kaitlynjeong Mon Sep 21, 2009 12:57 amPaint toenails: Check. Go on Facebook: Check (twenty times a day). Do laundry: Check. Clean room: semi-check. Practice piano: Check. This army of check marks can mean only one thing: That for once in my life, I made the best use of my time and actually had a productive weekend! This could very possibly be the best day of my li- wait a second, there was a back to my list? Mists of Avalon essay? Study for AP Biology? Write a Pow Wow article? Math homework?!? You may ask why I inflict such pain and suffering on myself by putting things off until the very last second before they’re due. The fact of the matter is I enjoy staying up all night and part of the next morning finishing my work in a hurry and doing a lousy job while I’m at it.
Okay, you want the honest truth? It’s the fact that I have a warped sense of time; I think I have enough time to do things when I don’t, I don’t make time for the things I need to do, and prioritizing isn’t exactly my forte. Procrastination-itis, as it is known in the scientific community, remains the leading cause of stress and dark under-eye circles found in high school students such as ourselves. We’ve each been told countless times that succumbing to the procrastination-itis will only harm us in the long run. So why, if we’ve already been given the lecture and spoken with some procrastination-itis survivors about its disadvantages, does the night before any due date seem eerily similar?
Perhaps it is because we’ve discovered that waiting some things out may end up being to our benefit. For example, I walked into Target the other day and saw the cutest sweater ever known to woman and was debating whether I should get the maroon or royal purple one. I decided that if I returned later on, I’d have a clearer mind and be able to make the right decision. Two weeks later, I came back and was shocked at what I saw on the sweater shelf: BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!!! TODAY ONLY!!! Not only did I make the right decision to put off sweater buying until a later time, but I also returned home with a grin on my face and two cute sweaters in tow. By applying this to some of the bigger assignments, such as the Mists essay, we can predict that by following the aforementioned example, we will return home with a grin on our faces and two pluses following that big “A.”
Maybe it’s that we haven’t yet experienced the full consequences of procrastinating. Somehow, we’ve always managed to pull through, no matter what the assignment, no matter what time of night (or day). Teachers have postponed deadlines or a substitute teacher has forgotten to collect assignments. It could be that we’ve compared our current situations with the sweater story and been able to remain calm and fight the panic of not finishing on time. Maybe we’ve just been lucky all this time and still expect this winning streak to continue.
Other explanations aside, it could be perfectly possible that all those Red Bulls we drank to fuel our all-nighters could have completely messed up our sleeping schedule, making procrastination-itis a permanent disorder.
Okay, you want the honest truth? It’s the fact that I have a warped sense of time; I think I have enough time to do things when I don’t, I don’t make time for the things I need to do, and prioritizing isn’t exactly my forte. Procrastination-itis, as it is known in the scientific community, remains the leading cause of stress and dark under-eye circles found in high school students such as ourselves. We’ve each been told countless times that succumbing to the procrastination-itis will only harm us in the long run. So why, if we’ve already been given the lecture and spoken with some procrastination-itis survivors about its disadvantages, does the night before any due date seem eerily similar?
Perhaps it is because we’ve discovered that waiting some things out may end up being to our benefit. For example, I walked into Target the other day and saw the cutest sweater ever known to woman and was debating whether I should get the maroon or royal purple one. I decided that if I returned later on, I’d have a clearer mind and be able to make the right decision. Two weeks later, I came back and was shocked at what I saw on the sweater shelf: BUY ONE GET ONE FREE!!! TODAY ONLY!!! Not only did I make the right decision to put off sweater buying until a later time, but I also returned home with a grin on my face and two cute sweaters in tow. By applying this to some of the bigger assignments, such as the Mists essay, we can predict that by following the aforementioned example, we will return home with a grin on our faces and two pluses following that big “A.”
Maybe it’s that we haven’t yet experienced the full consequences of procrastinating. Somehow, we’ve always managed to pull through, no matter what the assignment, no matter what time of night (or day). Teachers have postponed deadlines or a substitute teacher has forgotten to collect assignments. It could be that we’ve compared our current situations with the sweater story and been able to remain calm and fight the panic of not finishing on time. Maybe we’ve just been lucky all this time and still expect this winning streak to continue.
Other explanations aside, it could be perfectly possible that all those Red Bulls we drank to fuel our all-nighters could have completely messed up our sleeping schedule, making procrastination-itis a permanent disorder.