I can only try and reply from my own experiences - as (a) a recent college student and (b) a psychology major.

I never procrastinated when I was younger. Never. Mom or Grandpa or Mrs. Stilleins was always there to pester me about whether I had finished my work. Being a terrible liar, I couldn't convince them that I had, so I had no room to procrastinate. When I got to college, of course, there were no grown-ups breathing down my neck to get all my stuff done. So what did I do?

I did NOT procrastinate.

I believe that procrastination is a learned response. In my case, I learned that if I put everything to the last minute, doom will ensue and I will die a bloody violent death. Was this ever proved to me? Of course not - because I was never allowed to put anything off to the last minute and then absorb the consequences. The process is called negative punishment: adverse circumstances are avoided by behaving well/properly/whatever. The day that misbehaving takes place and adverse circumstances never happen, a revolution occurs.

My first all-nighter of my life was 2/3 of the way through my junior year, and it was mostly by accident. I was writing a linguistics paper and had completely finished the analysis, notes, writeup, even the intro/conclusion bits, which were the worst. I still hadn't spliced everything together, which I decided was as easy as Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V. But I hadn't realized that inserting 278 different IPA characters, by hand, would take so long. Then I realized, at 2 AM (the paper was due by 8AM same day), that I was editing the a former draft. Should I edit this horrible draft or begin inserting characters in the newer, still-mostly-disordered, newer draft?

I typed in the very last character into the inferior draft at 5:15 in the morning. Printed; flopped into bed; set an alarm for 7:30 to catch a last-minute shuttle to campus. As it was, I ran up the four flights to the student service desk, got my paper time-stamped, and slid it under my professor's door at 7:57. I knew that my life would begin to unravel after my professor gave me a fat, shining, blood-red-inked F on that paper, destroying my delicate GPA with one deft stab.

I got an A+. It saved my grade in the class.

Since then I have developed such wonderful habits as being late for everything (as opposed to perfectly punctual), forgetting important documents for presentations, paying bills late, nearly starving everyone from lack of planning during dinner parties, etc.

The worst part is that I think the process is permanent. If I had gotten an F on that paper, I would have cried and wailed and had a big fat baby fit...but I'm sure I wouldn't have learned anything about procrastination from it. At best I'd hate myself and continue to put things off.

Can you remember your first major procrastinatory experience? When was it - how old were you? What were the terms (e.g., accidental, TV vs. homework, all-nighter, etc)? Do you think it could have been the stepping stone on a spiral into perpetual procrastination?

i think people procrastinate because they don't really feel good about whatever they're doing;
be it an essay, revising for an exam, cleaning the garden and other similar things. for example when i have been revising for
3 hour i regularly take a break i know i shouldn't take more than 30 minutes for the break but i enjoy relaxing
and some how as if by magic that 30 minutes is now 2 hours. I procrastinate because i don't try and keep track of what i'm doing
so people advise me on keeping a diary a schedule which seems the right way to go about it. BUT i can never stick to it
something always gets in the way to spoil my plans of trying to get organised maybe im denying th fact that i look for reasons
to get out of doing what has to be done im not sure.
however in my opinion i think there are many types of procrastinators like
the thrill seekers, people who want the last minute rush they enjoy the intensity as you said.
and even people who avoid things because they fear failure and what people
will think about them if they were gonna fail. they would rather have people think they lack effort
rathr than ability.
i believe people procrastinate even when they can't make decisions they don't want to blamed for the outcome
of the decision so they just don't do it.

when learning or doing things that need to be done i have been told to take the metacognitive approach to tasks.
its basically consious awareness of ones own self process.

the only way i can get a essay or task out the way is by always asking the questions. how does it benefit me?
and what happens to me if i can't be bothered to do it?

All wrong. It's a variant of ADD, attention deficit disorder. It can develop anytime, but often, especially in quite smart folks is present all along but made up for by intelligence. Suddenly "discovered" when fatigue, stress, diverted attention or something major (like grief) derails the creative process.

I used to "do homework" in front of the television, all the time. The only subject that ever held my interest fast without me wanting to multitask was a foreign language. I could read French without needing anything else going on at the same time. All other subjects were, I guess, too boring to concentrate on.

Now, after two undergraduate degrees, medical school. and current master's program, I discovered my lifelong procrastination (until the very last minute, but I always make the deadline, and do a good job, like the story above) is ADD, which, looking backwards, I had all along.  I take Adderall which helps, but I still jump from topic to topic and can only focus with the utmost mental effort. It is easier on Adderall, but even then in my last course (Scientific Writing) I had to revise the draft term paper (which the prof had corrected and sent back) and hand that in for the final project. I really liked this course and paid close attention. Two days before it was due, I finished the revisions, wrote a new (much better) conclusion and submitted the paper (via computer link to the university from home). When the professor sent the paper back to me I realized that I had submitted the draft copy, without edits, updates, revisions and new sections - just the same old pages she had already graded and returned to me. She must have thought me a total total cretin, but it was a pass fail course and I passed.