A 12-week course on planning your own learning went with less putting off
Who it’s about: Students
- Helped
Students in weekly goal and plan sessions put things off less than the usual class, even four weeks later.
- Action: Set a specific goaltested
- Action: Track your progresstested
- Rule: Practise with a groupused
- Rule: In weekly sessionsused
Small randomised trial of 90 first-year university students in China · vs a class with their usual teaching · they rated themselves · ⚠ whole groups were assigned, not people; summary claims more than the results show
The study
Who took part
90 first-year E-commerce students at a university in China, in two classes of 45. They were not picked for putting things off.
What they did
One class had a 60-minute group session every week for 12 weeks as part of their teaching. The sessions covered setting goals, planning, keeping track of their own work and looking back on how it went. The other class had their usual teaching.
What happened
The course class rated themselves as putting things off less at the end and four weeks later than the other class. Both classes scored about the same at the start. Whole classes were assigned, not single students, though the paper's summary says students were randomly assigned.
Source
Effectiveness of a Self-Regulated Learning Model on Academic Procrastination Among Chinese University Students (2026)
