I’ll Write About Procrastination Tomorrow…

I wrote this article because I didn’t feel like working on my Ancient: a prime example of procrastination. The word being derived from Latin, pro meaning ‘forward’ and crastinus meaning ‘belonging to tomorrow,’ procrastination, or putting off doing our work to the latest deadline possible, has become a lifestyle for many students. That moment when we are assigned a two-week project, we vow to ourselves that we will continually work on the project for 30 minutes every day instead of leaving all the work for the night before. Yet for some reason, we subconsciously set ourselves up for the latter option. The night before (and only the night before) a large TMA presentation is due, everyone in our dorm frantically pleads for late tech and for early tech the next morning.

Theoretically, we all know that the combination of allocating even portions of our workload and following this self-set plan are the two integral parts to keep ourselves from going down the path of procrastination. And many of us eagerly follow the first step; not only do some teachers force us to open our student planners when assigning homework, but using these paper journals or online planners often give us the false notion that we are being responsible and are willing to complete all tasks that have been asked of us. True procrastination, however, most often kicks in at the moment we plan to begin our homework; as soon as one sits at the desk covered with worksheets and the laptop with an empty document open titled, “untitled 1,” we think of all the other things we could be doing at that moment. You might suddenly feel the urge to declutter the messy room that you had not cared about until that very instant. The other likely option is that we complete the shortest, easiest tasks first so that we “accidentally” complete much less of the important project.

Whenever procrastination happens, and whatever form it takes, the ultimate question still remains unanswered: why do we procrastinate, and is there a way to absolutely prevent it?

Asking my classmates why they thought they procrastinated showed that most students blamed three main culprits: social media, YouTube, and Buzzfeed. Even though there are more activities that can easily be used to push away the tasks we actually have to complete, popular sites on the Internet are blamed the most for one simple reason: they’re the most accessible distractions. The most entertaining videos and gossip articles are only clicks away, and once we open the website, we are constantly overwhelmed by an endless stream of useless but intriguing content created or shared by celebrities, our friends, or – you guessed it – Buzzfeed.

Avoiding these distractions sounds quite simple, just don’t open the websites. But, we also know that typing in the first few letters of the URL is all that it takes for us to plunge down the rabbit hole of procrastination again. A possible strategy is to do as much homework on paper as possible: take notes in your notebook rather than typing them up, and print worksheets on Google Classroom before working on the problems by hand. If using the computer is inevitable, try to complete all the tasks that don’t require technology before opening your laptop.

Ultimately, procrastination cannot be stopped by external forces or precautions; no matter how difficult you make it to open Buzzfeed or how messy you make your room; unless you are personally motivated to get your work done, nothing will stop you from steering away from the task and driving towards a distraction. But when you force yourself to think the situation through, because procrastination is usually an impulsive decision, you will probably stop yourself from becoming distracted. Making distractions difficult to reach won’t stop you from procrastinating; the purpose is to give yourself more time to realize that you should not be procrastinating, and the best precaution you can take is to try and make yourself remember what you are supposed to be doing.

Or if that doesn’t help, feel free to sign yourself up for another all-nighter the night before the deadline.

Good luck!

Erin ‘18