For the hefty majority of college students everywhere, procrastination seems to be the name of the game. On the first day of classes at the start of every new semester, most teachers will present you with a syllabus and fully laid out schedule with the due dates to every major assignment you are expected to complete over the following 16 weeks. Essentially, before you even finish your first full week of classes you could plan out your entire semester of studying in a pursuit of that highly coveted 4.0 GPA.
But what fun would that be?
This is college after all. That ideal plan described above does not take into account parties, tailgates, concerts, parties, work, parties, hanging out with friends, Netflix, parties and general laziness. With all things considered, the debate over procrastination stands as follows:
Yes: "Race Against the Clock"
When you get the due date of your final paper that accounts for more than 50% of your grade in any given class and realize you have two months to write it you could not be happier. Very quickly that two months becomes one month and even faster than that one month becomes two weeks. Now you have less than 72 hours before that paper is due and all you've written so far is a thesis statement. After a brief moment of panic, you accept reality, hit up Starbucks to order a triple-shot Venti-something delicious and hunker yourself down in a cubby at the library for a long night of researching, writing, editing, deleting, more writing, more deleting and possibly tears (in my case, definitely tears).
Is this ideal? No. Definitely not. But sometimes it's easier to block out all distractions and get sh*t done when the possibility of failure is staring you right in the face versus that possibility of failure being two months away.
As for tests, some people adopt the same panic/caffeine/workhorse method as they do with papers and study all through the night until the time of the test the following day. Scientifically speaking this study habit is proven to not be as effective as the young college mind might think, but practically speaking, we all know this has happened to us at least once and we were most likely satisfied enough with the results to do it again.
No: "Fast Track to Fabulous"
For people that are on the fast-track to running fortune-500 companies, designing skyscrapers or creating the newest crazes in social media, I would imagine they love structure and schedule. They probably have the prettiest, cleanest planners in the game and schedule time out of their days to check Facebook, call mom, and go to the bathroom. This is awesome and I applaud you.
They also probably can't fathom the idea of not completing a homework assignment the day it was given out. Monday homework is done on Monday night even though you have all of Tuesday to do it and Tuesday homework is done on Tuesday night even though you have all of Wednesday to do it. Why wait when you can just get it done now?
I would imagine that these people actually do their assignment in its entirety as well, rather than skimming it down to its most basic form to ensure that you are doing as minimal amount of work as possible, while still getting the assignment done. Imagine all that you could be missing out on if all you did was skim...simply preposterous (says the straight a student).
And the verdict is....Procrastination all the way. Personally I find myself doing better when I procrastinate because I thrive well under the pressure of having a deadline breathing down my back. Additionally, post-college procrastination might not make you employee of the month and get you that holiday bonus you are looking for so we must take advantage of our procrastinating youthfulness while it lasts!
