Paper Title Procrastination

LBB 1042 ACADEMIC WRITING
JANUARY 2011 SEMESTER
ACADEMIC WRITING RESEARCH PAPER

TITLE
PROCRASTINATION AMONG UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PERTONAS STUDENTS

LECTURER
MDM. ARFAH

TEAM MEMBERS
ERICQUELY LACIUS YUSOK 14564
MUHAMMAD HAIRI MURSALIM 14545
KHAIRIL AZRI BIN AZLAN 14468
ABDUL RAHIM BIN MD. SAAD 14493

Chapter 1 : Introduction

1.1 Background

Procrastination has affected almost everyone to one degree or another. It involves knowing that a task must be performed, yet purposely delaying the activity and failing to motivate oneself to carry out the task within the desired time frame. According to Wikipedia (2011), procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions with tasks of low-priority, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time. The word procrastination comes from the Latin word procrastinatus, which is the past participle of procrastinare derived from pro- (forward) and crastinus (of tomorrow), (Wikipedia). Academic procrastination is always linked with academic performance. Several studies find that academic procrastination is negatively related to academic performance. However, other studies report that procrastinators perform as well as non-procrastinators on their exams and grades.
For many individuals, procrastination is a long term habit and seemingly unavoidable personality behavior. Procrastination is not limited or attributed to any specific personality type and is a widespread social problem, with an estimated 15-20% of the American adult population and an estimated 80-90% of college students being self-confessed problematic procrastinators, (SecondsofEternity). This means that everyone either students or working people have procrastination behavior and it is depends on that person how to control procrastinating and how he or she manages his or her time.
According to Wikipedia (2011), there two type of procrastinators. The first one is the relaxed type. The relaxed type of procrastinators views their responsibilities negatively and avoids them by directing energy into other tasks. It is common, for example, for relaxed type procrastinating children to abandon schoolwork but not their social lives. Students often see projects as a whole rather than breaking them into smaller parts. This type of procrastination is a form of denial or cover-up; therefore, typically no help is being sought. Furthermore, they are also unable to defer gratification. The procrastinator avoids situations that would cause displeasure, indulging instead in more enjoyable activities. They may not appear to be worried about work and deadlines, but this is simply an evasion of the work that needs to be completed.
The second type of procrastinators is the tense-afraid type. The tense-afraid type of procrastinators usually feel overwhelmed with pressure, unrealistic about time, uncertain about goals, and many other negative feelings. They may feel a sense of malaise. Feeling that they lack the ability or focus to successfully complete their work, they tell themselves that they need to unwind and relax, that it's better to take it easy for the afternoon, for example, and start afresh in the morning. They usually have grandiose plans that are not realistic. Their 'relaxing' is often temporary and ineffective, and leads to even more stress as time runs out, deadlines approach and the person feels increasingly guilty and apprehensive. This behavior becomes a cycle of failure and delay, as plans and goals are put off, penciled into the following day or week in the diary again and again. It can also have a debilitating effect on their personal lives and relationships. Since they are uncertain about their goals, they often feel awkward with people who appear confident and goal-oriented, which can lead to depression. Tense-afraid procrastinators often withdraw from social life, avoiding contact even with close friends.

1.2 Objectives of research
These are the objectives of this research. 1.3.1 Study the causes of procrastination among student in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS.

1.3.2 Study the effects of procrastination on student in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS.

1.3.3 Suggest ways to overcome procrastination among student in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS students.

1.3 Definition of keywords.
These are the definition of some keywords in the context of our research.

1.4.4 Procrastination. To keep delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring.

1.4.5 Student An undergraduate or graduate studying for a degree at a university.

1.4 Conceptual framework. Below is the conceptual framework of our research:
Figure 1: The conceptual framework of the problem of procrastination among students in university.

Chapter 2 : Literature Reviews

2.0 Introduction
From Wikipedia, the word ‘procrastination’ was derived from the Latin word procrastinatus which is the past participle of procrastinare derived from pro- (forward) and crastinus (of tomorrow). It is first confirmed by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1548.
Procrastination has been an interesting topic that has been studied by various researchers throughout the world. From previous researches, procrastination has been defined in many various ways. Procrastination has been defined as a trait or behavioral disposition to postpone or delay performing a task or making decisions ( Milgram, Mey-Tal, & Levison, 1998). Tuckman(2002) defined academic procrastination as a dispositional trait that can have particularly serious consequences for students, whose lives are characterized by frequent deadlines.
2.1 Causes of Procrastination among Students
2.1.1 Fear of Failure or Success
The anxiety that sets in at the onset of a project causes some people to put off getting started and what is more is when the discomfort is heightened when you feel incompetent or not up to the task (Brown, 2001). Some of us may worry too much about the details even before starting the project. And after that, the project was left unstarted because of the increase in anxiety that causes the procrastinator to procrastinate.
2.1.2 Perfectionism
Nowadays numbers of perfectionist increases throughout the year as everybody seek for perfection. It is actually good but at one point, more works and assignments kept coming before we could finish the one that we have. This is where perfectionist becomes procrastinator. Therefore, to combat this mode of assured self-defeat, you must accept that your performance is just as well done as anyone else’s. We all can only do our best at whatever we do at any time. The end result might be different, but our effort and sincerity is still the same (Miller, 2005-2011)
2.1.3 Poor Motivation
Often, a person will find himself in a slump simply because there is too much work to do. The feeling of being overwhelmed can cause a person to just shut down; it’s easier to do nothing than a million things at once (Berube, 2009). Lack of motivation and enthusiasm must be overcome as we are not in the primary school where the teachers and parents have to push us to complete the given tasks. College students should be able to overcome this problem on their own by focusing on what needs to be done and what had to be done.
2.1.4 Priority Confusion
Priority confusion always comes in handy when we tend to procrastinate. Works will be delayed and more works are coming but we just do not know where to start. Therefore, Place (2007) strongly recommend that we distinguish obligations from option. Just list and prioritize tasks. Simple and easier tasks should be completed first before we go for long and tough tasks.
2.1.5 Task Unpleasantness
Some tasks are not necessarily favorable and when we have to face it, we will find that it is not exactly easy to deal with. Unfavorable tasks are very hard to do, but it is not the reason to avoid it (George, 2010). Procrastinating only makes everything worst as it will delay the task and soon, we will end up rushing to finish the given tasks resulting to a number of mistakes in the task, or worse, we might end up not finish the task on time.
2.2 Effect of Procrastination among Students
2.2.1 Obtaining Low Grades
Often, procrastinating students tend to have a more relaxing life than the other students. As stated by Goode (2008), the long-term deadlines, abundance of free time and extra-curricular activities produces a perfect environment for procrastination. But when papers came due and exams were scheduled toward the end of the semester, procrastinators reported higher stress levels that the other students. By the end of the semester, procrastinator received lower grades on average compare to those who did not procrastinate (Hicks, 2011)
2.2.2 Sense of Guilt
Even though it is you who choose to procrastinate, you still feel guilty for doing it. The fact that you waste time instead of getting things done makes you feel bad with yourself (Caruana, 2008). If we manage to submit the task on the dateline, we can still feel the guilt as we can produce a better quality tasks if we had started earlier. Plus, if we did not manage to submit the task on the dateline, the sense of guilt would become worse.
2.2.3 Task Overload
Procrastinators often feel they can’t focus so as to complete their job. So what they do is keep telling themselves they need to unwind and relax. They want to take it easy for the time being and start anew the next day. The only problem is the next day brings the same results. This relaxing they do eventually places more stress on them because they end up getting too close to a deadline and have to rush to get the assigned work done (Grace, 2009). On the end of the day, more works are coming and the previous work had not been completed yet.
2.2.4 Health Problem
As semester began, procrastinating students would tend to have less illness or in other words, they will be in pink of health during that time. But when it comes to the end of the semester, procrastinator more illnesses indeed, they were physically sicker overall than students who didn’t procrastinate (Hicks, 2011). This phenomenon is mainly caused by the increase in stress level of the procrastinator. Besides, Caruana (2008) also stressed that procrastinator are more likely to have health problems such as suffering from insomnia, diet, and exercise problem.
2.2.5 Changing of Behavior
Due to a lot of stress, and overloaded tasks, procrastinator will tend to avoid social contact and just stay in his room rather than go to classes. Procrastinators do have a rough time of it emotionally, mentally, and even physically (Grace, 2009). In other hand, Caruana (2008) repeatedly reinforced the idea of procrastinator are more prone to start other vices such as smoking and alcohol abuse. Starting new vices will further make it difficult for the individual to stop procrastinating and will further make his or her life miserable.

2.3 Way to Overcome Procrastination among Students
2.3.1 Be Reasonable
David (2005-2009) argued that the first thing to do in order to overcome procrastination is to have full confidence in ourselves. And only after we obtain that, remember that it is more important that every project gets finished, not that every project be perfect (Todd, 1996-2011).
2.3.2 Eliminate Distraction
If there is too much distraction in the room, try to avoid it by finding a new place that we can begin our work there. Find a quiet place, and try to make your “action session” (Todd, 1996-2011)
2.3.3 Assess the Task
What is meant by assessing the task is that we should divide the task we have to complete into various smaller pieces of it and began to do with the easiest first as been said by Todd (1996-2011), It’s much easier to tackle smaller chunks than the big one.
2.3.4 Reward or Punish Yourself
George (2010) strongly recommended this type of action in order to overcome procrastination. He believed that people usually work better when they know that there is something good for them at the end of the road. At the same time, the threats of punishment for failed tasks will motivated you to try harder.
2.3.5 Find a Good Study Partner
Study partner can help us when we did not understand in certain things in our study. Plus, a partner that cares about their study performance more than we do should drag us along with him to satisfy his or her goal in study. So, the old adage, “if you want to be a good student, hang out with good students,” is not only, but imperative (Todd, 1996-2011)

2.4 Conclusion
Online survey by The Procrastination Research Group posed the question, "To what extent is procrastination having a negative impact on your happiness?" of the 2,700 responses: 46% said "quite a bit" or "very much" and 18% claimed "extreme negative effect" .For us to establish a society that have all the qualities at the optimum level, we have to know what is procrastination, what causes it and way to overcome it.

Chapter 3: Methodology

3.0 Introduction
This chapter will focus on the research methodology which includes location of research, research design, research instrument, population and sampling, questionnaire structure, sources of data, and data analysis.
3.1 Location of Research
The location for this research is in Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). UTP is located in Tronoh which is
3.2 Research Design
We chose to use the quantitative method to obtain our results because it is more accurate and easily interpreted. The main focus of this survey was to get feedback about causes, effects and ways to overcome procrastination among UTP students.
3.3 Research Instrument
Our research instrument was a survey consisting of 8 questions. The questionnaire consisted of 2 sections; Section A and Section B. This survey was carried out by distributing the questionnaire via e-mail. In order to ease the respondents in answering our questionnaire, the questions were set in the form of multiple choice questions, whereby the respondents were only required to select the required response.
3.4 Population and Sampling
3.5 Questionnaire Structure
Section A was intended to gather the background information of the respondents. The questions basically focused on gender, course of study. Section B on the other hand comprised of questions designed to gauge the knowledge of
3.6 Sources of data
We used two major types of sources; primary sources and secondary sources. Our primary source was the survey. Meanwhile, the secondary sources for our research paper were from websites and lectures
3.7 Data Analysis
The data collected was analysed and portrayed in the tables, pie charts and bar graphs as shown in the results section.
3.8 Conclusion
By doing the survey, we are applying the method that we had chosen for this research which is quantitative method. This method provides multi-perspective results as it involved __ respondents and we were able to interpret and compile the data effectively.