Understanding procrastination and how it affects you as a student
By: Alexandra Fletcher
Please note that this blog post represents the opinions of Alexandra Fletcher and is not representative of the official stance of the FCSS-FESC.
Have you ever spent hours staring at a blank page trying to write something? Have you ever postponed a boring or unpleasant homework task or assignment until the last minute? Or, maybe you’ve found yourself doing unimportant and trivial things to avoid an obligation? These behaviours are procrastination. In this article, let’s explore exactly what procrastination is, as well as how you can prevent it to avoid unnecessary stress and improve your work habits.
When you procrastinate, you are delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute, or past their deadline. It is very common among students all around the world. Procrastination tends to reflect a person’s struggles with self-control. Even though everyone procrastinates, not everyone is a procrastinator. Many people put things off sometimes, but procrastinators chronically avoid difficult tasks and may deliberately look for distractions. Procrastinators are often perfectionists, for whom it may be psychologically more acceptable to never tackle a job than to face the possibility of not doing it well. They may be so highly concerned about what others will think of them that they put their futures at risk to avoid judgment. The habit of procrastinating is easy to do, but the consequences can be difficult to deal with. Students need to learn how to combat procrastination in their lives, as it can cause a lot of problems in the future as we enter adulthood.
Procrastination can negatively affect students’ schoolwork, grades, and even our overall health. Students who procrastinate experience higher levels of frustration, guilt, stress, and anxiety — in some cases leading to serious issues like low self-esteem and depression. Procrastinating can create a cycle of bad grades and low self-confidence that is difficult to overcome. At a time when marks start to impact the post-secondary opportunities for students, procrastination can produce a lot of unnecessary anxiety and negative emotions. Procrastination may relieve pressure at the moment, but it can have drastic consequences, emotionally and physically.
We know procrastinating and putting off important tasks is not a good course of action to take. It’s not productive and seldom has the desired outcome. So what drives us to procrastinate and how can we use that knowledge to prevent it? Procrastination is caused by a variety of thoughts and habits but fundamentally, we avoid tasks or put them off because we do not think we’ll enjoy doing them and want to avoid the negative emotions associated with that task, or we fear that we won’t do the task well. People may also procrastinate when they are confused by the complexity of a task (such as an assignment you don’t understand) or when they’re overly distracted or fatigued. Research from Psychology Today, written by Timothy Pychyl, a professor at Carlton University found that procrastination is driven by several factors ranging from low self-confidence to anxiety, a lack of structure, and, simply, an inability to motivate oneself to complete unpleasant tasks. It found that that procrastination is closely linked to becoming fixated on negative thoughts. So, next time you are faced with a task that you don’t want to do, try not to think about it in a negative way. Focus on the positive aspects of the tasks such as how good it will feel to complete that task and how you can reward yourself.
When you think about putting an important task off or hear yourself saying “I’ll do that later”, try to keep in mind that you shouldn’t wait. The time will never be just right. While we waste time waiting and putting things off, life isn’t waiting. It’s moving on without us. Procrastination is based on fear. Just let go and do it today, right now.
Please note that this blog post represents the opinions of Alexandra Fletcher and is not representative of the official stance of the FCSS-FESC.
Resources:
https://nobelcoaching.com/procrastination-teens-can-help/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/procrastination
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-procrastination-2795944#types-of-procrastination
https://www.thecut.com/2017/07/one-in-five-people-are-chronic-procrastinators.html
