Mara Vaț, 11D
School time...an amazing period filled with neverending classes, maybe over-the-budget supplies, and lost hours of sleep. Summer was awesome, yet we are back, and so is our chaotic school routine
Many of you might have had procrastination issues last school year, or if you are like me, you might have discovered them over the summer.
According to the Internet, procrastination means putting off intentionally and habitually doing something that should be done. Or, in other words, they may call us out as procrastinators. Our short attention span, mixed with our need for comfort, may induce the act of procrastinating. This is also mentioned in the form of self-sabotaging or self-handicapping.
But, many will ask,’ why should I care’, and 'were you just procrastinating while writing’?
You should care and yes I was.
Procrastination has been raising many exclamation marks after gaining coverage all over social media. Through that, I was quite surprised to learn more about how this action affects our life goals, from academic results, all the way to basic everyday tasks. In this article, we will discuss the origins (the main issues) and how to get rid of this habit.
The problem
Through a simple online search, we've come face to face with the definition outlining that procrastination is not just an excuse to be 'lazy', it is a case that affects the majority of students, 80-95% of them to be more exact. Procrastination is so common among students that the tendency to procrastinate on tasks until right before they are due is sometimes referred to as student syndrome.
Procrastination can cause a variety of issues for students when it comes to their time management, academic performance, emotional well-being, and mental and physical health. Specifically:
In terms of time management, procrastination can take up a considerable amount of time, and students often report that procrastination occupies over a third of their daily activities, usually in the form of behaviours such as sleeping, watching TV, or playing games I can also cause them to experience other time management issues, such as missing important deadlines or rushing to complete assignments without enough time.
In terms of academic performance, procrastination can lead to various issues, including worse exam scores, worse grades, more course failures, and more course withdrawals Many of these issues can be attributed to issues that procrastination causes in terms of time management. For example, if students fail to manage their time by continually putting off studying for an important test, they will likely end up unprepared, and therefore earn a worse grade than they could have earned if they didn't procrastinate.
In terms of emotional well-being and mental and physical health, procrastination can lead to a variety of issues, such as increased stress and increased rates of illness Many of these issues are associated with the issues that students experience in terms of their time management and academic performance. For example, if a student submits an assignment late due to procrastination and ends up receiving a bad grade, then they might feel anxiety, guilt, and stress over their behaviour.
Given this, and given how common procrastination is, it's unsurprising that many students say that procrastination is always or nearly always a problem for them when it comes to various academic tasks (eg, writing papers and studying for exams) and that they want to reduce their procrastination on those tasks.
Solutions
To stop procrastinating on your studying or schoolwork right now, you should identify the smallest possible thing you can do to make progress on it, and then modify your environment to make it as likely as possible that you will do it
· Set yourself concrete goals. For example, instead of a vague goal, such as "study for my upcoming exam", set a concrete goal, such as "on the week of my upcoming exam, go to the library every day after I finish my last class for the day, and spend at least 2 hours studying". Break your tasks into small and manageable steps, and create a rough outline, finding five appropriate academic sources. Note that if the project in question is large, then you generally shouldn't worry about figuring out all the steps to it from the start.
· Set intermediate milestones and deadlines for yourself. If your instructor hasn't done this already, or if they've only set a single major deadline at the end, setting intermediate milestones and deadlines for yourself will help you plan ahead, be accountable, and feel more motivated to make continuous progress.
· Identify your productivity cycles. Students vary in terms of when they're most productive, for example, some work best in the morning, while others are more focused at night. You should take this into account, and schedule your study and work to times of day when you're least likely to procrastinate.
With that, this concludes it. As a finishing note, please be cautious of yourselves and try to live through everything. Of course, it may be hard to live with these habits, but there are people, as well as newspaper articles, that will try to help.
As for now, keep reading folks!