Are you a college student who is under lots of stress and you procrastinate very often? You have tons of homework to be completed, you are committed in a sports team and/or club, and you may have a part time or maybe even a full-time job. And do you think the stress is due to procrastination? Well, if you said yes, you might be correct, but it is more to it than you think. Many college students whether seniors or not are under lots of stress due to many reasons such as personal issues, family issues, health issues, financial issues and many more.

Lots of college students procrastinate so much that they become stressed, and they do not know the cause of it. Stress is very dangerous as it can lead to various amounts of health issues such as depression, high blood pressure, anxiety, and many more (Yefei Wang, 2021). If one is not able to detect their stress and take care of it, the stress will eat them alive causing the health issues mentioned above. Stress does not only affect college students as it can also affect any and everyone.

Students especially college students have many responsibilities because they are transitioning to become adults and getting ready to work in the real world. For some people they can be stressed out because they do not feel like doing what is needed and others may have some other priorities that are needed to be done first. Yefei Wang an author who wrote Academic procrastination in college students: The role of self-leadership, stated “previous studies have demonstrated that academic procrastination is related to poor academic performance, increased health risks, and strained relationships, and is associated with depression, anxiety, and stress.” Past studies and research show that academic procrastination not just everyday life procrastination can lead to bad performances and bad health overall. Procrastination can also lead to stress, interpersonal relationship issues, bad mental, physical, and emotional health.  It is very crucial to try and not to procrastinate and get your duties done. Procrastinating can lead to many harmful things for your health, which you certainly do not want.

People all over the world procrastinate their duties due to many reasons but for some reason stress is located more in college students. College students are more stressed out because they have more responsibilities, they lack good time management, there’s a change in their eating and sleeping habits and because they procrastinate so much, they do not have enough time to relax and maintain self-care. According to The Learning Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Some predictable stressful times include studying for exams, competing for admissions or internships, and trying to master large amounts of content in small amounts of time. Sudden changes, unexpected challenges, or traumatic events can be unpredictable sources of stress.” This shows that things that are bound to happen in a college students’ life can be stressful and many times there is nothing that can be done to prevent these things as they are bound to happen. College students will just have to learn how to balance things out accordingly and how to prioritize things as needed. Even though, college students are still learning as they continue their education, they should know when and how to stop and take a break, so they would not get overwhelmed and start to have health issues.

I have created and designed a quick 6 question survey to ask college students about their stress levels and procrastination. I posted the link to the survey on my Snapchat, Instagram, and WhatsApp and about 20 students took it. The questions I asked were 1) From a scale of 1-5 how stressed out are you? (1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest), 2) From a scale of 1-5 how often do you procrastinate? (1 being not at all and 5 being all the time) 3) From a scale of 1-5 do you think your stress is due to procrastination? (1 being not at all and 5 being definitely), 4) Which do you think is the most caused by due to stress? 5)Do you think the relationship between stress levels and procrastination on college students are high? 6)How do you think college students can deal with stress? For the first question 50% of the surveyors said that they are stressed out on a level of 3 out of 5 and there was no percentage that was not stressed out at all. This goes to show that college students are really stressed out. For the second question 37.5% of surveyors said that they procrastinate on a level of 4 out of 5 which is high. This means that more than half of college students procrastinate for varieties of reasons. There were no percent that said they do not procrastinate at all meaning that all college students who took the survey have procrastinated at some point. For the third question 31.3% said that they believe that their stress is somewhat due to procrastination and 25% said that their stress is definitely due to procrastination. There was 12% that said that their stress is not due to procrastination at all. This data shows that college students are being stressed out because of how often they procrastinate. It looks like the more procrastination, the more stressed out the person may feel. For the fourth question 43.8% believes that anxiety is the most caused by stress, 31.3% believes that high blood pressure is caused by stress and 25% believes that depression is the most caused. R. Morgan Griffin is a writer for WebMD, and he wrote 10 Health Problems Related to Stress That You Can Fix, which was then medically reviewed by Joseph Goldberg, MD. Researchers have long suspected that the stressed-out, type A personality has a higher risk of high blood pressure and heart problems (Morgan Griffin). This shows that high blood pressure and heart problems are the two most caused by stress. For the fifth question 93.3% said that the relationship between stress levels and procrastination on college students are high and 0% said no. For the sixth question I asked how college students can deal with stress and there were so many answers that were all helpful. Some were as the following: speaking to someone (professionals), doing the assignments the day they were assigned, relaxing, have a planner and plan out your day, meditate, prayer, asking help on assignments, exercise, self-care, write in a journal, stay healthy, study more, using resources at school and finding alternatives to calm them down mentally and physically.

The survey has helped to show that the correlation between stress levels and procrastination on college students are very high as well as very common. Some of the advice are so good that anyone can use them for themselves even though they might not procrastinate as much. We can also see in the survey that even though many of the surveyors may have ways to reduce their stress, they still seem to be stress. I believe it is because these college students may be stress out due to other reasons such as personal issues, family issues, financial issues, health issues and many more. Procrastination is not the only thing that causes stress, but it is probably the number one thing that causes stress.

When people become stress, it is very bad for the health because it causes so many problems mentally and emotionally. Stress can many times lead to health issues which may become irreversible. 10 health problems related to stress are heart disease, asthma, obesity, diabetes headaches, depression, gastrointestinal problems, Alzheimer’s disease, accelerate aging and even premature death (Morgan Griffin). All these health issues are common in today’s world, and it is very difficult and almost impossible to completely get rid of any one of the health issues once one has it. So therefore, it is important to try and not stress over simple things as your health can be damaged. I am sure after reading this paragraph, with all these health issues related to stress I am sure that no one will want to be stress. Stress is a part of everyday life, so the feeling would not be completely gone but it can sure be minimized too as little as possible.

This diagram shows how stress affects multiple parts of the body. Such as the stomach, skin, pancreas, immune system, head, heart, intestines, the reproductive system, joints & muscles.

Stress is a feeling of being overwhelmed through an event that makes you frustrated and nervous. College students are under lots of stress due to procrastination, and procrastination is due to having other priorities and issues. Stress can lead to and cause many health issues such as depression, high blood pressure, anxiety and so many others that no one wants to have or deal with. Although there are many ways to deal with stress such as speaking to someone, self-care, having a planner, asking for help and many others, college students still tend to be stressful for other reasons too. The relationship between stress levels and procrastination on college students are very high. Stress is a very important topic and should be taken very seriously.

 

 

“College Stress.” Learning Center, 15 July 2021, https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/managing-college-stress/#:~:text=Why%20are%20you%20stressed%3F,for%20most%20first%2Dyear%20students.

Griffin, R. Morgan. “10 Stress-Related Health Problems That You Can Fix.” WebMD, WebMD, https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/features/10-fixable-stress-related-health-problems.

Wang, Yefei, et al. “Academic Procrastination in College Students: The Role of Self-Leadership.” Personality and Individual Differences, vol. 178, Elsevier Ltd, 2021, p. 110866–, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110866.