Vincent T. Foss once said, “One of the greatest labor-saving inventions of today is tomorrow.” Too many of us college students know this to be true. Saving our work until the last minute, we frantically rush to submit our work minutes before it is due.

According to M. Engin Deniz, Zeliha Tras, and Didem Aydogan, authors of An Investigation of Academic Procrastination, Locus of Control, and Emotional Intelligence, 70 percent of university students procrastinate. Academic procrastination is specifically the postponement of responsibilities in one’s school life. In other words, a person shows academic procrastination when he or she saves school work until the last minute.

Procrastination is an “umbrella concept,” where there are many immediate and underlying causes explained Matthew Cornell, a productivity consultant. Some of these causes include fear, perfectionism, trouble getting started, insufficient time planning and feeling that the task is too complex.

Researchers show procrastination is related to personality and emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is measured by one’s dominance over their emotions. If a person has an intrapersonal personality, he or she is better at managing his or her time. Similarly, a person with an internal locus of control will complete the work faster than a person with an external locus of control who does not procrastinate. Emotional intelligence includes five categories: intrapersonal, interpersonal, adaptation, coping with stress, and general mood. “Procrastination serves as a tool for coping with stress,” claims Deniz, Tras, and Aydogan in their book.

Procrastination also works in a cost and benefit relationship. The future is vague and unpredictable and leaves uncertainty, while the present is immediate and pressing. A person will weigh the cost (effort) of completing the task against its benefits (results). If a person finds the task unworthy, that person will do what is known as “task aversion,” putting off the task because he or she just does not want to do it.

In their 2009 article, Lisa M. Zarick and Robert Stonebraker stated, “Their current selves value their own well-being over the well-being of their future selves," adding, “We look for anything to do except the task we should be doing.” Furthermore, people have a fear of failure and making mistakes, so by averting the task, they do not have to face the failure that may occur.

So can procrastination ever be cured?

According to Cornell, “Procrastination has been around since humans have been doing things.” Recent technology and tendency to multi-task has also affected the amount of procrastination.

But depending on the person, procrastination can be managed. Some techniques that college students can try are making deadlines, breaking down the task, making wise choices, and managing distractions. So, with all the distractions and new lifestyles here at Cornell, each person will just have to find their own strategy to combat the human desire to procrastinate.