Tomorrow Will Be Better

This is what it's all about.

Procrastination is a widespread problem, especially among college students. Previous research has shown that at least 46% of college students consider themselves serious procrastinators; and that between 80% and 95% of college students regularly procrastinate when performing academic tasks. This behavior can lead to lower grades, higher dropout rates, and mental health problems. Procrastination can act a self-handicapping strategy for students to protect their self-image, especially for those with low self-esteem.

I am a PhD student in Economics at the University of St. Gallen, working on behavioral economics and economics of education. In this project, I want to investigate if an intervention that boosts self-esteem reduces procrastination among college students in Switzerland.

My project in short.

In collaboration with a learning app, I will implement an intervention to boost students’ self-esteem. The app will also collect high-frequency data on actual study behaviors, allowing for an objective measurement of procrastination beyond self-reported beliefs. These features make the project novel compared to previous research.

This is what I need backing for.

To make this project possible, I need to compensate the app team for the time and effort required to develop new features to deliver the intervention and to share the data with me. Unfortunately, securing funding for a research project is not easy, especially for PhD students.

By contributing, you will help generate scientific evidence on how to motivate students to reduce procrastination and improve their academic performance. The results of this project could provide educators with new tools to support students struggling with procrastination.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my project. If you choose to contribute, I would be extremely grateful.