The Perks of Procrastination
When it comes to putting things off till later, there appears to be no group of people more skilled at it than students. No matter where they are in their education, there is always a group that is perfectly content to wait until the last minute to get their assignments done. It may seem to those that get their work done on time that they are nothing more than lazy, waiting so long to complete their work. As a fellow member of the proud procrastinator community, I thought I should put some things to right, dispel several myths and explain the perks of being a procrastinator.
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The idea that procrastinators intentionally wait as long as possible to complete an assignment is somewhat true, but not for the reasons those outside the craft might suspect. We wait for as long as possible just because we have the time to do so. Most procrastinators, like myself, simply lack motivation to do their work when they see that they have two weeks to complete their task. They use that time instead to do work in other classes, indulge in their hobbies whatever they may be, and generally go on about their lives. They simply can’t muster the attention span to do something that is so far off. The more experienced can even look at the work they need to do and…wait for it…plan accordingly how they’re going to stack their work load.
This leads me to the next myth, that procrastinators are lazy, not planning ahead or analyzing the responsibilities set before them. While I will admit that there is some amount of laziness, we prefer to say that we’re relaxed, and we know exactly what we’re getting ourselves into. We need to know the assignment inside and out so that we can budget enough time to still complete it for the desired credit. If, for example, we have a research paper and 10 chapters of reading, we know that we need more time for the paper than the reading, or the other way round, depending on how fast you read. The point is, we can postpone things so well and get them done because we are aware of the time and effort needed for each. Some teachers have even taken the liberty of helping the procrastinators by having pieces of large scale projects due in increments so that we don’t slap it all together and, possibly not achieve a satisfactory mark. If we don’t understand what is expected of is as far ahead as possible, then there’s just no way that we’ll be able to throw it all together in one night.
The final myth that I wish to address is that procrastinators consistently score low on the assignments they put off. Bunk! We tell ourselves that we do our best work under pressure and years of practice have made it so. If we spend too much time on an assignment we begin to second guess ourselves, go back, work it over again, and, most of the time, change things that had no business being adjusted. This leads to a domino effect, throwing off our schedules because we took too much time working over an assignment. If a procrastinator decides to stop putting things off, I’ll admit that it can be done, but usually at the expense of several grades as they make the switch.
Overall, there’s not that much difference between the habits of procrastinators and the rest of the world. We get our work done, and we enjoy our lives and routines just as much as the next person. If this has helped you understand the inner workings of our lives, then my work here is done. If you are a fellow procrastinator, we should get coffee. Tomorrow.
