Procrastination of College Students

Procrastination refers to the act of leaving duties pending with the hope of attending to them later or at the very last moment. Especially for students, procrastination often becomes a dependancy that is hard to shake off. There are numerous reasons as to why many college students opt to postpone their studies, some of which include feeling overwhelmed and anxious with their workload, deadline, or even exams. All these struggles make it even tougher for most students to start preparing for revision therefore leading to postponement as an option. For example, most students lack discipline when it comes to the time administration and personal organization which often hurts their probabilities of keeping on track with their studies. As an alternative, they prefer to enjoy their leisure time on unnecessary acts of fun instead of allocating time for studies and end up wasting precious time that could have otherwise been used for studying. Ultimately when deadlines catch up with them, they become overwhelmed and end up performing dismally in their exams.

In a context of schoolwork, students who procrastinate end up doing the studies during the last minutes to the deadline. Obviously, the work will have many mistakes because of it being done under pressure. One may procrastinate visiting a doctor for a check-up after a suspicious lump on the skin and later diagnosed with cancer. I may decide to zoom my morning alarm and miss the early bus to work ending up being fired by my boss. A driver may ignore a leaking engine and end up burning inside the car beyond recognition. The list of how individuals postpone key moments of their life is long, however, procrastination of studies will be my focus, having fallen victim to it on many occasions.

Personal Experiences

Just recently, while doing my online course, I set aside four hours to complete an impending article that I was supposed to write about. I even wrote down a work plan to sit before my computer from seven to eleven so that before noon I would be done. I woke up by six in the morning. Instead of following the work plan I had developed, my mind became occupied with personal stuff. In no time I had become entrenched on unnecessary acts of leisure and entertainment while consoling myself that I would finish my article before its real deadline could have even reached. After I finished with my personal attachments of fun, I just sat there in my apartment full of awe on just how my program for the day had been misused. This was just one of the many instances that I had found myself involved in irrelevant lapses of fun which interrupted with my study schedule.

Importance of Not Procrastinating

Procrastination is not knowingly putting off things and feeling great about it. It is a mental challenge that most student often fall trap to. Most people do not enjoy the fact that they postpone studies but they do enjoy it, however, finding it repellant after they have seen its consequences. Furthermore, the act is doubly troubling and makes ones feel bad and question themselves. Students’ performance is based on their ability to believe in themselves, their ability and having a positive attitude. Postponement creates a situation where all these principles are unattainable. At first it feels good but in the end it kills the morale and self-esteem of the student since it leads to lack of preparation for key moments such as exams, whereby most individuals who like postponing end up failing. Disappointment and self-reproach among students create a challenging platform for them to excel in their studies. Subsequently, postponement of studying is developed among young scholars who start comparing themselves unfavorably with others hence hindering their education opportunities even further.

College papers are very complex and require an effective scrutiny and keen mind for one to come up with a good idea. Therefore, one is forced to manage his or her time efficiently and organize a good study plan to brainstorm, research, revise, and even refine any number of ideas that might arise regarding the study topic. All these attributes cannot be achieved if one is always procrastinating their studies. A careful and meticulous planner will have enough time to make his or her ideas well and go through all the intellectual processes for a fully considered work. Apart from this, essay exams also require a calm mind that has had sufficient time to think through the topic in detail before disseminating a planned and coherent essay. Procrastination will not offer such a feedback since one has not trained the mind to fully comprehend and prepare for eloquent answers in a given period of time. For example, a student who does not postpone studies can go through all the study lessons calmly and in a detailed manner to prepare for exams as opposed to half-baked answers that one could manage to come up with since they only prepared the night before.

Studying is all about consultation with fellow, students, interested parties and lecturers as well. Procrastination kills off the chance of approaching either of the identified parties identified and a student is left to finish a given assignment without any consultation. On the other hand, if one is not keen on postponing, once given an assignment whether challenging or not, he or she has ample time to enlist the help of the instructor and fellow students and get necessary answers. Studying is all about research and no research is better than the one which has been guided by the instructor and fellow competent scholars on the given topic. Furthermore, consultations help a student to implement new ideas and suggestions on their assignment which are key during revision and towards attaining better grades.

Avoiding procrastination actually positions a student at a strategic advantage. This is especially critical for students who are doing their projects. These are long, strenuous, complex, and very vital assignments which are meant to test the ability of a student to collaborate practical and theory work to solve real-life situations. Additionally, it allows for one to be well prepared for the unexpected that might warrant attention away from a person’s studies. Being sick, surprise tests and quizzes as well as emergencies would not hinder a person who is readily prepared and organized in their time management skills. In other words, it enables one to be flexible with activities that extend beyond studies.