Its 9 o’clock on a Thursday night and your favorite show is about to start. You’re sitting on the couch anticipating the start of the show when all of the sudden it hits you, that paper that was assigned what feels like ages ago, well its due soon, actually its due at midnight. You break out the computer and frivolously get to work. The countdown begins and thus starts the weekly dilemma faced by the average college student.
It’s not like we don’t know when things are going to be due. We are told the second we receive our assignment when it we need to turn it in by, this usually being several days to even weeks before said date. We are told by teachers in grade school not to put our assignments off until he last few days in order to achieve our best work so why are we still doing exactly that? It has become second nature for college level students to put there work off until the last minute but dos this really mean that the work they eventually hand in is in fact of lesser quality because it was done so close to its deadline?
In an article that can be found HERE, The author goes into depth on the causes, consequences and even a study done about procrastination affecting the quality of work. For example the article references a study done by Jin Nam Choi, a business professor a Seoul National University in South Korea. In his study Choi found that there were two types of procrastinators. There were passive procrastinators, who solely procrastinated because of their lack of time management skills. Then there were also active procrastinators who preferred the time pressure and purposely put their work off until the last minute. In their study they found that the active procrastinators, who had the same level of procrastination as their passive counterpart, actually showed a productive use of time and had academic performance outcomes that were similar to and sometimes almost better than the grades of non-procrastinators. With regards to the study Choi was later quoted saying, “From my own life and findings from these studies, I believe that procrastination characterized by these four effects–outcome satisfaction, preference for pressure, intentional decision and ability to meet deadlines–is beneficial for individual well-being and performance.”
I definitely agree with the findings of the study. I think as soon as you find what works best for you it doesn’t matter if you start your assignment the day before or the week before the deadline. It all boils down to personal preference. The one part about the study I did see a potential problem with was that in the study the active procrastinators were asked if they felt they had the same level of procrastination as their counterpart. I feel that this is something that is very variable. I’m never going to know if my level of procrastination is the same as someone else’s; I can assume that it is, but I will never know for sure. That assumption that procrastination levels are the same could throw off the entire experiment so I think there should have been anther step there to ensure that the levels of procrastination were the same.
Very interesting post! I, like many other college students procrastinate horribly. I find myself doing all my assignments (such as this blog period) the day before it is actually due. But for me, I feel like the pressure helps me get things done. That way, I know I have to get it done, and will actually focus more on that task rather than going off and doing a million other things other than the assignment that is due! I also believe that this is personal preference. There are some people who love to get their work done, and then there are those who prefer to spend all night doing the work they’ve had all month to do. Heres another great article on beating procrastination!
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
Procrastinator is easily one of the best ways to describe myself when it comes to school work. I do agree with you that it depends on the person and you may put in the same amount of work if you do an assignment a week before or the night before. However, I think that if you do your work ahead of time then you will have more time to edit, double check, reread, and go over all of your work to make it better. Sure, you got an A- on the assignment that you did the night before, but don’t you think about how if you started a week earlier and looked it over, maybe you could have gotten an A or A+? With more advanced technology, a lot of the time now assignments are online and are timed… In that case, I believe procrastination will not change a thing. If you were going to be timed and rushed a week ago, you will be just as rushed from the time limit the night before. I wish I had my priorities straight. I would love to overcome this quality and become more organized, I know for a fact that my grades would be a lot better. Here are ways you can try to overcome being that procrastinator… http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_96.htm
Procrastination is even a psychological phenomenon. We often rationalize our procrastination by saying that we’ll be fresher if we take a break, or once we come back to it, you’ll be able get back to the task with a newfound passion. However, do we actually come back with a fresh perspective, or is it something else? That we come back with a new intention. If we put it off, then we don’t want to complete the task anyway. However, when we come back we know that we can’t put it off any longer and we finally try to complete the task. The results are inconclusive, but still stimulating http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/201310/procrastination-helps-creative-thinking
This was an interesting blog post! I know that procrastination can be bad, but I think that it really depends on the person. Someone can prefer to work at the last minute, and they might do a good job in that context.