This study investigates the relationship between academic procrastination, self-control, time management, and academic self-efficacy among vocational college students. Grounded in self-control theory, the study utilized convenience sampling to conduct an online survey of 994 students from vocational colleges in Henan Province, China. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical regression analysis were performed on the data using SPSS. The data revealed that self-control has a negative and significant impact on academic procrastination; time management plays a partial mediating role between self-control and academic procrastination; academic self-efficacy can play a partial mediating role between self-control and academic procrastination; time management and academic self-efficacy play a chain mediating role between self-control and academic procrastination.