What’s one word that we, as college students, can all identify with? Parties? Friends? Homework? OK, sure. All of these are true, but to get to the real answer, you can combine all of the above guesses, plus about a million other things. Then what do you get? Stress? Well, yes, which may or may not lead to ... procrastination! Ding ding ding, we have the right answer.
You can deny it all you want, but we all do it. You do it, your friends do it, even I do it. Constantly. I never have a problem getting things in on time, I just find myself getting some things done very close to deadlines.
Even though it's such a common practice, procrastination has grown to have a very negative connotation. When other people find out someone's been procrastinating, it's usually met with concerned looks and "You still haven't done that yet?! You better!" Yes, I better. And I will! Now just isn't the time. I can see where the concern may come from if it's directed toward someone who has a hard time handing things in on time, or at all.
However, procrastination isn't always a bad thing. There are actually quite a few ways that procrastinating benefits me.
First, it gives me time to think about what I'm doing. If you get an assignment, you may want to start it immediately to get it out of the way. This can be a really good strategy, I've done this before countless times too. But, if it's something that requires some thinking, it can be better to keep your assignment in the back of your mind and think about it for a little while so you can gather all of your thoughts, come back, and completely knock it out of the park.
More importantly, procrastination also helps me focus better on the task at hand. I know this might sound silly, but it does. I work best under pressure. If I'm doing something with plenty of time left to complete it, I'm easily distracted. Every tiny bit of work completed calls for a chance to check my phone, or Facebook, or something. Knowing that I have very limited time left to complete something really kicks my focus into high gear and I rarely ever stop until I'm finished. Crunch time is go time.
People always look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them this. They think that it's better to get it out of the way. Sure it is. But guess what? I'm actually preparing myself for the real world. You're not always going have a leisurely period of time to complete tasks. As a writer especially, I'm sure there will be countless times that I get extremely last minute articles to complete in no time at all. It's better that I get into the mindset now of being able to write under pressure, rather than have to how learn the hard way later.
With how many countless things we have to do every day, some things just naturally have to get pushed to the back burner and completed a little closer to the deadline than others.
Everyone has their own work patterns that work best for them. As long as you complete everything on time and give your work your all, don't let others tell you you're doing it wrong. Embrace it.
