Throughout the entirety of my academic career, I’ve been a chronic procrastinator, meaning that I’ve developed a pretty bad habit of waiting until the last minute to get work done. When it comes to getting assignments done before their 11:59 p.m. deadlines, the idea of turning anything in sooner isn’t one that often comes to mind. Unfortunately, that habit has largely carried over into how I get things done in my personal life, too. I wait until the last minute to get ready for work, setting up appointments for myself to see the doctor, or even having maintenance done on my car.

I should also mention that this article was meant to be written and finished for last week’s edition of The Whit, and yet I completely fell behind in getting anything done on time in every aspect of my life. It’s been happening more and more as of late, and it’s been a pretty humbling experience, I’ll admit. But with that in mind, here’s what I’ve learned when it comes to the art of procrastination. 

Procrastination is nothing new, especially in the academic world, and it happens to everyone at one point or another. Time management is a very daunting task, especially for a student. As a matter of fact, I guarantee every student’s pulled something along the lines of procrastinating on work at some point, whether they wanted to or not. At the very least, they’ve toyed with the notion. Sometimes, we lose track of time with other assignments, or maybe life gets a little too “in the way.”

Now, to be fair, a lot of students are under the impression that they do their best work under pressure, so there are times when we intentionally let things go until the last minute, so the rapidly decreasing time limit to get work done becomes the motivator we need. Some of us are in dire need of energy and motivation to soldier on, especially at this point in the semester, as assignments and deadlines start to pile up. That’s part of the reason I procrastinate so much. I genuinely believe I’ve written some of my best papers or articles under a time crunch, but that doesn’t resonate for everyone.

The problem with procrastination is that there are times when it backfires. We wait too long for the wrong assignments, or we devote ourselves to completing so many other tasks that we burn ourselves out, and as a result, we legitimately run out of time to do anything remotely close to a decent job. It reflects very badly on us and our character.

And you’d think that would be the kick in the rear we’d need to keep ourselves from falling behind, right? But it’s not always that simple. Procrastination, much like a lot of life, is a cycle. Once you fall into it, it’s very hard to get out of it.

So, how can we avoid procrastination?

To put it simply: we can’t. We can try all we want, but we can’t always control what does or doesn’t happen in our lives. We can make schedules and try to plan around what needs to get done by specific deadlines, but sometimes life has other plans. We shouldn’t be belittled or made to feel lesser than for it, but I understand that also doesn’t mean it should automatically be forgiven and forgotten. In fact, it probably shouldn’t. But the reality is that everybody, in some shape or form, falls victim to procrastination, and it’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of.

For comments/questions about this story DM us on Instagram @thewhitatrowan or email [email protected]