The Art Of Academic Procrastination
- Mind Mesh
- Nov 28, 2025
- 2 min read
We've all encountered that essay, homework, or project with a deadline that's either distant or just next week, but why start it now? It's not due tomorrow or even today.
Procrastination in our generation has become a status symbol of some sort, a little like how we show off about how little sleep we get. It’s a common thing because procrastination affects about a quarter of the general population and impacts half of all students!
In a 1997 study on student health, it found that students who procrastinated reported lower stress and less illness than peers early in the semester. As long as the deadline remained remote, the procrastinating students were better off. However, later in the semester, students who procrastinated experienced more stress and illness. They were sicker than their peers overall. The procrastinating students also received lower grades on all assignments.
According to the study, delaying a task does not simply delay the unpleasantness associated with it. Even though procrastinators experience less stress to begin with, they were more stressed as the deadline neared and accumulated more stress overall.
So Why Do We Procrastinate?
Well, there are many different factors but the main one is the adrenaline rush that people need to feel motivated, even though it results in more stress in the long term.
Feeling Bored
If it’s homework or an essay for your least favourite subject, or it’s a lot of reading you know will be boring, why would you want to do it?
Perfectionism
For some, perfectionism comes into play as overachieving; they want to do something intricate but when it comes to it, they do it last minute in the fear that it doesn’t work out the way they wanted it to. They now have a last-minute excuse or they wait until they’re finally “inspired”, most likely through the adrenaline rush to now start and finish in one go!
Distraction
With social media, hangouts, and that neighbour’s dog that won’t shut up because it saw a squirrel, you set your mind to start doing that task but it’s like your finger is on autopilot and directly swerves away from Google classroom and right onto Instagram, where you spend hours on end being their top reel sender and only until the day before do you now set your mind to actually do the task at hand.
How to stop procrastinating
Now there aren’t really clear-cut answers for this but if you limit distractions, set up rewards for yourself to do it earlier and put timers on your social media usage, you might be able to find a solution and for some, with age, procrastination just goes away!
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