Behavioral Essay - “pro” in Procrastination

Imani English

PSY-102

October 9, 2015

Professor Glaze

I Put the “PRO” in Procrastination

        Procrastination is the arch demon that most college students (up to 95%)  struggle with daily (Hubbard,2014). After leaving my high schools structured schedule behind, I have come to realize that I am an expert at avoiding the inevitable. Opportunities that were offered to me in the past were never acquired due to procrastination.

        Making progress with procrastination is a struggle for many students, including myself because we tend to put it off. How ironic. However, this behavioral issue affects my life greatly. It interferes with my social life, my school work, and my sleep schedule. Feeling overwhelmed, fear of failing the task, and lack of interest or motivation is what leads to my procrastination. There are also times when I am unable to acknowledge when is a good time to postpone or when it is just irrational. Identifying the reasons I procrastinate are easy but changing this habit will be a strenuous task.

        In order to change this behavioral issue, I plan to use a partial reinforcement schedule which is a tool used in operant conditioning in order to generate a certain behavior. Things I plan to make a priority are school work and my sleep schedule. Punishment will not be incorporated when using the partial reinforcement method for myself, because I do not believe I will stay consistent. However, something I will do to stay motivated throughout this process will be to reward myself.

        To start off, I plan to try and manage my time more efficiently. To do so, making a schedule to help myself have time to do homework, work out, and sleep will be life changing. Planning to finish homework assignments before the due date will help me accomplish these goals. If homework assignments are done before the due date, there will be more time for me to work out and sleep. I also hope to set up a sleep schedule to ensure that I will be well rested and finally be able to progress in changing my procrastination habits when it comes to completing school related tasks.

        When procrastinating while trying to maintain good grades in school, a steady job, and also extracurricular activities , it becomes overwhelming. However, I believe that with the partial reinforcement schedule method I will be able to conquer my procrastination in a timely fashion. Setting a time line for myself is an important part of this process. I hope that by managing my time more efficiently I will get my homework done sooner as well as get many more hours of sleep which will keep me from being exhausted (another reason I seem to procrastinate). As a college student it can be hard to manage time and to not focus on tasks or homework when we are supposed to. But by allowing ourselves to realize that we irrationally postpone things and figuring out a way to fix this problem, we can get so much more done for ourselves and others.