I’m Not Pro-Crastinating

We all have those things that we don’t want to do, and sometimes we avoid until we can’t. Even then, some of us go that extra mile and keep procrastinating. We’ve all heard it before and we’ve all done it, some more than others. When you procrastinate, you know you have something to do and you have plenty of time to do it. But somehow, every free moment you have seems like a perfect time to do something else! How will I find the time to write that essay when it’s so nice outside and all I want to do is go for a run, sit outside, walk the dog- speaking of the dog, I think I forgot to feed her. I’ll go look. Okay she has food, but I have no apples left! Man, I really want an apple. I guess I’ll add that to my grocery list. Hey look, there’s no more room on the page! I guess I’ll have to go to the store. Okay I’m back, but guess who I saw at the store. My 5th grade teacher! I wonder where my old yearbook is. I’ll go look. Well I couldn’t find the yearbook, but I found my old essay from 6th grade! Hey speaking of essay, I still have to write that. But look, it’s 7:50! My favorite TV show is on in 10 minutes! I guess I’ll write it after. Wow, that was a great episode. I think I’ll go take a shower. What? 10:00 already? I should probably get to sleep because I have to get up early tomorrow. And write that essay.

You see, procrastinators are perfectly aware of the task at hand, and have the time to do it. But when they have a week to do that project, why start now? Pretty soon, one week turns into one day, which turns into one night, which flies by until you finish with an hour to spare. Some very simple reasons that people procrastinate is because they seem too hard, too time-consuming, you don’t think you know what you’re doing, and you’re scared of failure. Who wants to write some big long hard essay when you could simply watch a movie? And who wants to spend hours preparing a speech when you can go out to dinner? And no one wants to try and do a presentation on something they know nothing about, and that can play into the fear factor too. Everyone’s going to know if you mess up, so let’s do this a little later. These are good reasons for procrastinating, and it’s not really hurting anyone, is it? They might seem like good reasons, but they actually aren’t. If the assignment is so hard, then you should do it now while you can get help from a teacher and ask questions. Something tells me they won’t be as helpful the night before it’s due. Too time-consuming? Maybe if you do it all in one sitting it is, but if you chunk it out in the time you have, it’ll be a piece of cake. If you don’t know what you’re doing, then you have the time to learn what you should, even if you just haven’t been paying attention in class. As for failure, things done in three hours are going to be a lot more sloppy than something done in three days, or more. If you put more time and effort into it, there’s a higher chance for success.

As for me personally, I’m an avid procrastinator. I think it’s fun to see how long it’ll actually take, especially when the teacher says “this isn’t a project you can do in one night”. Now this of course is a horrible mindset, but it’s a hard one to shake. If you haven’t started or aren’t in too deep, I would, without a doubt, advise you to stop procrastinating and never do it again. I think it’s addictive and not good, but I just can’t stop doing it. It’s usually more with projects, and I underestimate the amount of work and time I need to put into it. Of course, this is nothing that can’t be solved by a few hours of hard, frantic work. So even though procrastination is a horrible habit, I’d say that I’m pretty good at it.

~Michelle

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