In this study we adopted an impartial view on academic procrastination in order to gain new insights for the development of intervention programs. Following a qualitative approach, we thereby explored antecedents of procrastination by attending to the actual voices and experiences of 29 students. Students’ subjective theories were in line with some antecedents that previous research had addressed (lack of motivation or volitional control), but also revealed relatively new aspects of academic procrastination that concern students’ social relatedness and task competence. Considering these findings, we suggest ideas on how to assist students and how to design intervention programs.

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We assumed that situations of motivational want conflict (i.e., feeling that one wants to do something else) and should conflict (i.e., thinking that one should do something else) show differential relationships to different components of well-being because more affective or more cognitive motivational aspects are ignored, respectively. Moreover, we assumed that these differences contribute to the understanding of different self-regulatory styles. Using an experience-sampling approach, 58 university students indicated their current affect, the underlying form of motivation, and whether they experienced a want or a should conflict regarding their daily activities (N = 2376). Furthermore, we assessed participants' self-control and mindfulness before and life satisfaction after the experience-sampling period. As expected, want conflicts came along with lower affective well-being, but were unrelated to cognitive life satisfaction. Although should conflicts also yielded a small, negative association with some aspects of affective well-being, overall, their negative relation with life satisfaction was more pronounced. Positive paths of self-control on affective well-being were mediated via less want and should conflicts, whereas positive paths of both mindfulness and self-control on life satisfaction were mediated via less should conflicts. The relative importance of want and should conflicts in daily self-regulation and wellbeing is discussed.

Research on motivational conflicts indicates that students' difficulties during studying may result from tempting alternatives in the leisure domain. In the present set of studies, we addressed the question of whether academic motivation inversely has negative spillover effects on students' leisure-related functioning, too. In the first 2 studies (N = 169 and N = 206), the self-regulatory impairment students reported after the decision for studying or socializing in a predefined study-leisure conflict was related to their general academic and social adaptation. Results provide 1st evidence for domain-specific drawbacks in students' functioning, depending on which activity is interfered in situations of motivational conflict. In a 3rd study (N = 358), we replicated these findings based on idiographic conflicts. Furthermore, motivational interference is introduced as a crucial process that may underlie such adverse effects. It is demonstrated that after the decision for a focal action, the motivational strength of foregone alternatives continues to influence students' self-regulation during both study and leisure activities. Findings are discussed with regard to the connection between study and leisure strivings, motivational conflicts, and academic motivation.

In this app-based event sampling study, we observed the intentional formation of new study habits. A sample of 91 university students defined individual study habits and logged data over 6 weeks on motivational conflict, motivational interference (MI) and automaticity of behavior after each habit repetition using an app on their phone. The app was specifically created for this study and gave feedback on habit automaticity. A total of N = 2,574 habit repetitions have been generated and were analyzed using multilevel modeling. The results suggest that (1) app-based intentional habit building works, as automaticity of behavior could be predicted by habit repetition, (2) motivational impairments during studying can be reduced by building habits, as want conflicts and MI decreased with automaticity, and (3) trait self-control supports studying indirectly by fostering habit building rather than directly by suppressing impulses during the activity, as self-control predicted automaticity, but not motivational impairments during the habit execution. The effect of self-control on automaticity of the new study habit was fully mediated by the general automaticity of the students' other study habits (general study habit strength). This study showcases an app-guided genesis of new study habits and its beneficial motivational effects for learning behavior.