Procrastination in the Looking Glass of Self-Awareness. Can Gamified Self-Monitoring Reduce Academic Procrastination?

Procrastination impedes students’ study progress, achievement, and well-being. In light of its high prevalence among students, scalable, low-threshold interventions are needed. This contribution was inspired by the effect of gamification on learning behavior. It set out to test whether self-monitoring of learning activities in a gamified smartphone application can reduce procrastination. In both a quasi-experimental (study 1) and an experimental pretest-posttest control group study (study 2), however, self-reported procrastination increased instead of decreased. We discuss this  effect as being caused by heightened awareness of one’s own procrastination and show how this effect can be effectively used in procrastination prevention and intervention programs.