This finals week, many students will battle with their procrastination problem.
If Natalie Clark’s first 10:30 a.m. class gets canceled, making her first class of the day at 3 p.m., she will be heading to the library at 8:30 a.m. anyway to get work done.
That is, after she writes her to-do list on the whiteboard décor above her bed — high priority items up top, low-priority items on the bottom.
Usually when she goes to bed, all the items are checked off. But when she’s forced to stare at the items she hasn’t checked off, she said it’s a terrible feeling.
“Oh, it’s awful,” Clark, who is studying business administration, said with a nervous laugh. “It’s absolutely awful. It’s a really different feeling going to bed when you check everything off and you’re done.”
Although Clark avoids it, procrastinating regularly can be a common problem for students. According to a 2007 study by University of Calgary psychologist Piers Steel, 80 percent to 95 percent of college students procrastinate, particularly with their class work.
“When you procrastinate, I don’t think that you ever do your best work,” said Angela Lash, assistant director of Allen Student Advising Center. “If you had spent more time on anything, it would probably be more thorough or more well-done.”
This finals week, Clark said she doesn’t anticipate having to pull any all-nighters – in fact — she has never had to stay up late due to procrastination. The latest she’s gone to bed because of schoolwork, she said, was “two a.m. or three a.m.,” and that was only because she found out about an application deadline less than 48 hours before the due date.
Last semester, sophomore Meghan Noga started a 10-page essay at 8 p.m. the night before it was due and finished it up around 4 a.m. She said she’s given up all-nighters, but is still a frequent procrastinator. Although she said she never plans to procrastinate and it “just happens,” she loves the adrenaline rush of getting a paper in right on time.
“People in high-risk situations get this incredible super-human strength and get things done. To me, that’s what procrastination is like, except mentally,” said Noga, who is studying political science and journalism. “I never rely on (the strength), but it happens and I’m like, thank God this is happening to me.”
Typically, Noga procrastinates the classwork that she’s less interested in, saving the less-desirable work for later in the night.
“Studying for math or doing an assignment for ASL is always after I do synchronized skating activities or have watched a complete season on Netflix,” Noga said. “My quality of work doesn’t suffer. Last Friday, I finished an essay due at 5 at 4:30, and I got a 95 on it.”
Last semester, Clark’s GPA was 4.0, and if she hadn’t recieved one B in high school, she would have been one of 13 valedictorians.
Because her mother taught as a teacher at the high school she attended, Clark attributes part of her study habits to the pressure her mother put on her.
“She knew my schedule and was like, ‘Oh, did you do your chem homework? Did you do your math homework?' ” Clark said. “That kept me on my toes and it carried through.”
Clark finds it typically helpful to get out of the residence halls to get work done, which is one of many pieces of advice that Lash gives to students who are struggling with time management.
“I tell students to think of school as their full-time job; if you have a class at 8:30 in the morning, why would you go back to your room after that?” Lash said. “Stay out of your room all day if you can to get work done, then you still have plenty of time after dinner and you can spend the evening watching Netflix or hanging out with people in your mod.”
Lash believes procrastinating is “all about your mindset,” and that procrastination is a decision about your level of commitment to the work you have to do.
“I will say there are people whose personality type is more structured. I think other personality types prefer spontaneity who don’t like to feel like they’re being held within parameters of things they have to do every day,” Lash said. “If you’ve always been someone who procrastinates, those habits are difficult to change.”
While Lash recommends planners and semester calendars, she said deciding a plan is different for every student. Clark, for example, plugs all of her daily events into the calendar in her phone.
“I put everything in (my phone) so I can see the blank spaces,” Clark said. “That way, I can see exactly when I am not doing anything.”
@rachel_hartwick
rh375113@ohio.edu
