Glenn Wagstaff
Shivani Shirolkar
I am a huge procrastinator. I tend to put every single thing off until the last minute. I make to-do lists for my assignments and other responsibilities, and promise myself to get those things done by the end of day; what really happens is that I subconsciously tell myself that there’s plenty of time at “the end of the day,” which makes me realize that I’ve done nothing at all until about 10 p.m.
Though the realization leads to quite a bit of panic and dread, I suddenly sense the urgency to fulfill a previously prolonged responsibility. That is when I end up giving the task my best shot. Time constraints and looming deadlines are certainly a major source of motivation. According to the American Psychological Association, between 80 and 95 percent of college students procrastinate their homework. They tend to overestimate how much time they have left to perform tasks and underestimate their own capabilities to complete them in a certain amount of time.
Although that sounds very risky, and has tremendous potential to go very wrong, this is a habit that can actually help people — if they fall under the category of people who perform well under pressure. In these circumstances, you know that you have limited time. You know exactly what needs to be done to complete your task, so you are fully focused on sticking to the plan. You are consciously aware that there is no time left to waste, and so you are efficiently able to avoid distractions and strike that one thing off your list.
If other students have taken up a similar assignment and finished it before you have, you get time to learn from the mistakes they made during their execution so as not to make them yourself. There could be a better and more efficient way to approach the assignment, which would otherwise require you to go back and redo your work. So, by waiting, you are able to carefully assess the situation and take appropriate steps to save yourself time and effort in order to reach your goal.
Procrastination can also help free up time for tasks and events. If an assignment is due weeks from now, it makes sense to prioritize something that needs to be done in the near future to be better off. There could be one of those lucky and shiny moments when the assignment is extended. Then the time spent on finishing it well in advance could be better spent doing something more enjoyable.
If the task that is being procrastinated on is an exam, overloading yourself with information is inevitable. However, cramming at the last minute keeps things fresh in mind, which helps since it is easier to retrieve what has recently been read. I have tried studying for exams weeks in advance — when I revisit the material a few days before the big day, I find that I have forgotten most of it.
In a desperate attempt to remember and absorb information, concentration peaks and helps retain important points. If done the night before, your brain does a good job of processing the information even while you sleep during the night, since it is able to be active even when you’re not conscious.
Having said that, procrastination does cause stress and anxiety and, in worst case scenarios, might result in not being able to turn in the assignment on time. However, if done well and actively, a lot of time is saved by ranking things by importance and executing them in that order.
Bonus: If you procrastinate on an assignment that ends up getting canceled, you don’t have to do it at all, even at the 11th hour.