Procrastination holds people back
Tomorrow. I’ll do it tomorrow.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
It’s easy to push something off, saying that you’ll do it later, in favor of something more fun or interesting.
But then things don’t get done. Assignments and projects are left incomplete. Deadlines creep up. Then, you pull an allnighter to make up for all the time you spend surfing the web and playing video games.
Andrew Luna, a junior, said, “I procrastinate a lot. Snapchat Discover is the worst thing ever. Literally, I go on my phone and three hours later, I look up from the video of how to cook a square pancake, and I realize that I have two essays and a history outline due tomorrow. Then I spend the next two hours, still on Snapchat Discover, while stressing over the homework due.”
Many people hold the belief that, excluding a few long, stressful nights, procrastination is a relatively benign habit. However, procrastination proves to be much more harmful that it appears on the surface.
Dianne Tice and William Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University conducted a study of college students, tracking their academic performance, stress, and general health. They found that by the end of the semester, procrastinators had higher stress, more illness, and lower grades.
There are many contesting ideas about why people procrastinate. One of the main ideas is that procrastination is a problem of self-regulation and self-discipline, especially in today’s instant gratification culture.
“I think the basic notion of procrastination as self-regulation failure is pretty clear,” says Timothy Pychyl of Carleton University. “You know what you ought to do and you’re not able to bring yourself to do it. It’s that gap between intention and action.”
According to the New York Times, over 80 percent of college students suffer from procrastination, and roughly 20 percent of adults report being chronic procrastinators. Given the propensity for people to procrastinate, it seems unlikely that that behavior will ever change.
Luna said, “On Thursdays, I normally don’t sleep until four in the morning. Generally, I have the most homework on Thursdays, but I never start it immediately, around 1 a.m. I have my scheduled mental breakdown when I finally get myself to actually work.”
However, despite the negatives of procrastination, some people believe that procrastination can be used to a person’s advantage.
For example, Adam Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who taught himself to procrastinate, argues that procrastination promotes creativity, giving people time to gain a new perspective and come up with new, innovative ideas. Professor Jihae Shin of the University of Wisconsin conducted a study that showed that when coming up with new business ideas, the procrastinator’s ideas were 28 percent more creative than the non-procrastinators.
Grant wrote in an article in the New York Times suggesting that “when you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.”
Innovation and efficiency are not mutually exclusive. Stanford philosopher John Perry wrote a book “The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging, and Postponing” in which he argued that people can use “structured procrastination” so that even when they are wasting time, they are still doing something productive.
“I know that I’ll get bored of an assignment after a while, so I switch off, spending some time on one assignment and then another and then coming back to the first. It makes doing homework a little less monotonous. I get to take breaks while still getting things done,” said junior Phoebe Zhang.
Some scientists and researchers oppose this point of view, saying that it confuses pondering and prioritizing with true procrastination. According to an article published by the Association for Psychological Science, “If progress on a task can take many forms, procrastination is the absence of progress.”
However, the fact remains that pressing pause on assignments isn’t always bad and letting ideas sit temporarily on the side can be beneficial. By capitalizing on the virtues of procrastination, people can boost their creativity as well as productivity.
“For me, the goal isn’t to do everything as soon as possible. I recognize that there are benefits to giving yourself time to think. At the same time, there are dangers to waiting too long to begin an assignment. For me, it’s about finding the right balance,” said junior Edison Bai.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.
It’s easy to push something off, saying that you’ll do it later, in favor of something more fun or interesting.
But then things don’t get done. Assignments and projects are left incomplete. Deadlines creep up. Then, you pull an allnighter to make up for all the time you spend surfing the web and playing video games.
Andrew Luna, a junior, said, “I procrastinate a lot. Snapchat Discover is the worst thing ever. Literally, I go on my phone and three hours later, I look up from the video of how to cook a square pancake, and I realize that I have two essays and a history outline due tomorrow. Then I spend the next two hours, still on Snapchat Discover, while stressing over the homework due.”
Many people hold the belief that, excluding a few long, stressful nights, procrastination is a relatively benign habit. However, procrastination proves to be much more harmful that it appears on the surface.
Dianne Tice and William Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University conducted a study of college students, tracking their academic performance, stress, and general health. They found that by the end of the semester, procrastinators had higher stress, more illness, and lower grades.
There are many contesting ideas about why people procrastinate. One of the main ideas is that procrastination is a problem of self-regulation and self-discipline, especially in today’s instant gratification culture.
“I think the basic notion of procrastination as self-regulation failure is pretty clear,” says Timothy Pychyl of Carleton University. “You know what you ought to do and you’re not able to bring yourself to do it. It’s that gap between intention and action.”
According to the New York Times, over 80 percent of college students suffer from procrastination, and roughly 20 percent of adults report being chronic procrastinators. Given the propensity for people to procrastinate, it seems unlikely that that behavior will ever change.
Luna said, “On Thursdays, I normally don’t sleep until four in the morning. Generally, I have the most homework on Thursdays, but I never start it immediately, around 1 a.m. I have my scheduled mental breakdown when I finally get myself to actually work.”
However, despite the negatives of procrastination, some people believe that procrastination can be used to a person’s advantage.
For example, Adam Grant, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who taught himself to procrastinate, argues that procrastination promotes creativity, giving people time to gain a new perspective and come up with new, innovative ideas. Professor Jihae Shin of the University of Wisconsin conducted a study that showed that when coming up with new business ideas, the procrastinator’s ideas were 28 percent more creative than the non-procrastinators.
Grant wrote in an article in the New York Times suggesting that “when you procrastinate, you’re more likely to let your mind wander. That gives you a better chance of stumbling onto the unusual and spotting unexpected patterns.”
Innovation and efficiency are not mutually exclusive. Stanford philosopher John Perry wrote a book “The Art of Procrastination: A Guide to Effective Dawdling, Lollygagging, and Postponing” in which he argued that people can use “structured procrastination” so that even when they are wasting time, they are still doing something productive.
“I know that I’ll get bored of an assignment after a while, so I switch off, spending some time on one assignment and then another and then coming back to the first. It makes doing homework a little less monotonous. I get to take breaks while still getting things done,” said junior Phoebe Zhang.
Some scientists and researchers oppose this point of view, saying that it confuses pondering and prioritizing with true procrastination. According to an article published by the Association for Psychological Science, “If progress on a task can take many forms, procrastination is the absence of progress.”
However, the fact remains that pressing pause on assignments isn’t always bad and letting ideas sit temporarily on the side can be beneficial. By capitalizing on the virtues of procrastination, people can boost their creativity as well as productivity.
“For me, the goal isn’t to do everything as soon as possible. I recognize that there are benefits to giving yourself time to think. At the same time, there are dangers to waiting too long to begin an assignment. For me, it’s about finding the right balance,” said junior Edison Bai.