Procrastination: Not So Much A Friend

Procrastination. It’s a word we are all familiar with. It causes stress, and generally speaking it is a poor learning process, yet we do it anyway. Why is this? I would assume that it is because we find great satisfaction in completing things last minute and earning that A grade. Knowing that you got the grade and had time to enjoy yourself is always a plus. I personally do not recommend procrastination and I will tell you specifically how I learned from my mistake.

It was during my senior year in high school that I learned to get my act together about procrastination. It was in a class I have never enjoyed: math. Near the end of the year, we had a research project due on correlation in Pre-Calculus. I was not all that excited about it, to say the least. I told myself that I would get it out of the way and that I would do it early. Of course, this never happened.

The night before the project was due, at around 8pm, I finished running errands for my family. I’m being completely honest here. I was not hanging out with friends, I swear. In any case, I looked up all the information needed but did not know where to start. I recalled how my teacher offered to help us with our projects if we brought them in early enough. I regretted having started so late.
It was about 5am when I thought that I had done the project to the best of my ability. It was not great but at least I could hand it in. I slept for two and a half hours and went to class completely exhausted from having slept so little.

Although I got an A- on the project, I cannot recall having learned anything from it. I did not learn anything because I had not given myself the time to do extensive research. If I had the time to thoroughly look into my topic I would have been able to remember more about it. I can only remember the stress I went through trying to finish it. I felt worn out in class and could barely pay attention that day. Not only do I not recall learning anything from the project but the fatigue also affected my attention level in class.

In all, I can say that procrastination only causes stress and short-term memory learning, which is hardly of any use to anyone. Nowadays, I start assignments as soon as I get them. I do not get everything done when I start it, but I at least get chunks of it done at a time, which helps in the long run. It prevents me from being stressed out and looking restless. So if there is anything you do this semester: DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!