Skip to main content

About this free course

Become an OU student

Share this free course

Understanding maths anxiety: navigating through the fear of failure
Understanding maths anxiety: navigating through the fear of failure

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol on the course to track your learning.

1.2 Procrastination

You may find that you respond to maths anxiety by procrastinating. Procrastination is the act of putting off something unpleasant (e.g. preparing an assignment) until the very last minute, when the deadline is looming and therefore there is no longer any choice but to get on with it. The task could be replaced with any number of displacement activities (e.g. scrolling on your phone or attending to a household chore).

And ‘procrastination’ is defined as:

to keep delaying something that must be done, often because it is unpleasant or boring.

Cambridge Dictionary

Procrastination is NOT being lazy, or a time management issue.

Some common reasons people procrastinate:

Figure