Mark Twain once said, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”
Ever have one of those weeks where everything is due? Heaven forbid on the same day?
Your College Algebra test is on the same day your three-page paper in Composition I is due. Maybe you have three pieces of artwork due a couple of weeks before finals and you haven’t made much progress on them. As we approach the end of the semester, the assignment sum-up ritual creates an imbalance between academic and social life. We gather stress like we breathe air and it accumulates until we can no longer breathe. This is the most stressful time of year for many students, especially for those who procrastinate. Putting off the tough stuff is putting off happiness.
Procrastination is a debilitating habit that affects many college students. If comparing the balance of academic and social life to a scale, we often weigh social life as more important and put our academic lives on hold. When deadlines come around, reality hits and it’s no longer viable to ignore homework and projects.
When I was a senior in high school, I had a five-page essay due in class on Monday. I started my research on Saturday, and began writing Sunday. I couldn’t write the five pages and found myself doomed to turn in an incomplete final paper.
A snow day saved me and I was able to complete the paper. Instead of taking it as a sign of invincibility, I instead decided to change my habits. Now, instead of waiting for miracles (and at Rockwood Summit, a snow day was a miracle) I try to take advantage of the time I’m given.
Part of surviving the culmination of procrastinated assignments is saying “no” to distractions. These include phone calls, side conversations, texts, and entertainment media like television, internet and music with words. In fact, listening to music with words will more likely distract you and slow you down. Listening to music by Mozart, Pachelbel, or music from the Baroque period has been known to increase thinking power and concentration.
Mark Gorkin, licensed clinical social worker and known throughout the web as “The Stress Doc,” provides a list of ways to defeat procrastination in an article he submitted to Selfhelp Magazine. He says, “You must be tortured and made to acknowledge your sins.” He suggests finding someone to nag you into doing the work. Also, “Do know your limits and don’t limit your ‘no’s!’”
If procrastination is an issue for you, the STLCC-Meramec Academic Advising and Counseling Center has information on reducing and eliminating procrastination habits and other negative habits and anxieties.
Now is a better time than ever to overcome procrastination and get ahead of the game, or in many students’ cases, catch up, and be that much closer to a summer of happiness.
You have the right to pursue happiness. Change it. Do it. Be happy.
Be the first to comment on this article!