Why university students procrastinate and why rest worked better than productivity hacks
What if procrastination isn’t a discipline problem? A student’s experience reveals 4 strategies for managing deadlines, stress and productivity
You sit down on Friday, convinced you’ll spend the weekend catching up on assignments. By Sunday night, nothing is finished, and the guilt is overwhelming. For many university students, procrastination feels like a personal failure, often seen as evidence of poor discipline, motivation, or time management skills. Yet research suggests procrastination is closely linked to stress, burnout, and the constant pressure to perform. In this personal reflection, Interior Design student Mariia Podkokho explores her experience with academic procrastination and shares four practical strategies that helped her regain focus, manage deadlines, and build healthier study habits. Her most important lesson may be the most counterintuitive of all: sometimes rest can do more for productivity than any productivity hack.
This Article Was Due Last Week: A Guide to Not Being Me
Finally, it’s Friday. You have the whole weekend to tackle your deadlines and finish everything by Monday. Just one short nap, and then the work will start! Oh wait… Now you need to clean up a bit for better productivity. Suddenly, you open your eyes after another power nap at 11.53 p.m. on Sunday, trying to figure out what you’ve been doing for the whole weekend. Oops… Procrastinating.
Why Do University Students Procrastinate Even When They Know the Consequences?
I study Interior Design at Marangoni Dubai, and I’m now in my second year. Each project involves countless details and a wide range of tasks. You start with a small idea, develop it using a mind map, and only after some time can you start space planning.
Every element in your design must make sense and fit the concept you are working on. You can’t just find a picture online that you like; there are several stages involved in bringing it to life in 3D renders. It can’t just be visually appealing; it also has to be functional and accessible. That’s why interior design students need to learn about visuals, physics, ergonomics and… maths. And yes, the workload can feel unbearable.
A playful graphic captures the pressure of interior design studies, where ideas, planning and deadlines turn procrastination into part of the creative process. Graphic by Constanza Coscia. We all go through this at some point, especially during the year before the reality of exams hits, and stress levels rise. It’s something that needs to be talked about. It is OK to have these difficulties, and it’s worth remembering that we are all human beings and sometimes procrastinate. Stress can become so overwhelming that people start having panic attacks, and, at that point, it’s crucial to make changes.
I myself have struggled with procrastination in various ways and faced tremendous pressure. Over the past six months, I have developed my own recipe for overcoming it.
When Procrastination Is Actually a Sign of Burnout
First of all, it is essential to let yourself rest, even if you have a mountain of assignments and looming deadlines. If you don’t, burnout becomes inevitable.
Sometimes, a solid 10–12 hours of sleep is enough, but other times your body needs a whole weekend away from thoughts of AutoCAD and InDesign. Once, after working more than a week non-stop on just 4–5 hours of sleep each night, my course leader told me, “Do not do anything at the weekend. You need to rest.” At first, I thought it was impossible with so many deadlines and presentations, but I gave it a try. After a full weekend of rest, the next week was probably the most productive of my life so far.
Why Comparing Yourself to Other Students Can Make Procrastination Worse
The second lesson is that you cannot try to keep up with all your classmates all the time and catch up on everything they have already completed.
Each person has their own comfortable pace. If you push yourself to keep up with a rhythm that doesn’t suit you, you’ll only increase mental strain. Comparing yourself, especially in design, can damage both your productivity and well-being if you focus too much on what others are doing.
What Is the Best Productivity System for Long Creative Projects?
The third strategy, which is personal but highly effective, is one I learned on my own over time and later heard something similar from Jiulijana Mitic, Gensler Design Director, during a talk at Istituto Marangoni: find something that helps you structure your time and work in focused intervals.
I know, I know… Everyone keeps hearing about the Pomodoro Technique (Editor’s note: a time-management method that alternates study sessions with short breaks), but the key is to adapt it. For example, I love watching tennis, and tournaments run all year. Whenever there’s a match that I want to watch, I put it on a small screen and get to work. When there’s a break, I take one. This way, I can maintain my focus for long periods without getting tired, even when I get distracted by something I enjoy. It can be anything, but not something that requires your full attention. There’s no way you can stay productive while watching Squid Game 3…
Why Motivation Matters More Than Discipline in Creative Work
One final point, especially for design students: you have to LOVE your project. Your concepts need to motivate you to keep going. Build a story; live your project. That’s what will drive you to make it perfect and encourage you to invest more time and energy.
Last year, I didn’t like the project I was working on because I hadn’t developed a narrative for it; I just had a mood board of visuals, which made it difficult to stay motivated. Now, whenever I start something new, I try to explore completely different creative approaches and perspectives. This now only makes my portfolio more diverse and eye-catching, but also helps me have more fun and stay engaged throughout the process.
Of course, everyone is unique, but these four suggestions might give you new ideas about your own approach to getting things done and help you find your own recipe for overcoming procrastination and staying productive.
Mariia Podkokho
BA Interior Design Student, Dubai
References
Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
Cirillo, F. (2018). The Pomodoro Technique: The Acclaimed Time-Management System That Has Transformed How We Work. Currency.
Bailey, C. (2018). Hyperfocus: How to Manage Your Attention in a World of Distraction. Viking.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. Harper Perennial.
Jiulijana Mitic at Istituto Marangoni Dubai – Guest talk.
Spratt, A. (2022, June 15). Unsplash. Retrieved July 2025, from unsplash.com/photos/a-piece-of-paper-with-a-note-attached-to-it-3sgir4ErK5U