hopeless attitude towards life. a correlation between procrastination and eveningness was observed where individuals who had later sleeping and waking patterns were more likely to procrastinate. it has been shown that morningness increases across lifespan and procrastination decreases with age. perfectionism traditionally, procrastination has been associated with perfectionism: a tendency to negatively evaluate outcomes and one's own performance, intense fear and avoidance of evaluation of one's abilities by others, heightened social self-consciousness and anxiety, recurrent low mood, and "workaholism". however, adaptive perfectionists—egosyntonic perfectionism—were less likely to procrastinate than non-perfectionists, while maladaptive perfectionists, who saw their perfectionism as a problem—egodystonic perfectionism—had high levels of procrastination and anxiety. in a regression analysis study from 2007, it was found that mild to moderate perfectionists typically procrastinate slightly less than others, with "the exception being perfectionists who were also seeking clinical counseling". academic according to an educational science professor, hatice odaci, academic procrastination is a significant problem during college years in part because many college students lack efficient time management skills in using the internet. also, odaci notes that most colleges provide free and fast twenty-four-hour internet service which some students are not usually accustomed to, and as a result of irresponsible use or lack of firewalls these students become engulfed in distractions, and thus in procrastination. student syndrome is the phenomenon where a student will begin to fully apply themselves to a task only immediately before a deadline. this negates the usefulness of any buffers built into individual task duration estimates. results from a 2002 study indicate that many students are aware of procrastination and accordingly set binding deadlines long before the date for which a task is due. these self-imposed binding deadlines are correlated with a better performance than without binding deadlines though performance is best for evenly spaced external binding deadlines. finally, students have difficulties optimally setting self-imposed deadlines, with results suggesting a lack of spacing before the date at which results are due. in one experiment, participation in online exercises was found to be five times higher in the final week before a deadline than in the summed total of the first three weeks for which the exercises were available. procrastinators end up being the ones doing most of the work in the final week before a deadline. additionally, students can delay making important decisions such as “i’ll get my degree out of the way first then worry about jobs and careers when i finish university”. other reasons cited on why students procrastinate include fear of failure and success, perfectionist expectations, as well as legitimate activities that may take precedence over school work, such as a job. procrastinators have been found to receive worse grades than non-procrastinators. tice et al. (1997) report that more than one-third of the variation in final exam scores could be attributed to procrastination. the negative association between procrastination and academic performance is recurring and consistent. the students in the study not only received poor academic grades, but they also reported high levels of stress and poor self-health. howell et al. (2006) found that, though scores on two widely used procrastination scales were not significantly associated with the grade received for an assignment, self-report measures of procrastination on the assessment itself were negatively associated with grade. in 2005, a study conducted by angela chu and jin nam choi and published in the journal of social psychology intended to understand task performance among procrastinators with the definition of procrastination as the absence of self-regulated performance, from the 1977 work of ellis & knaus. in their study they identified two types of procrastination: the traditional procrastination which they denote as passive, and active procrastination where the person finds enjoyment of a goal-oriented activity only under pressure. the study calls this active procrastination positive procrastination, as it is a functioning state in a self-handicapping environment. in addition, it was observed that active procrastinators have more realistic perceptions of time and perceive more control over their time than passive procrastinators, which is considered a major differentiator between the two types. due to this observation, active procrastinators are much more similar to non-procrastinators as they have a better sense of purpose in their time use and possess efficient time-structuring behaviors. but surprisingly, active and passive procrastinators showed similar levels of academic performance. the population of the study was college students and the majority of the sample size were women and asian in origin. comparisons with chronic pathological procrastination traits were avoided. different findings emerge when observed and self-reported procrastination are compared. steel et al. constructed their own scales based on silver and sabini's "irrational" and "postponement" criteria. they also sought to measure this behavior objectively. during a course, students could complete exam practice computer exercises at their own pace, and during the supervised class time could also complete chapter quizzes. a weighted average of the times at which each chapter quiz was finished formed the measure of observed procrastination, whilst observed irrationality was quantified with the number of practice exercises that were left uncompleted. researchers found that there was only a moderate correlation between observed and self-reported procrastination (r = 0.35). there was a very strong inverse relationship between the number of exercises completed and the measure of postponement (r = −0.78). observed procrastination was very strongly negatively correlated with course grade (r = −0.87), as was self-reported procrastination (though less so, r = −0.36). as such, self-reported measures of procrastination, on which the majority of the literature is based, may not be the most appropriate measure to use in all cases. it was also found that procrastination itself may not have contributed significantly to poorer grades. steel et al. noted that those students who completed all of the practice exercises "tended to perform well on the final exam no matter how much they delayed." procrastination is considerably more widespread in students than in the general population, with over 70 percent of students reporting procrastination for assignments at some point. a 2014 panel study from germany among several thousand university students found that increasing academic procrastination increases the frequency of seven different forms of academic misconduct, i.e., using fraudulent excuses, plagiarism, copying from someone else in exams, using forbidden means in exams, carrying forbidden means into exams, copying parts of homework from others, fabrication or falsification of data and the variety of academic misconduct. this study argues that academic misconduct can be seen as a means to cope with the negative consequences of academic procrastination such as performance impairment. management psychologist william j. knaus estimated that more than 90% of college students procrastinate. of these students, 25% are chronic procrastinators and typically abandon higher education (college dropouts). perfectionism is a prime cause for procrastination because pursuing unattainable goals (perfection) usually results in failure. unrealistic expectations destroy self-esteem and lead to self-repudiation, self-contempt, and widespread unhappiness. to overcome procrastination, it is essential to recognize and accept the power of failure without condemning, to stop focusing on faults and flaws and to set goals that are easier to achieve. behaviors and practices that reduce procrastination: awareness of habits and thoughts that lead to procrastinating. seeking help for self-defeating problems such as fear, anxiety, difficulty in concentrating, poor time management, indecisiveness, and perfectionism. fair evaluation of personal goals, strengths, weaknesses, and priorities. realistic goals and personal positive links between the tasks and the concrete, meaningful goals. structuring and organization of daily activities. modification of one's environment for that newly gained perspective: the elimination or minimization of noise or distraction; investing effort into relevant matters; and ceasing day-dreaming. disciplining oneself to set priorities. motivation with enjoyable activities, socializing and constructive hobbies. approaching issues in small blocks of time, instead of attempting whole problems at once and risking intimidation. to prevent relapse, reinforce pre-set goals based on needs and allow yourself to be rewarded in a balanced way for accomplished tasks. making a plan to complete tasks in a rigid schedule format might not work for everyone. there is no hard-and-fast rule to follow such a process if it turns out to be counter-productive. instead of scheduling, it may be better to execute tasks in a flexible, unstructured schedule which has time slots for only necessary activities. piers steel suggests that better time management is a key to overcoming procrastination, including being aware of and using one's "power hours" (being a "morning person" or "night owl"). a good approach is to creatively utilize one's internal circadian rhythms that are best suited for the most challenging and productive work. steel states that it is essential to have realistic goals, to tackle one problem at a time and to cherish the "small successes". brian o'leary supports that "finding a work-life balance...may actually help us find ways to be more productive", suggesting that dedicating leisure activities as motivation can increase one's efficiency at handling tasks. procrastination is not a lifelong trait. those likely to worry can learn to let go, those who procrastinate can find different methods and strategies to help focus and avoid impulses. after contemplating his own procrastination habits, philosopher john perry authored an essay entitled "structured procrastination", wherein he proposes a "cheat" method as a safer approach for tackling procrastination: using a pyramid scheme to reinforce the unpleasant tasks needed to be completed in a quasi-prioritized order. severe and negative impact for some people, procrastination can be persistent and tremendously disruptive to everyday life. for these individuals, procrastination may reveal psychiatric disorders. procrastination has been linked to a number of negative associations, such as depression, irrational behavior, low self-esteem, anxiety and neurological disorders such as adhd. others have found relationships with guilt and stress. therefore, it is important for people whose procrastination has become chronic and is perceived to be debilitating to seek out a trained therapist or psychiatrist to investigate whether an underlying mental health issue may be present. with a distant deadline, procrastinators report significantly less stress and physical illness than do non-procrastinators. however, as the deadline approaches, this relationship is reversed. procrastinators report more stress, more symptoms of physical illness, and more medical visits, to the extent that, overall, procrastinators experience more stress and health problems. this can cause quality of life to decrease significantly along with overall happiness. procrastination also has the ability to increase perfectionism and neuroticism, while decreasing conscientiousness and optimism. procrastination can also lead to insomnia, alisa hrustic said in men's health that "the procrastinators—people who scored above the median on the survey—were 1.5 to 3 times more likely to have symptoms of insomnia, like severe difficulty falling asleep, than those who scored lower on the test." insomnia can even add more problems as a severe and negative impact.