Does Social Monitoring Reduce Procrastination? Findings from a Five-Day Study

The present study examined how a combined approach (i.e., goal-setting and social facilitation via social media) affects procrastination. In this five-day online experimental study, our participants (N = 191, aged 17–43; 135 women) set a four-day plan for a new or ongoing academic project on Day 1. On Days 2–5, they followed through with the plan and made postings on social media – post both the plans and progress (n = 44), plans only (n = 51), progress only (n = 50), or neutral memes (n = 46). Participants who posted plans, plan and progress, and neutral memes experienced lower motivation on Day 1 than on Day 5. Furthermore, when task complexity was low, those who posted their plans on social media reported less procrastination on Day 5 than those who posted neutral memes. These findings highlight the effectiveness of the combined approach in tackling procrastination, which has important theoretical and practical implications.

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction

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1532-7590

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