Defeating procrastination: Self-assigned cohorts as frontline defense

• In Event: The power of a female doctoral cohort: Process, podcast, and overcoming procrastination

Proposal

Academic procrastination can be defined as “the voluntary delay of an intended course of study-related action, despite expecting to be worse off for the delay” (Steel & Klingsieck, 2016, p. 37). Academic procrastination is often described as a failure of self-regulation (Sirois & Pychyl, 2013; Steel & Klingsieck, 2015) and has profound life implications for students’ academic performance and overall well-being, including mental health. The root causes of academic procrastination usually include the fear of failure, inadequate time management skills, perfectionism, and lack of intrinsic motivation to engage with the material or act of writing (Ferrari & Tice, 2000; Flett et al.,, 2004; Sirios & Pychyl, 2013; Steel, 2007). Pychyl and Flett (2012) suggest that the lack of seriousness associated with procrastination is in part because it is so widespread and common in everyday life.

Academic procrastination affects both high- and low-achieving students (Kim & Seo, 2015) and affects high school students to graduate students (Onwuegbuzie & Jiao, 2000), with 70-90% of college students experiencing academic procrastination (Bolden & Fillauer, 2020; Steel, 2007). In a doctoral program, the serious consequences of procrastination may include delays in Proposal, missing IRB deadlines, and derailing best laid plans for a graduation date. At worst, procrastination at the dissertation stage may lead to doctoral students surrendering their dreams of a PhD, remaining ABD (‘all but dissertation’) for the rest of their lives.

Academic doctoral cohorts can foster a supportive and motivating environment, through a sense of belonging and inspiration, or through shared experiences on how to best overcome procrastination (Lei et al., 2011). That sense of community may also encourage individual cohort members to develop self-compassion, a key mediator between procrastination and stress (Sirios, 2014). Cohorts can also implement setting writing goals through regular check-ins, online writing sessions, and progress tracking to help maintain a sense of responsibility and commitment to those goals.

This paper and follow-up podcast episode will employ semi-structured interviews with cohort members to discuss individual challenges with procrastination in the proposal and dissertation phase of a doctoral program. We will highlight specific examples of how the cohort helps to mitigate some of the detrimental effects of procrastination and how a sense of accountability to the cohort motivated each member through the writing process. The podcast will be an informative and relatable discussion of how a typically isolating dissertation writing process does not have to be a lonely endeavor.

Author

• April Maute Ege, George Mason University