Hannah R. Snyder, Assistant Prof. of Psychology at Brandeis University, is interested in understanding risk and resilience factors for mental health in college students and young adults, focusing on how stress, cognitive function (especially executive function), and coping strategies interact, given that adolescence and emerging adulthood (early 20s) are periods of heightened risk for mental health problems, including anxiety and depression.
Executive function (EF) skills are learned skills which underlie the capacity of a person to plan ahead and meet goals, display self-control, follow multiple-step directions even when interrupted, and stay focused despite distractions, among others. As you might imagine, these skills are important for students to master in order to be successful in college.
In a recent online conversation, Dr. Snyder explained the danger of being too flexible with assignment deadlines:
Large tasks with long time horizons “turn in all this work by the end of the semester” put max demands on EF. They require extensive planning, breaking down into steps, time management. For folks with EF difficulties, they are overwhelming, lead to procrastination and anxiety. As work piles up it becomes even more overwhelming, leading to more anxiety and avoidance, leading to more pile up. A vicious cycle that sets students up for failure.Structure and scaffolding of major assignments instead help students stay on track for success. Students who are neurodivergent, experiencing mental health issues or stressors (which affect EF), or may not have been taught how to self-direct through a US college course (e.g. 1st gen, international) benefit most from scaffolding that takes some of the burden off their EF. e.g., For a major term paper, I assign small assignments throughout the semester that help with each step (selecting topic, lit search, outlining, writing, revising). Students always know what they should be doing now, and I know if they are off track and need help. But everyone benefits from reducing EF demands. Making class structures and assignments more consistent with SMART goal principles (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) helps everyone succeed. (Notice the time-bound!) This does NOT mean you shouldn’t offer extensions when appropriate. You can be flexible and compassionate and have part of that compassion be that you are going to help keep them on track for success.
Miyake and Kane (2022) research around academic procrastination support Dr. Synder’s claims. Specifically, their proposed strategies to counter two of the main causes of procrastination, Task-Triggered Negative Mood States and Goal-Management Failures, align with the suggestions Snyder provide, but go into much more detail about teaching interventions faculty members can incorporate into their practice to encourage student success.
(From pgs. 296-299 of Miyake and Kane (2022) )
Targeting Hypothesized Cause 1: Task-Triggered Negative Mood States
- Practicing starting rituals: These techniques target initial resistance that students might feel toward an academic task as a result of task aversion and help them get started on that task. Once they start working on the task, it is likely that they will keep working on it. These techniques are also helpful because they focus students not on the outcome (e.g., delivering a finished product, getting a good score on an upcoming exam) but rather on the process (e.g., a current task at hand), which has been found to be more effective in dealing with procrastination (Kaftan & Freund, 2019). A challenge is to develop ways to help students practice these techniques consistently so that they remember to apply them when appropriate situations arise.
- Teach students the pomodoro technique: This technique begins with setting a timer to 25 min, starting on the task right away, working in a focused manner for that duration, and then taking a 5-min break; this sequence can be repeated four times before a longer break. The pomodoro technique is a popular and well-known productivity tool, and some good apps gamify this process (e.g., Forest; Seekrtech, http://www.seekrtech.com/en). This technique has an added benefit of enhancing students’ focus on the task at hand.
- Teach students the 5-second rule: This rule was initially proposed by Robbins in her TED talk (Robbins, 2011) and subsequently elaborated in her popular book (Robbins, 2017). The rule states, “The moment you have an instinct to act on a goal you must [start counting backwards from 5] and physically move [by the end of that 5-s period] or your brain will stop you” (Robbins, 2017, p. 35). Robbins claims that applying the rule consistently and taking action can have positive impacts on various life domains (e.g., mental health, personal finance), including procrastination. Although the 5-second rule has not been scientifically tested, this simple idea holds promise.
- Reducing task aversion: Initial task aversion, if strong enough, triggers a need to repair one’s negative mood, which leads to seeking short-term pleasure. Thus, reducing students’ aversion toward academic tasks is important, and the techniques listed here may be helpful in this regard.
- Assign utility-value writing exercises: A simple writing exercise in which students reflect on why or how a particular educational activity (e.g., learning statistics, completing a writing assignment) is personally valuable to them has been shown to be an effective social-psychological intervention in classroom settings (see Harackiewicz & Priniski, 2018, for a review). Although this technique has not yet been applied to academic procrastination, it may reduce initial task aversion and thereby nudge students toward getting started on the task at hand. Note that this technique may simultaneously address the second hypothesized cause in our model by enhancing the personal value students place on their long-term learning goals (see below).
- Break down complex assignments into separate ones: Assignments that require multiple days of work (e.g., writing a term paper) can feel overwhelming and thus elicit the feeling of task aversion. Moreover, the deadlines for such assignments are set well into the future (e.g., a month way), which makes it easier for students to procrastinate (in fact, Svartdal et al., 2020, identified long deadlines as one of the procrastination-friendly study environments). Breaking down a complex assignment into multiple mini-assignments, each with its own deadline (e.g., generating an outline, writing some parts of the paper, completing a full rough draft, revising the final paper), may help students not only reduce procrastination but also produce a better-quality final product.
- Set up an assignment in a way that promotes a process focus (vs. an outcome focus): When students work on a major assignment or exam, their long-term goal may focus on the expected final outcome. Such an outcome focus is associated with greater stress, greater task aversion, and reduced motivation, compared with a process focus (e.g., focus on the next small step one can take to make progress on a bigger task; Kaftan & Freund, 2019). Teaching students about the importance of process focus may be helpful, and so is presenting an assignment in a way to encourage students to focus on specific processes (e.g., breaking down a complex task into smaller chunks, providing a to-do list for exam preparation). This technique may be particularly helpful if combined with other tools that promote a focus on processes (e.g., the pomodoro technique).
Targeting Hypothesized Cause 2: Goal-Management Failures
- Enhancing long-term goals: A critical aspect of the second hypothesized cause of procrastination—goal-management failures—is the self-control dilemma, a conflict between short-term pleasure (e.g., a need for temporary mood repair) and long-term goals (e.g., working on a writing assignment). One way to help students resolve this dilemma in favor of their long-term goals and hence avoid procrastination is to help them increase the personal value they attach to their long-term learning goals.
- Assign utility-value writing exercises: Utility-value writing exercises (already described above) should enhance the value of long-term goals by clarifying why studying a particular topic or working on a particular assignment is important and worthwhile.
- Teach students how to create goals: Many students do not set specific long-term goals, let alone write them down, so teaching students how to set goals effectively may be helpful, especially if they can commit to these goals and if the goals are effective. Productivity books frequently recommend SMART goals, that is, goals that are Specific (or Simple), Measurable (or Meaningful), Actionable (or Achievable), Relevant (or Realistic), and Time-bound (or Trackable). Our experience is that students struggle with creating SMART goals (Gustavson & Miyake, 2017); guidance and repeated practice seem necessary, along with strong commitments from students to strive toward the SMART goals they create.
- Making long-term goals more accessible: Even if students have set goals and know why those goals matter to them personally, goals are not useful if students cannot easily access them when they need them. Thus, helping students keep reminding themselves of those long-term goals (as well as specific tasks associated with those higher-level goals) in their everyday lives should facilitate their resolving the self-control dilemma in favor of long-term goals and even minimize the likelihood of facing the self-control dilemma in the first place.
- Teach students about useful planning tools: Many students do not regularly use calendars, to-do lists, reminders, and other useful planning tools (either online or on paper) to keep track of their daily tasks. Teaching students how to use these resources effectively (via either short lectures or useful videos available on the Internet, e.g., Frank, 2021) should improve goal accessibility. (Thomas Frank’s website, called College Info Geek, https://collegeinfogeek.com, also provides various useful resources covering all aspects of students’ academic lives.) Moreover, encouraging students to plan in advance when to work on which academic tasks and to mark those study sessions in their calendars (with reminders) may be helpful.
- Send students timely and well-crafted reminders: Students should eventually learn how to keep track of assignments and other academic tasks on their own. In the meantime, however, instructors may assist this process by strategically sending out timely reminders, especially early in the semester. Ideal reminders make clear what students are expected to do by when and are written in an encouraging manner (they may also include direct links to the assignments). Learning management systems allow instructors to send out reminders to only those students who have not yet completed an assignment. Recent research provides some suggestions as to what sort of information should be included in such reminders. For example, results of one large-scale study (Huang et al., 2021) suggest that including the assignment completion rate (e.g., “62% of the students have completed this assignment”) may be helpful.
- Dealing with temptations and distractions: Goal-management failures (i.e., resolving the self-control dilemma at hand in favor of short-term pleasure) are more likely to occur if the study environment has many potential temptations and distractions. Thus, another way to reduce the likelihood of goal-management failures and hence academic procrastination is to reduce the impact of temptations and distractions surrounding students.
- Teach students to create implementation intentions: Implementation intention is a self-regulatory tool used to help turn an intention (e.g., to reach a long-term goal) into an action. It takes the form of an “if-then” rule that describes the specific action to take if a certain situation arises (e.g., “When I finish eating dinner, I will start working on a weekly quiz right away”). This simple rule-creation technique has been often used to promote desirable (but potentially unpleasant) health behaviors involving some degree of self-control (e.g., dieting), but it should also be applicable to the academic domain. Tips for maximizing the potential benefits of implementation intentions are available from the technique’s developer, Gollwitzer (see Gollwitzer et al., 2010). Knowing exactly what to do and when should help students minimize the impact of potential distractions and temptations.Challenge students to preemptively remove sources of temptations: Self-control research has revealed two approaches to deal with temptations: (a) exerting willpower after one encounters a temptation and (b) preemptively removing potential sources of temptations (Hofmann & Kotabe, 2012). The latter is often a more effective approach to resisting temptations and getting sidetracked by them (e.g., Vohs & Piquero, 2021). Teach students about preventive strategies for self-control (possibly via in-class discussions) and challenge them to implement these strategies in everyday situations. For example, the most common sources of distractions reported by students are their electronic devices, such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. Possible preventive strategies for students to reduce distractions due to electronic devices include (a) leaving their smartphones in a different room while studying, (b) turning on the “do not disturb” mode to block notifications, (c) closing all nonessential browser windows while studying, and (d) using a program that blocks distracting apps and websites while studying (e.g., Freedom, https://freedom.to).
Targeting Contextual Factors That Facilitate Behavior Change
- Encouraging reflection (metacognitive factor): Although this factor does not directly address the two causes of procrastination hypothesized in our process model, it is nevertheless potentially important because successfully implementing procrastination-reducing strategies and turning them into habits likely requires regular reflection on one’s own progress. Providing opportunities for such reflection is likely to help enhance the effectiveness of the specific intervention methods discussed above.
- Regularly ask students to evaluate their study habits: Although it is easy to recommend techniques to students, it is not easy for students to implement them effectively and habitually. Check in with students regularly (e.g., every 3–4 weeks) and ask them to reflect on their progress (e.g., what is working, what is not, what changes they want to implement).
- Administer postexam exam wrappers: Ask students to reflect on how they studied for an exam right before they see their scores (see Lovett, 2013, for the rationale behind administering exam wrappers and some concrete examples). To address procrastination, focus students’ reflections on the extent to which they crammed for the exam and on possible ways to avoid cramming for the next exam.
- Building community (social factor): As any instructor knows, classroom climates really matter for students’ motivation and engagement. Simply administering the simple intervention techniques outlined above in a vacuum, without engaging students in this “fight against procrastination” effort in some way, seems to be missing some important (and potentially crucial) element for success. Thus, we advocate for including some community-building and peer-support activities to engage students and motivate them to work together to reduce procrastination.
- Teach students about academic procrastination: Most students do not know how procrastination occurs and what can be done to reduce it. Teaching them about procrastination in classroom settings (via brief lectures or Internet videos; e.g., Frank, 2018, and Urban, 2016), especially if combined with in-class discussions, should help develop an antiprocrastination culture. In fact, the simple process model outlined in this article is easy to convey, and students resonate to the model’s explanation of how procrastination occurs. It provides a useful starting point for engaging students in classroom discussions (e.g., jointly generating possible ways to tackle procrastination).
- Make “fight against procrastination” a classwide effort: In addition to teaching students about academic procrastination, share with the class some relevant statistics about their progress. For example, provide a weekly report of the percentage of students who completed assignments reasonably early (e.g., > 24 hr before deadline) and encourage (if not reward) the class to beat this average for the next assignment.
- Engage students in small-group activities: Some of the activities discussed in this table (e.g., creating goals and implementation intentions, reflecting on progress) can be done in small groups. Also consider introducing an “accountability partner” system (although knowing how to pair up students can be challenging).
- Gamify efforts to reduce procrastination: Introduce some fun elements to the classwide effort to fight against procrastination. For example, student groups can compete against each other to see which has the earliest average completion time for an assignment.
Leave a Reply