Due Tomorrow? Do Tomorrow.
Tomorrow. / təˈmôrō
/ (noun). The day after today, also known as the day where all of student
productivity, study and inspiration strikes.
We have all rewarded ourselves with hours on
the Internet after studying math for twenty minutes. We have all gone on
Youtube to watch a Ted Talk for gym class and, 3 hours later, caught ourselves
watching a tutorial on how to talk to hippos.
Procrastination reflects an optimistic view of
our abilities and the illusion of freedom. For students, procrastinating is
seen as a false security net for all our work and study. We feel
that everything is
under control, and that there is plenty of time to do other things. Procrastinating
may be easy to do and achieve, but it can lead to mental issues such as dread,
anxiety, and a big dose of helplessness. One person out of five, researchers have found, is a chronic
procrastinator (more commonly known as a “proc”). Procs procrastinate not only
at school but also in every sphere of their life, be it professional, personal,
financial or social.
Does any of this sound familiar?
- "I could leave this until
the last minute… One way or another, this paper shouldn’t take too long to
write."
- "I waited until the last
minute last time, and it worked, so why not use the exact same technique
this time?"
- “I can’t miss [insert
once-in-a-lifetime activity, including re-watching a whole season of Friends, Riverdale, or Grey’s
Anatomy for the fifth night in a row]!!”
- “I don't know how to do this problem, so
I'll just wait until I magically figure it out (even though I know I’ll
end up spamming the kid with a 45 R-Score at midnight *sighs*)."
- “I have no choice but to wait for
a wave of creativity to strike me."
Mason Lasley says that
“procrastination makes easy things hard and harder things harder.” According to a research study conducted by
UCLA, another problem with procrastination is that our brains are, as a matter
of fact, programmed to
procrastinate. In general, all of us tend to struggle
with tasks that involve efforts in the future as opposed to the immediate
present. Consequently,
the short-term effort easily dominates the long-term one in our minds: behavioral
scientists call this present bias.
Procrastination habits cannot be broken that
quickly; a few simple strategies or tricks simply aren’t enough. The only path
to conquer procrastination is to actively engage oneself in learning, scheduling
our time, and balancing our strengths and weaknesses.
Instead of telling ourselves that
we must finish an assignment before a given date, let’s ask ourselves when
we can start. Balancing our schedule, even though it’s easier said than done,
isn’t impossible, and it can open many possibilities. It would also be useful
to eliminate the desire to do something else… Try optimizing your work
environment and start compromising with yourself: if you start your studying
now, maybe you could watch Netflix later on (the world won’t end, I promise).
While we procrastinators may be trying to avoid distress, let’s take out our
calendars! Breaking tasks down, as difficult as it may seem, makes everything
less overwhelming, especially when an hour before midnight. The common
admonition is to stop thinking about it and start doing it! Even if pushing
away the hardest task of the day until the last minute seems really tempting,
just taking the first step could help you focus better, and perhaps even make
you prone to taking further steps… 
But to make y’all feel better,
if you ever feel bad or guilty about all the procrastination you’ve been doing,
just remember that Mozart wrote the iconic overture to Don Giovanni the morning it premiered (after many nights of
partying).
Good luck to everyone! :)
- Emily Oulousian
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