Having Fun is Not Enough: The Interplay Between Procrastination, Task Enjoyment, and Resilience

Abstract

Given the vast evidence of the often deleterious consequences of procrastination, especially in an academic context, developing an understanding of what prevents such a dilatory behavior is of great importance. In our study, we used bi-weekly diary data over a period of nine weeks (Nbetween person=350; Nwithin person=5,388) to inform the so far limited understanding of protective factors with regard to habitual procrastination tendencies of undergraduate business students. We argue that having fun when working on tasks is not enough to mitigate negative effects of habitual procrastination, but that individuals also need high levels of resilience. In fact, we found that the negative effect of habitual procrastination on daily effort can only be overcome when students enjoy the tasks which they are working on and also comprise high personal resources as encompassed within high personal resilience. We discuss our results against the background of an interactionist perspective and thus inform the literatures on procrastination and resilience.