1111/jasp.12417

Productive procrastination: Academic procrastination style predicts academic and alcohol outcomes

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

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

Procrastination in an Academic Setting

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.

Procrastination Mitigation CBT Training for ADHD

Beyond causing people to put off work until the last minute, procrastination also leads them to postpone healthy behaviors—such as exercising, meditating, and improving their eating habits—often until a crisis forces action (e.g., being diagnosed with a life-threatening chronic illness). Because "1 day later" tends to become "1 year later," and then "1 decade later," this sustained delay harms overall health and increases the risk of chronic diseases.

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