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procrastination

Habitual or intentional delay of starting or finishing a task despite knowing potential negative consequences

EntitybehaviorQ330104

Also known as procrastinate · putting off

Instance of: behavior
1
Sources
1.Stated in Merriam-Webster online dictionarymerriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastination
View statement on Wikidata ↗
Subclass of: delaying
1
Sources
1.Stated in Merriam-Webster online dictionarymerriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastination
View statement on Wikidata ↗
, avoidance
, failure

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Procrastination is an avoidance coping behavior that involves unnecessarily delaying or postponing something despite knowing that there could be negative consequences for doing so. It is a human experience resulting from internal stress that leads to delaying everyday chores or even putting off tasks such as attending an appointment, submitting a job report or academic assignment, or broaching a stressful issue with a partner. It is often perceived as a negative trait due to its hindering effect on one's productivity, and is associated with depression, low self-esteem, guilt, and feelings of inadequacy; however, it can also be considered part of maladaptive perfectionism or a wider stance for dealing with certain demands that could present risky or negative outcomes or require waiting for new information to arrive. For instance, procrastinating can prevent a person from acting on suicidal intent.

Overview

All data

53 statements · 19% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

Has effect: psychological stress nature of statement: often
failure criterion used: time limit · nature of statement: often
cramming applies to part: study
Opposite of: precrastination
Has contributing factor: deficiency criterion used: discipline, will
psychological stress
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Has characteristic: awareness relative to: risk
Uses: distraction
activity has characteristic: other

On other databases

37 identifiers linking procrastination across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

19%

externally sourced

Source last edited September 14, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). procrastination (Q330104). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/procrastination-Q330104