Overcoming Procrastination: The Effect of Implementation Intentions¹

Abstract

A hypothesized solution for procrastination is the formation of an implementation intention ( Van Eerde, 2000 ). University students ( N = 152) were assessed using the Aitken Procrastination Inventory ( Aitken, 1982 ) and were asked to report to an experiment. Half of the participants formed implementation intentions to attend. An odds ratio indicated that participants who formed implementation intentions were nearly 8 times more likely to keep their appointments than those who did not. Low procrastinators reported more often for the experiment than did high procrastinators (Low = 49.4%; High = 30.1%), χ 2 (1, N = 152) = 5.84, p < .016. The interaction between implementation intentions and procrastination was not significant, χ 2 (1, N = 152) = 0.28, p < .60.