UK students spend 2 months a year procrastinating

Whether your own particular brand of time wasting includes washing bedding in the middle of the day, clicking like multiply times on every social media update you come across or emptying your bank account via the Topshop website, we know that when it comes to procrastination students have a very well-defined and particular talent.

We were still shocked at the news that some students spend two months every year putting off their work to indulge in much less important task, though.

Yes, you read that right – two months students spend procrastinating. Every year.

The frankly ridiculous statistic comes from accommodation provider Vita Student, which surveyed more than 800 students across the UK to find out how easily they are distracted, what they end up doing instead and what could help them concentrate better.

The company found that the average student spends two to three hours a day procrastinating when they should be working – which adds up to a whopping 45 days annually. More than a quarter (26%) of respondents said they are distracted by more than four hours every day, which amounts to more than two whole months wasted every year.

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With most students only at university for seven months a year this represents a truly significant amount of time (and we’d also like to remind you that this won’t cut it in the post university world, soz.)

The accommodation provider also found that nearly half (49%) of those surveyed waste the most time browsing social media channels, while nearly a quarter (24%) get distracted by friends and 22% find themselves watching TV rather than hitting the books.

When it comes to beating the procrastination monster, a third (34%) of respondents said that switching off their phone would have been the best way to help them concentrate. 26% said that private study space would have helped them revise better, while 14% disagreed and said that communal study space would be the best solution for them.

Unsurprisingly, first years are definitely the worst culprits with 41% of students in their first year saying that they spend more than four hours a day avoiding revision, while fourth years are the most committed to their studies with only a lazy 5% saying they spend more than four hours putting off uni work.

Where students are located also seems to have an effect, with students from Wales and the Midlands most likely to spend more than four hours procrastinating, while students in the South West manage to only be distracted for one to two hours each day.

Laura Wood, Student Lettings Manager at Vita Student Management, said: “The results of our survey show how easy it is to get distracted and how important the studying environment is.”

So it’s worth remembering, once you get back to uni this September and find deadline time suddenly approaching, that you definitely need to close YouTube, stop refreshing your Facebook feed and get on with some real work. Because yes, we know what you’re doing.

UK students spend 2 months a year procrastinating

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