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PaperProcrastination

Students who happened to get the method picked for them put things off less

Who it’s about: Students, Young adults

A young woman in a checked jumper rows a small wooden boat toward the viewer, oars dipping and lifting from the water.
  1. Helped

    Students who happened to get the method a model picked tended to put things off less than the others.

    Randomised trial of 256 Polish-speaking university students who put things off · vs students who got the method not picked for them · they rated themselves · ⚠ not yet checked by other scientists; only counted people who finished; matched-vs-mismatched comparison observational; summary claims more than the results show

The study

Who took part

University students aged 18 to 26, about 22 on average, and 7 in 10 were women. They put things off more than most students and were looking for help. Two trials put 293 and 191 students into groups, and 256 who finished were counted.

What they did

Everyone had five weekly 90-minute online group sessions of therapy that challenges unhelpful thoughts. One group learned to plan realistically and to start on time, with goals, smaller steps, obstacles and start routines. The other group worked on their project only in set time slots each day. Afterwards a computer model judged which method would have suited each student.

What happened

Students who got the method the model picked for them put things off less than students who got the other one. They said so at the end and six months later. The gap was much bigger in the first trial than in the second, which was the real check. Students weren't put in groups by the model, so this doesn't prove that matching works. The paper's summary also says more than its results show.

Source

Optimizing Behavioral Strategy Selection during Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Procrastination using Machine Learning (2026)

DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/7t6j9_v2

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