“I’ll do it tomorrow.”
Whether pushing off a small assignment to go out with friends or not studying for an important exam, everyone understands that postponing tasks can be harmful, yet they do it anyway. Conceptually, this behavior makes little sense, yet it comes naturally to the majority of students.
Procrastination is the act of delaying the completion of something that could be done in the present. This applies to many areas of life, including household chores, going out with friends, building habits or even buying important gifts for loved ones. But why?
The most obvious reason is that people avoid tasks that are difficult or boring, leading them to prioritize activities that provide short term pleasure to avoid any negativity associated with the task. This gap in time can be relieving to students that may feel overwhelmed with what feels like piles of work.
Procrastination runs much deeper than this, however. It is rooted in a part of the brain called the limbic system, which is responsible for many functions, including motivation to complete tasks. If people associate a task with stress and anxiety, this will trigger a small flight response that results in avoidance. What was once a survival mechanism is now making students lose sleep from poor time management.
“There was a topic question due [in biology class], I checked at 11:20 and I didn’t have it completed, so I started panicking and had to guess all the answers to the questions,” sophomore Parth Arora said. “Luckily, I still got it done. It was like a light, it woke me up into reality and showed me that [procrastination will] put you under more stress and just make you feel worse about yourself.”
Catching up on work, keys flying frantically across the keyboard, with a silent house and a gargantuan task is not a pretty picture, yet some students not only share the feeling Arora has on late nights, but chase it.
“Over the summer, when I’m stuck on something, I often take a step back and come back to a fresh start later,” junior Matthew Lanier said. “And sometimes I even thought about what I was going to do for an assignment while I was procrastinating. Like this one time I was just playing Minecraft, then I [got inspiration] for the paper I had to do. And it was a pretty decent paper, I got an 88 on it.”
Delaying assignments until they absolutely need to be done can either be emotionally beneficial or mentally taxing for students. Feelings of shame and self-doubt are not uncommon when sacrifices have to be made to complete things later than expected.
Freshman Rasel Issac struggles in math class due to not having interest in the subject which makes completing work a difficult task.
“Sometimes it’s hard and I just don’t want to do it,” Issac said. “Sometimes it just gets boring. So when I don’t pay attention to class, I have no idea what we’re doing, so then I just don’t do it.”
Debate and history teacher Samantha Ollweiler found that students who procrastinate have more negative reactions when faced with consequences for a lack of assignment submissions.
“Sometimes students can get emotionally overwhelmed in those moments, and I think they know they’re at fault for it,” Ollweiler said. “But dealing with the reality of it has caused students [to] become emotional in the semester multiple times.”
With avoidance of important tasks becoming commonplace among students, finding methods to increase productivity can be difficult.
“Some of the best parts about procrastination [are that] I get to relax,” junior Liam Anslow said. “It does come with some downsides, but it makes me feel like I have more free time with the stressful life of school.”
Arora believes the best way to stop procrastinating on a task is to get started. This seems obvious, but what makes it so important is motivation. Some people think they should be motivated to complete a task in order to do it; on the contrary, starting on a task is what provides the motivation to finish it. Once the brain gets busy with a task, it will want to complete the task more than ignoring it.
“So one strategy that I’ve currently been using is [taking] a power nap when I get home,” Arora said. “I can get more done at home and actually rest a little bit.”
The pattern of pushing off work can seem hard to break. Letting things pile up can make it difficult to return to healthy study habits once again.
“The consequence [of procrastinating] was that I stayed up a little late. I stayed up till 12 a.m. doing my work the previous day,” Arora said. “There’s benefits and there’s consequences at the same time, but at the end of the day, you have to get the assignment done, so might as well just get it done early.”
Working on assignments as they are being given is proven to be more effective than doing them closer to the deadline. When a topic is fresh in the brain, short term memory can be utilized to provide more intellectual strength. It is also important for students to take care of their physical health by hydrating, along with ensuring that they get proper nutrition and sleep. When the brain is distracted by hunger, thirst or exhaustion, focusing on work can feel much more difficult.
“Something I think is really impactful is instead of thinking I have all of this work to do at this one point, I use organizational tools like planners and I make manageable to-do lists for each day,” Ollweiler said. “So on Monday, I’m going to do these two assignments. On Tuesday, I’m going to do one or two assignments, so then it’s more manageable.”
Good organization, jumping to work early and getting started is the best way to stay on top. Why stress about the things that are accounted for and being completed? Students believe procrastination is not a threat, but a tool used in moderation that creates time for the joys of life to have space and breathe.
