It’s 11:50 p.m. and I haven’t finished the assignment for my elective that’s due at midnight. I’m panicking and I know my marks are going to suffer.
But here I am.
Worse still, despite this experience I know I’ll be doing this same thing with the next assignment.
Sound familiar? Then you know the self-made hell that is procrastination.
I know I’m just slowly killing myself by doing this every time but I can’t help it. I have ample opportunity to do my work early but I choose not in favour of very unproductive things instead — like Netflix.
If you are lucky enough that this didn’t trigger a wave of flashbacks, I envy you. You have much greater willpower than I do and, most likely, better grades. For the rest of you, do your work early. I’ve lost out on so many marks by submitting late and if you don’t want to end up like me then heed my warning; do your work on time.
Now just because I tell you that doesn’t mean you have to listen to me, I’m kind of a hypocrite for telling you in the first place. I’ve told myself the same thing so many times, but I never listen.
Teachers notice when you put off work. They notice your responses are limited, your arguments are poor and you obviously didn’t re-read or edit your work; at the very least if they don’t know you did it last minute they’re just going to think you did a bad job, which is almost worse.
Procrastination is one of the biggest problems plaguing post-secondary students. In a 2007 study by the University of Calgary it was found that 80 to 95 per cent of post-secondary students procrastinate, particularly on coursework.
So that project you have due this week you haven’t done, do that now, save yourself the trouble. But who am I to tell you, I’m writing this the day of my deadline.