Grayson Hill, a junior mechanical engineering major, is a procrastinator. You can find her completing small tasks in order to avoid completing school-related assignments.
“Usually when there is something I have to do, I will leave it until the last possible moment when I think I can get it done,” Hill said.
Hill often listens to music or hangs out with her friends in order to avoid assignments. She reminisced on a time that her procrastination got the worst it has ever been. According to Hill, she knew at the start of the semester that she had a huge project to complete, which involved a 12-page paper. The 12-page paper needed to include diagrams, a test that she had to run and a presentation. She waited until 8 p.m. the night before it was due to get started on it. She had to present the project at 10 a.m. the next day. This is a common occurrence when it comes to all of her smaller assignments. However, she still continues to be an A and B student.
When procrastinating, she says she feels so stressed to the point where she cannot get started on a task. Hill also deals with anxiety, depression, stress and loneliness. Hill may be suffering from the negative health-related side effects that come along with being a procrastinator.
New Studies Show:
The study of procrastination relating to health has gone ignored for many years. According to Sciencenews.org, scientists linked procrastination to an array of poor outcomes. Fred Johansson, a psychologist at Sophiahemmet University, and his team conducted a study on university students. The research tied procrastination to physical inactivity, poor sleep quality, stress, anxiety, depression, disabling arm pain, loneliness, and economic difficulties.
“It’s the anticipation that leads to avoidance and avoidance, in turn, is going to maintain and build distress,” Lindsey Stone, a psychology professor at Georgia Southern University said.
According to a journal article published in 2020 by the Current Psychology Journal, anxious individuals are often preoccupied with the fact that an unwanted situation will occur in the future. These individuals often indulge in experiential avoidance and often avoid the situation that causes anxiety.
“If someone has a problem with procrastination it can definitely contribute to feeling like they are not at the best mental-health place,” Angela Landers, assistant director of community and engagement for the Counseling Center at Georgia Southern University said.
Landers explains that stress is like a continuum. When an individual starts to feel stressed or overwhelmed, they move up the continuum. The individual no longer feels just stressed but also feels anxious. Continuing to move up the continuum, an individual can feel so much anxiety to the point where it almost feels like panic. When it comes to procrastination, it has the most detrimental effects. Procrastination can cause forms of anxiety, stress, or panic on that continuum.
According to Stone, procrastination can not only affect mental health but can affect an individual’s physical health. When procrastination causes an individual to go into a state of anxiety or worry, it puts the sympathetic nervous system into overdrive. When that happens, it suppresses the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for immunity. University students getting sick after finals week would be an example of this.
Stone and Landers both agree that in order to overcome procrastination, focusing on getting started on the task at hand and setting goals are the most important part. Breaking up the assignment into smaller daily tasks decreases the urge to procrastinate.
Grayson’s Progress:
Recently, Grayson Hill has been using the reward system to get her work done. For example, if she finishes an assignment on time, she is allowed to hang out with her friends. When asking her how she is doing mentally, she said she is doing a lot better.
“My mental health is much better this semester. However, I still deal with loneliness,” Hill said. “I am no longer occupying my free time with those small tasks.”
It takes time for it to all fall in place. Getting over procrastination is a process, according to Landers.