August 29 - Effects of Academic Procrastination

Student Procrastination Affects More Than Grades

August 29, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Vancouver, BC - As more than 160,000 students head back to colleges and universities in Metro Vancouver next week, the region’s procrastination levels will be on the rise.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 70% of college students typically procrastinate, compared to only 20% of the general population. The long-term deadlines, abundance of free time and extra-curricular activities produces a perfect environment for procrastination.

Unfortunately the repercussions affect more than a student’s grades. “Academic procrastination has been studied extensively,” says Homework Tree.com creator Christie Goode, “and has been linked to higher stress, low self-esteem, depression, cheating and plagiarism.”

A study out of Macquarie University in Australia discovered that studying in fits and starts – or “deadline to deadline” as Goode calls it – results in higher alcohol, cigarette, and caffeine use during final exams. There were also direct links to a decreased ability to maintain healthy self-care habits like exercise, healthy eating and even keeping up with the dishes.

“The interesting thing about the Macquarie study,” adds Goode, “is that the researchers have come to understand self-control as a muscle. As a former coach, that makes a lot of sense to me."

"When we exercise our self-control a little bit each week by intentional studying, then our capacity to focus and block out distractions (like friends calling to go out, or Facebook an easy click away) becomes stronger. Then, just like a muscle, when we really need to use it – like during exam periods – it doesn’t tire so easily and we can sustain the longer periods of self-control necessary to get the extra work done.”

While the scientific basis behind regular study is new to Goode, the practical realities of it aren’t. Since finishing her graduate degree, she’s developed a website called Homework Tree.com that makes it very easy for students to create a balanced homework plan.

“The website grew out of my experience at grad school. The first week of my program, I actually cried every day after class because I was so overwhelmed and intimidated by all the work I had to do. I eventually developed a full-semester homework plan where I laid out exactly when I was going to do all my assignments and papers.

That really helped to decrease my stress. But the plan took so much time and fiddling to create, and then to update when I got behind. So I created Homework Tree to provide the benefits of having a balanced homework plan, but also to automate the process so that it’s easy to get started.”

For more info:
Christie Goode
homeworktree.com/media
cgoode@homeworktree.com