Procrastination: The Terrible Trait or An Advantageous Aid
Many students, whether they be in Primary school, Secondary school, or College have the characteristic known as procrastination. I always remember my parents and teachers telling me not to procrastinate and how procrastination is an unhealthy quality to have, but is this really the case? Every student is different; some students find motivation to study with music while others require peace and tranquility. Some students like to study in the late hours of night while others enjoy getting their learning done in the afternoon. These traits that we have create who we are and how we inspire ourselves to study. Procrastination is just another feature like our environment and study habits and is different for every student.
Yes, I am not going to deny that procrastinating, or keeping things for the last minute, is not necessarily a great thing, but for some people it is the only way to succeed. I know students who fall into both sides of this spectrum. My friend Al is a ball of stress molded into a human being, and has to keep everything in order and cannot procrastinate. Al prefers finishing tasks beforehand and not worrying about any last minute changes and he dislikes when he has to do something at the last hours before a project is due. Al is very organized and likes to keep everything on a list, and procrastination thus is not something that encourages him but rather stresses him out. Wendy on the other hand, is more of a laid-back girl who no matter how little time is left before a deadline shows no expression of stress on her face. Wendy prefers not wait until the last hours to finish things because she believes that the pressure of the deadline instigates her to spill out her creative juices and finish her tasks. Wendy believes that for her procrastination is the only thing that helps her finish the tasks, because the only thing that motivates her to start doing whatever she needs to do is the anxiety that the project is due in the next few hours.
Both Wendy and Al are honor-level, studious, and active students in the community but both have distinct study habits when it relates to procrastination. Just like with Wendy and Al, every student adapts to procrastination in a different way, just like every student needs different study environments to focus. Today, society and people have taken the term procrastination and put a negative connotation on it, which pushes communities to try to take this quality out of students. What people have the realize is that as you grow older you realize your study habits and what works for you, and you yourself will decide is procrastination is the thing for you. Thus, I would just like to say for all those parents who try to sway their kids to be organized to let the kids figure out what works for them, which in turn will help them in the future. In addition, the students who believe that procrastination is cool or the thing to do , I just want to tell you that don’t follow the crowd but experiment with both sides of the scale and see what makes you successful.
