Procrastination is one word that most college students are familiar with. In fact, as I am writing this, I am procrastinating on some classwork I should be finishing. It is so hard to get things done when you have so little time on your hands. During the school year, there are always club meetings and other events that keep you busy. By the time you attend all of the meetings and complete your hours at a job or other activities, you are usually so worn out that you cannot even think about doing schoolwork. Often, something else takes precedence when you are worn out, especially something as thrilling as Netflix. No matter what the case, college students are always procrastinating.
Week one of my first year at college was the first time I procrastinated on a college assignment. I was told that I had to read Beowulf by that Friday. Well, considering it was the first week, I wanted to meet new people and spend time with them. I had no interest in reading Beowulf, and there were activities the night before the exam that I could not miss. I chose to slowly read a few pages each day, so my goal was to have the book finished by that Friday. Unfortunately, on Thursday night, I was not even halfway finished with the book. I finally made a decision to go to the social events on campus instead of actually completing my reading assignment. I ended up reading SparkNotes instead of actually finishing the book. Luckily for me, the quiz I had the next day was so easy I honestly could have gotten away with not reading any of the book.
Another fine example of procrastination occurred for a writing class. I was told that I had to have a completed magazine by finals week filled with four articles along with advertisements and a thematic magazine cover. I was given the assignment at the beginning of the semester, but so many other assignments were given that I had to put that at the end of my list of priorities. We had to have rough drafts of the articles beforehand, but that still did not make my job any easier. It was the night before I had to submit it to be professionally printed, and I had less than half of my magazine completed. Unfortunately, I did not realize that I would have multiple essays to write and finals to study for that same night. I had to miss out on a lot of activities that night, and I locked myself in my room to finish my magazine. I skipped meals and wrote through the night into the next morning. I overworked myself for a night only because I procrastinated for an entire semester. I still regret that incident because I know that my magazine could have been much better than it turned out to be.
Even though these are only two incidents, I have not found one incident that has proven procrastination is a good thing. No matter what you want to do, try to remember that procrastination is not good. Keep in mind that you will have to do the work later on if you try to avoid it, so just do it when you get the assignment. Putting it off will only make your life harder, so stop procrastinating!
