The general attitude towards procrastination is usually negative, and often viewed as a bad habit by society however, the idea of procrastination is not so shallow. Angela Chu and Jin Choi introduced the idea of Active Procrastination to the world in 2005 in an effort to encourage scientists to look deeper into procrastination and realize that there are differences between those who procrastinate passively and those who procrastinate in a calculated and purposeful way, (Chu & Choi, 2005). The idea of Active Procrastination and its relationship with Self-Control became very interesting to me after reading what Chu and Choi (2005) found. Self-Control is the ability to practice restraint especially in regards to emotions and behaviors, (Self-Control, 2019). Active Procrastination is not just putting off a task, but doing so purposefully in order to use time crunches as motivation, most importantly active procrastinators often still have a positive and successful outcome in the end, (Chu & Choi, 2005). Chu and Choi (2005) predict that active procrastinators possess similar qualities of non-procrastinators. Also that active procrastinators share in the same positive outcomes that non-procrastinators do versus the negative outcom
es of a passive procrastinator. Chu and Choi (2005) hypothesize that both those who procrastinate actively and those who do not procrastinate at all will have a higher level of motivation as well as have no difference in reports of self-efficacy; both of which will be stronger than passive procrastinators overall, (Chu & Choi, 2005). In order to research these ideas, Chu and Choi (2005) conducted a survey with 230 college aged students, which asked questions about time use on a 7-point Likert scale. These questions are meant to evaluate the performance of each students based on 11 variables like academic procrastination, time use patterns, motivation, stress, and academic performance among others. Chu and Choi (2005) found those who purposefully procrastinate have similar attitudes and behaviors to those who do not procrastinate. In conclusion, active procrastinators are much different than non-procrastinators and are able to achieve positive outcomes despite procrastinating, (Chu & Choi, 2005). The conclusion from Chu and Choi (2005) fthat there is a need to re-evaluate the views on procrastination and redefine them from blanket statements of being unhealthy lead me to begin my research on Self-Control and Procrastination.