Do You Procrastinate?

Self-Sabotage:
The Negatives of Procrastination

Written by: ^Northernstar*

Have you ever waited ‘til the last minute to start developing your presentation due tomorrow? Do you ever make excuses not to call the jobs you’ve applied for? Or have you ever said, “I work best under pressure, so I’ll do it the night before”? At some point, we all have & we as humans are entitled to feel “anxious” or “lazy”. However, when a person begins to “put things off” excessively, the final product becomes an epic failure & it hinders the person from living to their full potential.

What is this type of person called? You guessed it. They are a procrastinator and as harmless as it seems… it can be very effective & harmful to an individual’s career and life. In David Glenn’s article, “Procrastination in College Students Is a Marker for Unhealthy Behaviors”, he explains how the biggest procrastinators happen to be college students because their priorities are backwards and they would rather party all weekend than study for a mid-term the following Monday. I am a college student and there have been many times where I would rather talk on the phone or go out to the club than read PowerPoints for a lecture I did not understand. But, in reality, understanding the PowerPoint is more important because if I am tested on the material, I would get a big fat zero. On the other hand, I may miss that party or phone call, but it will always be there! My education could be lost, so why risk it over something that’ll always exist?

“College students who procrastinate in their academic work are also likely to have unhealthy sleep, diet, and exercise patterns.” (Glenn, 2002) And it doesn’t come as a big surprise because college students (people in general), make ideas for what they want to do for themselves, but become lost by distractions & they say, “Well, shoot. This homework isn’t going anywhere. I want to take a break for five minutes”, then they never come back to it. It wasn’t until my mother told me she observed that I start things but never finish it that opened my eyes about how damaging procrastination can be. And no one wants to be perceived as a procrastinator, especially in the world of Journalism.

It is believed by many people that procrastination is stemmed from perfectionism, anger, hostility, low frustration tolerance, self-downing, difficulty levels, fears & too-time consuming. From personal experiences, many of these reasons are very true! But, what a person must keep in the back of their mind is the fact that the more work you put out, the greater advantages you will have. When a person procrastinates their entire life, they will only reach a certain point. The sky is the limit for the hard-worker.

Click the link below to find out the FIVE ways to eliminate procrastination:

http://www.etmmagazine.info/future/2009/11/articles/2009_11_selfsabotage.html