Problems with Procrastination
As a human being, we all have a habit of delaying or postponing our tasks or procrastinating. Unfortunately, in the last 30 years, procrastination has increased drastically . It has been discovered that eighty-six percent of high school students procrastinate. At any time when you receive an assignment or a preparation for a test, you attempt to leave it until the very end. you tell yourself,”There is still a week left, I will finish it tomorrow.”
One could refer to procrastination as a stress factor; since most college students are constantly stressed they often turn to procrastination when faced with a large number of tasks. With jobs, volunteer activities, relationships to sustain, and families to entertain, students barely have time to complete their endless assignments, and time waits for no man. Even though many students consider procrastination the simple act of delaying their assignments, recent research, particularly on learning disabilities, shows that procrastination is related to lower levels of self-regulated learning and associated with higher levels of anxiety, stress, and illness; therefore, colleges around the U.S. should have programs that help improve the mental and
Procrastination is a common threat to both personal and professional productivity. It is defined as putting off or delaying something that needs to done. The "something," often varies and may be anything from a chore at home to an important project at work or in college. People procrastinate for numerous reasons such as a lack of confidence, the complex nature of the task, or simply a lack of interest or focus.
Procrastination is the art of either postponing or delaying a task. Procrastination is that little voice that appears in our heads which tell us to choose momentary pleasure versus completing important tasks at hand. Often times seen in a negative connotation, procrastination carries around a counterproductive reputation amongst individuals. Despite the inauspicious stigma regarding procrastination, recent studies have displayed procrastination to be beneficial to upcoming tasks at hand. Procrastination not only sparks creativity but also promotes focus and productivity.
Epidemic among College Students
American psychotherapist, author and lecture Wayne Dyer once said, “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.” When one procrastinates, they put things off to be done last minute, which then leads to stress, unhappiness and failure. As a college student Procrastination hinders my academic caree6r. Students procrastinate because they get distracted, overwhelmed by the task or just lazy, however students can overcome procrastination by developing a schedule, carefully planning academic task and improving time management. My personal experinces, O'Reilly, Sally’s article, and Edwin C. Bliss’s book will validate my panaceas to procrastination.
“According to the American Psychological Association, between 80 and 95 percent of college students procrastinate on their schoolwork.” Looking at these numbers I would have to say that I’m honestly surprised, but probably not for the reason you would expect me to be. I would have guessed that the data would’ve concluded the percentage of students would have been somewhere between 99 and 100 percent. I say this because unfortunately I am a part of that disgruntled group and I know many more who also walk that dangerous path, wasting hours on snapchat watching people who on any other occasion we wouldn’t care much about, or playing any videogame swearing that the next game will be the last. Procrastination is the one thing that we all try to avoid but the harder you try to avoid it the closer it gets to grasping you in its clutches. It’s like insanity, the harder you try to ignore the problem the harder it persists
Ferrari, Joseph, Dr. "Psychology of Procrastination: Why People Put Off Important Tasks Until the Last Minute." American Psychological Association. 5 April 2010. Web. 02 May 2014.
In the book The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore, PH.D the author explains that procrastination is often confused with laziness and frowned upon, although procrastination is actually a coping mechanism we use to deal with the stress and anxiety associated with starting and completing task. In the text the author explains that procrastination is all rooted from inner fears such as: the fear of failure, the fear of being overwhelmed, the fear of being imperfect, the fear of success, and the fear of increased demands. Dr. Fiore gives the tools to identify when you are procrastinating and also to effectively be more productive while minimizing stress.
Procrastination has become such a bad habit for me. It is very hard to stop procrastinating everything once you have gotten into the habit of doing it. Once I had a term paper due for my religion class. It was to be ten pages long and we were told to spend a lot of time doing it. Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited to the very last minute to do it. I waited until the night before to do most of it. Needless to say, I was up very late that night. In this class there was always a part of the paper due on a certain date before the final paper was due. Having things due before the final paper is due keeps me on task and keeps me from procrastinating until the day before the paper is due. There was one paper which we had to get sources for a while before the paper was due and it forced me to keep up with the paper, rather than let it go to the last minute. This class has taught me that the earlier you start the more positive your final result will be.
In the life of a college student, avoiding procrastination seems easy at first assumption, but in reality, it is a brutal obstacle to cope with. At first instance, one feels like he has all his assignments and study times under control, but when one small distraction or underestimation comes into the picture, the result is procrastination. Luckily, there are many solutions to this problem. One of those solutions is for one to construct a scheduling system by breaking a large assignment into smaller subunits to ease the complexity of the material given. Another method of overcoming procrastination is to become aware of one’s work, so that he or she could avoid questionable circumstances while completing an assignment. Lastly, the environment of one’s working station is vital to feeling distraction-free. Scheduling, being aware and maintaining a peaceful environment are three areas that represent the fundamentals for early planning. If a college student ever wants to avoid the habit of procrastination, then one must take advantage of the basics of early planning.