It’s 2 a.m. You have a coffee in one hand and 50 pages of reading in the other. Your paper is due in six hours and you haven’t even started. Again.

Procrastination is a plague that infects almost every college student over and over again.

“Papers are the big thing for me,” said Katie Trabaris, junior in FAA. “I really don’t think about them much until they’re due … I tend to get distracted with other things or just put it off until the last minute.”

Trabaris finds herself struggling to finish papers, and instead, she ends up surfing the Internet or playing video games.

Brianna Hinton, sophomore in Education, also struggles with finishing — or even starting — lengthy papers.

“I just find myself trying to get everything done in one day,” she said.

Hinton says she gets distracted talking to friends about random topics, and ends up not having enough time to get her work done.

So, why are students so tempted to procrastinate?

“Procrastination is the avoidance of stress,” said Mike Niznikiewicz, student in the University’s clinical psychology graduate program.

He said many of the worst procrastinators have avoidance personalities.

“Taking tests or doing difficult assignments might cause interpersonal stress, and (procrastinators) want to avoid that conflict,” Niznikiewicz said.

Procrastinators also tend to have lots of anxiety. The University’s Counseling Center released a pamphlet, Overcoming Procrastination, which lists evaluation anxiety, or anxiety caused by others’ opinions, as one of seven popular causes of putting off responsibilities.

Procrastination is not just updating your Twitter instead of tackling that last math problem. It can be hidden.

“Do you deceive yourself by substituting one worthy activity for another?” the pamphlet asks. “Valuing a clean apartment is fine, but if that value only becomes important when there is a paper due, you are procrastinating.”

The pamphlet cites seven other sneaky ways procrastination creeps up on students, such as overestimating personal abilities or settling for mediocre performance.

No matter which way students choose to procrastinate, it isn’t healthy.

“(It) leads to … not getting enough sleep. You’re not having decent meals because you’re always siting in front of your books … you’re in a state of constant stress,” Niznikiewicz said.

Though Hinton hasn’t felt the impact this stress has had on her health, she admits her habits hinder her social life.

“I think it would help out my social life (if I didn’t procrastinate), because I’d know I could get the stuff done and I would be stress-free,” she said. “If I do my work first, I can have fun later.”

Hinton stays on track, especially during midterms and finals weeks, by studying whenever she can.

“I work late shifts and just find myself doing studying and doing work there,” Hinton said. “If I still have stuff to do after work, I make sure I do it before I go to bed.”

As an art major, Trabaris spends more time working on large projects than having to study for tests. During the end of the semester, when final projects are due, Trabaris prioritizes assignments to manage her time.

Speaking as a student himself, Niznikiewicz believes that the best way to avoid procrastination is to work with a group of people who will hold each other accountable and keep each other motivated.

“I think accountability is a big thing,” Niznikiewicz said. “If you create study groups that go on throughout the entire semester, you are accountable for basically doing your work. Also, start studying earlier. Break it down to pieces, because pieces are less intimidating.”