The Problem

Most people often define procrastination as “time wasting”. This definition of procrastination was revamped through various dictionaries and finally refined using survey results to produce a definition for problematic procrastination, which can be defined as “the delaying or putting off of a task, in order to do another unhealthy task which is less important than the initial task”. (Various Dictionary Definitions, 2012)

I have observed problematic procrastination to be a problem among my peers and myself which is why I set out to make a website, which was the top selection in a conducted survey, to help people understand and learn to control problematic procrastination at a global scale. Statistics show that not many researchers look into procrastination making the creation of this website essential. This website is targeted at secondary school students in Australia as they are the root of the problem. (Robert Boice,1996)

Second year psychotherapy student Alisha Dalton was interviewed via email to provide some insight on the reasons people procrastinate and the behavioural techniques that help control problematic procrastination.

Out of a group of 42 people who answered an extended survey, 32 fell into the target audience with an average age of 16. A whopping 84.5% of the survey sample believed that procrastination was a problem for them with the most common consequences of problematic procrastination being poor academic results, delaying jobs to the last minute, forgetting to complete a job and spending excess time on unimportant jobs. Four survey applicants who did not find procrastination to be a problem believed it was because of their time management and self -motivation. Collected data suggests a majority of all teenagers in Australia procrastinate around 1 to 2 hours on an average day.

Figure 1: Procrastination as an issue survey results.
Question: Is “procrastination” a problem for you?

Figure 2: Number of hours procrastinated, from survey results.

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