Exploring the level of academic procrastination and possible coping strategies among medical students.

Objective: To identify the level of procrastination in undergraduate medical students and to explore the coping strategies adopted by low procrastinators to overcome the tendency.

Methods: The mixed method, sequential explanatory study was conducted at the Islamic International Medical College, Riphah International University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, from April to September 2019, and comprised medical students from preclinical first, second and third years of the academic programme. The pre-validated Academic Procrastination Scale was used to assess the prevalence and level of procrastination in the subjects, followed by semi-structured interviews with students having low level of procrastination to explore the coping strategies used by them to beat the negative habit.