Academic

Procrastination:
Examples,
Consequences,
Causes, and Solutions
Academic procrastination is a phenomenon where
students unnecessarily postpone academic assignments,
like studying for a test or working on a school project.
This is a common problem, which can lead to issues like
worse academic outcomes and increased stress.
The following article contains a comprehensive overview
of academic procrastination. Its goal is to help you
understand what academic procrastination looks like,
what issues it leads to, what causes it, and how it can be
dealt with successfully, based on relevant research on the
topic.

Contents
 Examples of academic procrastination
 Prevalence of academic procrastination
 Dangers of academic procrastination
 Procrastination by academic professionals
 Causes of academic procrastination
 Solutions to academic procrastination
o General approaches
o Specific techniques
o Additional resources
Examples of academic
procrastination
An example of academic procrastination is a student who
has a week to study for an exam, but ends up postponing
their studying unnecessarily until the night before, even
though they keep wanting to get started. Another
example of academic procrastination is a student who
delays working on an important project for an entire
semester, until right before it’s due.
In addition, other examples of academic procrastination
include the following:
 A high-school student who wastes hours browsing
social media before they finally manage to get
started on a homework assignment.
 An undergraduate student who puts off studying for
a test by doing unimportant chores, such as
cleaning their room or baking snacks.
 A graduate student who delays for several days each
time they need to work on their thesis.
Furthermore, academic procrastination can involve
various other dilatory behaviors, such as
sleeping, watching TV, or playing video games, and
students often report that procrastination occupies over a
third of their daily activities.

Prevalence of academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination is common among students, as
a large portion of them procrastinate often and to a
significant degree. For example, when it comes to college
students, studies show that approximately 80%–95% of
college students engage in procrastination to some
degree, approximately 75% consider themselves to be
procrastinators, and approximately 50% say that they
procrastinate in a consistent and problematic manner.
Furthermore, additional studies have found
procrastination in various other student populations,
including those in elementary school, middle school, high
school, and graduate school. In fact, procrastination is so
common among students that the tendency to
procrastinate on tasks until right before they are due is
sometimes referred to as the student syndrome.
Note that the prevalence of academic procrastination
varies based on the task involved. For example, a
study on students in an introductory psychology course
indicated that ~46% of them always or nearly always
procrastinate on writing term papers, ~30% procrastinate
on reading weekly assignments, ~28% procrastinate on
studying for exams, ~23% procrastinate on attendance
tasks, ~11% procrastinate on administrative tasks, and
~10% procrastinate on school activities in general.

Dangers of academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination is associated with
various negative effects, such as worse academic
performance, worse emotional wellbeing, and worse
mental and physical health. Accordingly, academic
procrastination is often detrimental to those who engage
in it.
Specifically, the following are the key issues that are
associated with academic procrastination:
  Worse academic performance. For example,
procrastination is associated with a wide
range of academic issues, like lower quality work,
worse exam scores, worse grades, increased
academic misconduct, increased course failures,
increased course withdrawals, and an increased
likelihood of dropping out (rather than graduating).
 Worse emotional wellbeing. For
example, procrastination can lead to various
negative emotions, like guilt, shame, and sadness.
 Worse mental and physical health. For example,
procrastination can lead to various mental health
issues, like stress, as well as physical health issues,
like lack of sleep and exhaustion.
Many of these issues are interrelated. For example, when
academic procrastination leads to increased negative
emotions, it can also lead to increased stress at the same
time. Similarly, when academic procrastination leads to
increased stress, this can, in turn, lead to issues such as
exhaustion, which increases the likelihood that people will
procrastinate on academic tasks, and consequently suffer
from worse academic performance.
In addition, the tendency to engage in procrastination is
associated with a variety of issues from a career
perspective, including lower salaries, shorter periods of
employment, and a higher likelihood of unemployment.
This can affect students who are employed while
engaging in academic studies, as well as students who
enter the job market after graduation.
Procrastination by academic
professionals
Procrastination is a common problem among academic
professionals, like high-school teachers and university
faculty, just as it is among adults in general. It can cause
various issues for these professionals, like worse job
performance, increased stress, worse emotional
wellbeing, and lower job satisfaction.
Examples of this procrastination are a lecturer who
unnecessarily delays preparing lesson plans for an
upcoming course, and a professor who unnecessarily
postpones writing an important grant proposal.
This behavior is sometimes called “academic
procrastination”. However, this term is mainly used to
refer to student procrastination. Procrastination
by teachers and other academics is usually more
accurately categorized as a form workplace
procrastination, or as a more specific form of it,
like teacher procrastination and professor procrastination.

Causes of academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination occurs when issues like
anxiety and perfectionism outweigh students’ self-
control and motivation. That’s why students often
postpone academic tasks even when they want to get
them done, and why they often only manage to
start shortly before the deadline, when the increasing
pressure finally pushes them to do their work.
Accordingly, there are various common internal and
external causes of academic procrastination.
Internal causes of academic
procrastination include the following:
 Anxiety, for example when it comes to being
anxious about studying in general.
 Fear of failure, for example when it comes
to worrying about failing an upcoming exam.
 Perfectionism, for example when it comes
to wanting to write an essay draft without any
flaws.
 Task aversion, for example when it comes to
wanting to avoid dealing with a homework
assignment that’s perceived as boring.
 Sensation seeking, for example when it comes to
finding assignments more exciting to work on
assignments when there’s intense time pressure.
 Feeling overwhelmed, for example when it comes
to being unsure about how to handle a large
research project.
 Physical or mental exhaustion, for example when
it comes to being tired due to a demanding
academic workload.
 Lack of study or organizational skills, for
example when it comes to not knowing how to set
an effective study schedule.
Many of these issues can be attributed to negative past
experiences. For example, if someone does badly in a
number of course assignments, they might feel anxious
when it comes to future assignments or exams in that
course, which can cause them to procrastinate. However,
this isn’t always the case, and lack of experience can also
cause procrastination, for instance when it leads to low
self-confidence.
Various personality traits can also influence the likelihood
that people will engage in academic procrastination, as
well as the ways in which they do so. For example,
increased conscientiousness is associated with reduced
procrastination in general. On the other
hand, extraversion can lead to academic procrastination
when students prioritize spending time with their friends
over doing schoolwork, while neuroticism can lead to
academic procrastination when it causes students to
stress over an upcoming project that will have a
significant effect on their grades.
Finally, certain underlying issues can also lead to or
exacerbate academic procrastination. For example,
general anxiety and depression can make students more
likely to engage in rumination, in the form of repetitive
negative thoughts, which can in turn increase their
tendency to engage in procrastination. Similarly, issues
such as low self-esteem or low self-efficacy may also
lead to increased academic procrastination in some
cases.
In addition, external causes of academic
procrastination include the following:
 Poor study environment, for example because this
environment is overly loud or filled with
distractions.
 Unpleasant assignments, for example because an
assignment requires students to use only a limited
range of skills, which makes students more likely to
perceive it as boring, and consequently more likely
to be averse to it.
 Lack of clear directions or expectations, for
example because the explanation of how a paper
will be graded is incomplete, vague, or ambiguous.
  Lack of clear due dates, for example in terms of
when the first draft of an essay should be
submitted.
 Lack of communication, for example in the case of
an instructor not responding to a student’s requests
for clarificati0n.
 The instructor being too lax, for example by
never enforcing any deadlines in their course.
 The instructor being too harsh, for example by
providing unnecessarily unpleasant feedback on
assignments.
External issues can sometimes lead to or exacerbate
internal ones. For example, an instructor being too harsh
can lead to fear of failure in a student who wouldn’t have
it otherwise, or it can increase anxiety in an already
anxious student.

Solutions to academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination can be reduced by analyzing
the situation, in terms of factors such as the number of
students involved and the causes of their procrastination,
and then implementing an appropriate solution, which
consists of interventions such as intermediate deadlines,
automated reminders, and self-regulation training.
The sub-sections below contain more information on the
topic. Specifically, they first outline the general types of
approaches that can be used to deal with academic
procrastination, and then provide examples of specific
interventions and techniques that can be used as part of
these approaches.
Note that the information here focuses on resolving
academic procrastination in students. Some of this is also
relevant when it comes to solving procrastination among
academic professionals, such as teachers and professors,
but in some cases, it will be more effective to view their
behavior as workplace procrastination instead, and to
deal with it accordingly.

General approaches
There are three main types of approaches for
dealing with academic procrastination:
 Student-led approach. This involves students
taking most of the responsibility for reducing their
academic procrastination, with little to no external
guidance. External guidance in this case might
include something as minimal as a lecturer
mentioning the problem of procrastination and
giving students a link to a relevant guide on the
topic.
 Externally led approach. This involves
stakeholders, such as educators or administrators,
using relevant anti-procrastination techniques to
reduce students’ procrastination, without directly
discussing the issue of procrastination with the
students. For example, this can involve an
instructor setting a series of intermediate deadlines
for all students in their course.
 Joint approach. This involves using both external
guidance and having students take an active role in
their attempts to stop procrastinating. For example,
this can involve going over relevant anti-
procrastination techniques with students, and
 helping them choose and implement their preferred
ones.
None of these approaches is inherently superior to
the others. Accordingly, the optimal approach in a given
situation should be selected based on relevant
considerations, such as effectiveness, cost, and
practicality. For example, it’s important to take into
account the number of students that you’re trying to
help, since an approach that’s practical when it comes to
helping a single student might not be practical if you’re
trying to help dozens of students.
In this regard, an important factor to consider is how
independent the students in question are. The more
autonomy they display, the more they should generally
be involved in the process of overcoming their
procrastination, since this can increase their motivation
and make the process more effective, while also
contributing to their long-term personal

Examples of academic
procrastination
An example of academic procrastination is a student who
has a week to study for an exam, but ends up postponing
their studying unnecessarily until the night before, even
though they keep wanting to get started. Another
example of academic procrastination is a student who
delays working on an important project for an entire
semester, until right before it’s due.
In addition, other examples of academic procrastination
include the following:
  A high-school student who wastes hours browsing
social media before they finally manage to get
started on a homework assignment.
 An undergraduate student who puts off studying for
a test by doing unimportant chores, such as
cleaning their room or baking snacks.
 A graduate student who delays for several days each
time they need to work on their thesis.
Furthermore, academic procrastination can involve
various other dilatory behaviors, such as
sleeping, watching TV, or playing video games, and
students often report that procrastination occupies over a
third of their daily activities.

Prevalence of academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination is common among students, as
a large portion of them procrastinate often and to a
significant degree. For example, when it comes to college
students, studies show that approximately 80%–95% of
college students engage in procrastination to some
degree, approximately 75% consider themselves to be
procrastinators, and approximately 50% say that they
procrastinate in a consistent and problematic manner.
Furthermore, additional studies have found
procrastination in various other student populations,
including those in elementary school, middle school, high
school, and graduate school. In fact, procrastination is so
common among students that the tendency to
procrastinate on tasks until right before they are due is
sometimes referred to as the student syndrome.
Note that the prevalence of academic procrastination
varies based on the task involved. For example, a
study on students in an introductory psychology course
indicated that ~46% of them always or nearly always
procrastinate on writing term papers, ~30% procrastinate
on reading weekly assignments, ~28% procrastinate on
studying for exams, ~23% procrastinate on attendance
tasks, ~11% procrastinate on administrative tasks, and
~10% procrastinate on school activities in general.

Dangers of academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination is associated with
various negative effects, such as worse academic
performance, worse emotional wellbeing, and worse
mental and physical health. Accordingly, academic
procrastination is often detrimental to those who engage
in it.
Specifically, the following are the key issues that are
associated with academic procrastination:
 Worse academic performance. For example,
procrastination is associated with a wide
range of academic issues, like lower quality work,
worse exam scores, worse grades, increased
academic misconduct, increased course failures,
increased course withdrawals, and an increased
likelihood of dropping out (rather than graduating).
 Worse emotional wellbeing. For
example, procrastination can lead to various
negative emotions, like guilt, shame, and sadness.
 Worse mental and physical health. For example,
procrastination can lead to various mental health
 issues, like stress, as well as physical health issues,
like lack of sleep and exhaustion.
Many of these issues are interrelated. For example, when
academic procrastination leads to increased negative
emotions, it can also lead to increased stress at the same
time. Similarly, when academic procrastination leads to
increased stress, this can, in turn, lead to issues such as
exhaustion, which increases the likelihood that people will
procrastinate on academic tasks, and consequently suffer
from worse academic performance.
In addition, the tendency to engage in procrastination is
associated with a variety of issues from a career
perspective, including lower salaries, shorter periods of
employment, and a higher likelihood of unemployment.
This can affect students who are employed while
engaging in academic studies, as well as students who
enter the job market after graduation.

Procrastination by academic
professionals
Procrastination is a common problem among academic
professionals, like high-school teachers and university
faculty, just as it is among adults in general. It can cause
various issues for these professionals, like worse job
performance, increased stress, worse emotional
wellbeing, and lower job satisfaction.
Examples of this procrastination are a lecturer who
unnecessarily delays preparing lesson plans for an
upcoming course, and a professor who unnecessarily
postpones writing an important grant proposal.
This behavior is sometimes called “academic
procrastination”. However, this term is mainly used to
refer to student procrastination. Procrastination
by teachers and other academics is usually more
accurately categorized as a form workplace
procrastination, or as a more specific form of it,
like teacher procrastination and professor procrastination.

Causes of academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination occurs when issues like
anxiety and perfectionism outweigh students’ self-
control and motivation. That’s why students often
postpone academic tasks even when they want to get
them done, and why they often only manage to
start shortly before the deadline, when the increasing
pressure finally pushes them to do their work.
Accordingly, there are various common internal and
external causes of academic procrastination.
Internal causes of academic
procrastination include the following:
 Anxiety, for example when it comes to being
anxious about studying in general.
 Fear of failure, for example when it comes
to worrying about failing an upcoming exam.
 Perfectionism, for example when it comes
to wanting to write an essay draft without any
flaws.
 Task aversion, for example when it comes to
wanting to avoid dealing with a homework
assignment that’s perceived as boring.
 Sensation seeking, for example when it comes to
finding assignments more exciting to work on
assignments when there’s intense time pressure.
  Feeling overwhelmed, for example when it comes
to being unsure about how to handle a large
research project.
 Physical or mental exhaustion, for example when
it comes to being tired due to a demanding
academic workload.
 Lack of study or organizational skills, for
example when it comes to not knowing how to set
an effective study schedule.
Many of these issues can be attributed to negative past
experiences. For example, if someone does badly in a
number of course assignments, they might feel anxious
when it comes to future assignments or exams in that
course, which can cause them to procrastinate. However,
this isn’t always the case, and lack of experience can also
cause procrastination, for instance when it leads to low
self-confidence.
Various personality traits can also influence the likelihood
that people will engage in academic procrastination, as
well as the ways in which they do so. For example,
increased conscientiousness is associated with reduced
procrastination in general. On the other
hand, extraversion can lead to academic procrastination
when students prioritize spending time with their friends
over doing schoolwork, while neuroticism can lead to
academic procrastination when it causes students to
stress over an upcoming project that will have a
significant effect on their grades.
Finally, certain underlying issues can also lead to or
exacerbate academic procrastination. For example,
general anxiety and depression can make students more
likely to engage in rumination, in the form of repetitive
negative thoughts, which can in turn increase their
tendency to engage in procrastination. Similarly, issues
such as low self-esteem or low self-efficacy may also
lead to increased academic procrastination in some
cases.
In addition, external causes of academic
procrastination include the following:
 Poor study environment, for example because this
environment is overly loud or filled with
distractions.
 Unpleasant assignments, for example because an
assignment requires students to use only a limited
range of skills, which makes students more likely to
perceive it as boring, and consequently more likely
to be averse to it.
 Lack of clear directions or expectations, for
example because the explanation of how a paper
will be graded is incomplete, vague, or ambiguous.
 Lack of clear due dates, for example in terms of
when the first draft of an essay should be
submitted.
 Lack of communication, for example in the case of
an instructor not responding to a student’s requests
for clarificati0n.
 The instructor being too lax, for example by
never enforcing any deadlines in their course.
 The instructor being too harsh, for example by
providing unnecessarily unpleasant feedback on
assignments.
External issues can sometimes lead to or exacerbate
internal ones. For example, an instructor being too harsh
can lead to fear of failure in a student who wouldn’t have
it otherwise, or it can increase anxiety in an already
anxious student.
Solutions to academic
procrastination
Academic procrastination can be reduced by analyzing
the situation, in terms of factors such as the number of
students involved and the causes of their procrastination,
and then implementing an appropriate solution, which
consists of interventions such as intermediate deadlines,
automated reminders, and self-regulation training.
The sub-sections below contain more information on the
topic. Specifically, they first outline the general types of
approaches that can be used to deal with academic
procrastination, and then provide examples of specific
interventions and techniques that can be used as part of
these approaches.
Note that the information here focuses on resolving
academic procrastination in students. Some of this is also
relevant when it comes to solving procrastination among
academic professionals, such as teachers and professors,
but in some cases, it will be more effective to view their
behavior as workplace procrastination instead, and to
deal with it accordingly.

General approaches
There are three main types of approaches for
dealing with academic procrastination:
 Student-led approach. This involves students
taking most of the responsibility for reducing their
academic procrastination, with little to no external
guidance. External guidance in this case might
include something as minimal as a lecturer
mentioning the problem of procrastination and
 giving students a link to a relevant guide on the
topic.
 Externally led approach. This involves
stakeholders, such as educators or administrators,
using relevant anti-procrastination techniques to
reduce students’ procrastination, without directly
discussing the issue of procrastination with the
students. For example, this can involve an
instructor setting a series of intermediate deadlines
for all students in their course.
 Joint approach. This involves using both external
guidance and having students take an active role in
their attempts to stop procrastinating. For example,
this can involve going over relevant anti-
procrastination techniques with students, and
helping them choose and implement their preferred
ones.
None of these approaches is inherently superior to
the others. Accordingly, the optimal approach in a given
situation should be selected based on relevant
considerations, such as effectiveness, cost, and
practicality. For example, it’s important to take into
account the number of students that you’re trying to
help, since an approach that’s practical when it comes to
helping a single student might not be practical if you’re
trying to help dozens of students.
In this regard, an important factor to consider is how
independent the students in question are. The more
autonomy they display, the more they should generally
be involved in the process of overcoming their
procrastination, since this can increase their motivation
and make the process more effective, while also
contributing to their long-term personal growth.
This also highlights the importance of giving
students a sense of control, even if they’re not the
ones guiding the process. You can do this, for example,
by helping students set goals for themselves, in terms of
when and where they plan to do their work. This can not
only increase their engagement and commitment to the
work, but also help avoid academic procrastination that is
rooted in issues such as resentment, rebellion, or low
self-confidence.
Finally, note that the approaches for handling
academic procrastination can be categorized using
additional criteria. For example, one review of the topic
states the following:
“Approaches in decreasing academic procrastination found in
the literature can essentially be categorized into three
groups; 1. therapeutic treatment, 2. therapeutic prevention,
and 3. instructor/teacher intervention. The first two
approaches are similar in that they employ therapeutic
interventions to decrease procrastination. They differ
regarding when the intervention is administered. Therapeutic
treatment methods seek to intervene after a student has
demonstrated procrastinatory behavior, e.g., late submission
of first course assignment, whereas therapeutic preventions
aim to prevent the negative effects of procrastination from
the outset, e.g., therapeutic courses offered to students at
the start of the semester… The third approach attempts to
recruit the instructor of the course to provide nontherapeutic
methods of decreasing procrastination tendencies among
student participants.”
— From “Academic interventions for academic
procrastination: A review of the literature” (Zacks &
Hen, 2018)
As such, from both a theoretical and practical
perspective, if you find that you need to categorize the
different types of approaches, you can do so based on the
criteria that are most relevant and helpful in your
particular circumstances.

Specific techniques
Various techniques and interventions have been
shown to help reduce academic
procrastination. This includes, for
example, teaching students motivation-regulation
strategies and time management skills, or having them
undergo interventions rooted in acceptance-based
behavioral therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy. This
also includes various educational interventions, such
as regular quizzes that motivate students to study
continuously rather than wait until right before final
exams, automated reminders to complete assignments,
and personal communication with the instructor to build a
plan for avoiding late assignments.
In general, it is best if the chosen anti-
procrastination techniques and interventions are
tailored to the specific needs of the students. For
example, if a certain student is procrastinating because
the only deadline they have is far in the future, then it will
be helpful to provide them with a series of intermediate
deadlines in order to prompt them to work. However, this
isn’t always possible in practice, for example if there are
many students involved, all of whom have different
needs.
Nevertheless, when deciding how to deal with
academic procrastination, it is beneficial to
understand its root causes among students, as
listed in the previous section. This can also help you
identify common issues that should be avoided, such as
unclear deadlines or overly harsh feedback.
From a practical perspective, the following are general
things that you can do to reduce academic
procrastination:
 Explain to students what procrastination is and
what it looks like, and help them identify when
they engage in it themselves.
 Show students why procrastination can be
dangerous, when it comes to factors such as their
academic performance, their career prospects, and
their health.
 Explain to students what causes
procrastination, and help them identify the
causes of their own procrastination.
 Tell students about relevant anti-
procrastination techniques, some of which are
listed below, and help them pick the ones that are
likely to help them the most.
 Implement anti-procrastination techniques on
behalf of the students, for example by breaking
apart large tasks into small manageable steps.
 Point students in the direction of resources
that can help them with their procrastination,
such as this article.
In addition, the following are some specific anti-
procrastination techniques that you can use to
reduce academic procrastination:
 Give clear directions. For example, consider a
situation where students are assigned a paper to
write. In this case, the instructor can provide clear
directions and expectations by explaining what
style of paper students should write, and what
criteria will be used to grade it. From the students’
perspective, they can set clear goals for themselves
 by doing things such as deciding where, when, and
how long they plan to work on the paper.
 Set intermediate milestones and deadlines. For
example, consider a situation where students are
assigned a research project. Instead of having a
single deadline at the end of the semester, at which
point the students have to turn in the entire project,
it can be beneficial to set
intermediate milestones and deadlines throughout
the semester, such as a point by which they have
to decide on their topic, a point by which they have
to create a project outline, and so on.
 Incentivize and reward progress. For example,
from the instructor’s perspective, this can involve
saying encouraging things to a student who
previously procrastinated, but who now managed to
submit multiple assignments on time. Similarly,
from the students’ perspective, this can involve
gamifying the studying process, for example by
marking down streaks of days on which they
successfully managed to achieve their study goals.
 Find ways to make studying more
enjoyable. For example, an instructor can pick
humorous examples to use in their homework
assignments. Similarly, a student can decide to go
somewhere pleasant to study, such as the library,
and listen to energizing music while doing so.
 Give permission to make mistakes. For example,
an instructor can emphasize to students that it’s
okay to make some mistakes, especially on initial
attempts and early drafts. Similarly, students can
emphasize the same to themselves.
 Identify and resolve fear and anxieties. Figure
out what students are afraid of, and resolve
 those fears. For example, if students are anxious
because the feedback they receive on assignments
is too harsh, an instructor can give feedback that is
less unpleasant, while a student can try to find
ways to avoid taking this feedback personally.
 Promote self-compassion. Self-compassion can
help reduce procrastination, as well as various
issues that are associated with it, such as stress. It
consists of three components: self-kindness, which
involves being nice to oneself, common humanity,
which involves recognizing that everyone
experiences challenges, and mindfulness, which
involves accepting one’s emotions in a non-
judgmental manner.
 Promote self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is the belief in
your ability to perform the actions needed to
achieve your goals, and it can help reduce
procrastination. To develop self-efficacy, students
can try to identify the various strategies that they
can use to successfully study and complete their
assignments, and think about their ability to
execute those strategies successfully; instructors
can promote self-efficacy by helping students do
this.
Furthermore, keep in mind that if a student suffers
from underlying issues that cause procrastination,
such as lack of sleep, depression, or ADHD, they
will likely need to resolve that issue first, using
professional help if necessary, in order to successfully
overcome their procrastination.
Finally, there are two other important things to
keep in mind when it comes to handling academic
procrastination. First, most procrastinators need more
than one technique in order to overcome their
procrastination. Second, different techniques work better
for different students in different circumstances, so just
because a certain technique works well for some
students, doesn’t mean that it will work well for others.

Additional resources
In addition to the present article, there are several
important resources that can help you learn how to deal
with academic procrastination:
 Overview of procrastination
 Guide on why people procrastinate
 Guide on how to stop procrastinating
 List of anti-procrastination apps
CategoriesProcrastination Articles

Student Procrastination: Why Students Procrastinate and How to Stop It

Workplace Procrastination: Why People Procrastinate at Work and How to Stop It