It’s late Sunday night and your 20-page essay for your English class is due within a few hours. You are drinking coffee and energy drinks like an addict, and you are left wondering, “What did you let get in the way of this paper? Was it Netflix marathons or actual marathons?”
The term procrastinate means to be slow or late in doing something that should have been done earlier or to delay something until the last possible moment. This lazy action has continued to become more predominant among students, specifically those in high school and college.
“I tend to procrastinate with homework, specifically studying,” sophomore Teejan Saddy says. “It’s just easy to put off, and with studying it’s all up to you and how much you want to put in.”
A study done by Studymode, an ed-company dedicated to encouraging student success in school, recently released a report done on student procrastination. The study interviewed 1,300 high school and college students, and an overwhelming 87 percent reported that they procrastinate and 45 percent reported their procrastination negatively impacts their academic performance.
Students normally put off assignments and work until the last minute, leaving increasing stress to turn them in all at once. Many students have found essays and long-term projects to be the most vulnerable to dawdling.
Junior Sophia Tanguay testifies to commonly procrastinating for English writing assignments due to the amount of time it takes to complete.
Procrastination can have a medical and physical impact on students, and it is linked to stress.
“Students already exhibit stress, and when they procrastinate, their stress increases,” CUSD nurse Susan Pierszalowski explains. “The increase in stress increases their anxiety and susceptibility to illness.”
Psychology Today states that while procrastination has temporary advantages, it has negative long-term impacts. As students transition from teenager to adult, they continue to be dependent on stress to act as motivation to complete tasks. However, while this behavior is common among most students, few pupils understand the meaning of time management and have other means of motivation to prevent procrastinating.
“My motivation to get things done is the pressure from my family and friends to keep good grades as well as self-motivation because I feel better when I know I finished all my work,” junior May Heidtke adds.
One suggested method for curing the infectious procrastination illness is the Pomodoro technique, according to Laura Campano, CHS student support counselor. The technique consists of setting a timer for 20 minutes, and for that increment, start working on your assignment. Just setting the timer is encouraging motivation for getting to work.
“If you focus and just set your mind to it, then it goes by faster than if you sulk through it wondering why you put it off until the last minute,” believes senior Tasha Haase, an anti-procrastination student.
The most important way to cure oneself of procrastination is by finding a healthy balance between diet, sleep, exercise and time, Capano comments.
“When students are up late finishing assignments, they procrastinate about sleep,” Pierszalowski says. “In today’s society, people are always so busy, and they put their health, mainly sleep, on hold.”
Procrastination is the liberation of temporary relief, but continues to become more problematic over the years. Experts agree that it is important and necessary that students be proactive regarding procrastination to avoid its influence during one’s adult years.
-Joyce Doherty
