HollisterFreelance.com | 'Going educational' with procrastination

'Going educational' with procrastination

Mar 8, 2004

Having to budget your time is very difficult when it comes to schoolwork. You always seem to want to put off everything, even the more difficult things, until the last moment.

Projects that normally are supposed to take days are completed in a matter of hours, and although you are supposed to read that couple pages a day, you just never seem to have the time. Often times you find yourself thinking, "When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away."

This is a serious problem called procrastination and it is on the top 10 most common and destructive soft addictions. It is the act of putting off until tomorrow what could be done today. Here is a quote from psychologist Dr. Timothy Quek which helps to explain what happens when you begin to procrastinate:

"A poor distinction between urgency and priority. In the beginning of the urgency-priority cycle, procrastinators tend to attend to 'comfort' tasks which are most convenient, interesting or within reach. Priority is sacrificed for convenience.

"As these tasks are being attended to, however, other tasks begin to pile up, and soon a backlog of tasks cry out for attention. A jumble of new and old tasks become marked as urgent, and the procrastinator is forced to drop current tasks to attend to the urgent ones. In a sense, what is urgent has become priority.

"This confusion continues as tasks split into three categories which cry out for attention and which are increasingly difficult to distinguish, namely, priority/urgent; priority/non-urgent; non-priority/urgent. Meanwhile, the attractiveness of the non-urgent, non-priority comfort tasks still lure the procrastinator to do them.

"The result is that the procrastinator becomes subject to the tyranny of the urgent, is unable to establish proper priorities and constantly seeks reprieve from these stresses by attending to tasks that are neither urgent nor priority!"

This is so true. How often have you found yourself sitting down to some complicated math problems when you realize that you have to count your change, or change your batteries, etc.?

I can always find some excuse or another of why I can't just do my homework and study. It's a miracle I manage to keep everything in order and get things done. You may find yourself developing some pretty bad habits, such as playing video games instead of doing your thing.

What is so hard about playing video games after you get everything done? I'll tell you why that is - homework never stops, it just keeps coming in more and more; it even picks up speed as you advance in years. If you put off everything until all homework is completed, you would likely find yourself doing nothing except homework. All this piling up of work is enough to drive a student insane .

Instead of calling it "going postal" we should call it something more along the lines of "going educational." We'll see if it catches on.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a three-page essay to write, due tomorrow.

Andrew Dynneson is a junior at Anzar High School.