Throughout the history of human behaviour, procrastination has undoubtedly had an affect, either positively or negatively, on wellbeing. Whilst there are many factors that can impact wellbeing, such as academic performance, or being socially happy, (Mind.org.uk, 2016) it can be argued that procrastination is a driving force affecting wellbeing as it has a knock-on effect on these, amongst other, elements of life. According to Steele (2007), procrastination is a “voluntary delay [of] an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay”, thus indicating procrastination is a dysfunctional behaviour. However, it has also been suggested that procrastination does not have a purely negative effect on wellbeing as it can actually be used advantageously to result in enhanced academic performance (Kim, Fernandez & Terrier, 2016). Additionally, the social connectivity that comes with procrastinating online potentially provides positive effects on mental wellbeing, as well as being “a valuable resource for self-regulation and recovery” (Reinecke, L., & Hofmann, W, 2016). Thus, using social media to procrastinate can have benefits, but if abused, may cause detrimental effects to wellbeing.
Social media has become increasingly accessible and prevalent in modern life, providing an opportunity for procrastination. Research by Meier, Reinecke and Meltzer (2016) suggests social media, in particular Facebook, is one of the leading causes of procrastination. In their convenience sample of student Facebook users gained through an online survey, it was found that “using Facebook for the irrational delay of important tasks increases students’ stress levels and contributes to the negative well-being effects of Facebook use beyond the academic domain”, thus supporting the idea that procrastination, particularly through the use of social media, negatively impacts wellbeing. This means procrastinators gave precedence to the short-term positive feelings associated with media use over the attainment of long-term goals, which could result in guilt or stress. Linked to this, they also found a positive correlation with procrastination and academic stress and Facebook induced strains, showing how procrastination leads to poor academic performance, and therefore negatively impacts wellbeing. However, a limitation of this study is that participants used self-report, potentially meaning social desirability bias would impact results. Support for these findings comes from Reinecke et al. (2018) that procrastination through the media has negative effects on wellbeing. This is because they found that in a sample of 1577 German internet users “that the negative effects of procrastinatory media use go beyond negative self-related emotions such as guilt and are associated with an increased risk of more serious psychological health-impairments”. This further emphasises the argument that overall, procrastination through social media can have detrimental effects on wellbeing as it can cause stress within and beyond the academic domain, as well as causing mental health issues.
Furthermore, it is not only through social media that procrastination can have negative effects on wellbeing, as shown through Sirois and Tosti’s (2012) research of 339 undergraduate psychology students highlighting how procrastination results in high stress and so, poor health. Their research found that procrastination could have a negative impact on physical health, as it causes “unnecessary stress and corresponding negative changes in immunity, and the delay of health promoting behaviours”. This shows how procrastination not only affects mental wellbeing but also physical wellbeing, both issues that can have a knock-on effect on other elements of life. This study looks at the mediator of mindfulness as a risk factor in poor emotional and physical wellbeing, finding that procrastinators generally have low mindfulness and “low mindfulness may also be associated with the practice of fewer positive health behaviours”, outlining how poor health can be a result of procrastination. Similarly to Reineke and Meltzer’s study, self-report techniques were used, raising the issue of social desirability bias, however, in Sirois and Tosti’s research, health was also assessed using a survey that is “widely used and [a] well-validated measure of subjective health and quality of life, providing a reliable overall score of physical well-being”, and so arguably is a more reliable judgment of health. Therefore, it can be argued that procrastination can have a negative impact on wellbeing through the impact on physical as well as mental health.
Although the aforementioned research highlights the negative effects of procrastination on wellbeing, conflicting research by Kim, Fernandez and Terrier (2016) of 178 Swedish students highlights how procrastination can actually be used as a positive. They differentiate between the classic idea of passive procrastination, and also the more modern idea of active procrastination, whereby procrastination is deliberate in order to produce beneficial outcomes. They found that passive procrastination resulted in students having a lower GPA but when delay was deliberate, their academic performance was enhanced. This shows how for some students time constraints were beneficial, perhaps due to the added pressures, yet for others the stress may have counterproductive effects. Better academic performance is one factor that would impact mental wellbeing, and so this shows how active procrastination results in positive effects on wellbeing. Thus, this research indicates how not all procrastination has damaging effects on wellbeing, as for active procrastinators, this resulted in improved academic performance. However, it can be argued that active procrastination is not really procrastination, but effective time management to create benefits and so this counters the argument that not all procrastination is damaging. Overall, Kim, Fernandez and Terrier’s research highlights how procrastination does not always negatively impact wellbeing as it can result in improved academic performance.
Therefore, although there are many factors that could impact wellbeing, it can be argued procrastination is one of the most significant factors due to its knock-on effects, such as having less time for academia resulting in worse grades, resulting in poor mental health. On one hand it is argued that procrastination has negative impacts on physical and mental wellbeing, yet it can be argued that active procrastination has the adverse effect. Overall, perhaps procrastination does not have to negatively impact wellbeing, and rather it is a balance that is required in order for procrastination to not negatively affect wellbeing.