Education and Procrastination by Courtney

Education and Procrastination by Courtney - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

Education and Procrastination

Procrastination is a term that most college students experience. I remember when I was going to school for my Associate’s Degree that I had my first experience with procrastination. I was taking a class called Community Ethics and I knew the paper that I had to do was due soon but, I kept putting it off. It wasn’t until I went to class one day that I remembered I had to do it and didn’t have that much time. When the due date came, I turned it in on time but after my professor graded the papers she came to class a little annoyed.
She explained that one of the students used the same word over 30 times and that it was inexcusable. Everyone was making comments toward what our professor said but when I got home, I found out that the person that wrote the same words over 30 times in their paper was me. Since then, I have gotten better with procrastination, but I would like to stop it all together. In order to become a better student in 2016, my New Year’s Resolution is to stop procrastinating. This essay will outline procrastination as a whole, causes, and tips to prevent procrastination.
Procrastination is when you take your time or keep putting off doing a task that needs to be completed. Procrastination can happen at school, work, and at home but for the purpose of this essay, we are focusing on school. In regards to school, tasks such as homework, projects, and essays have deadlines. Alfred D. Souza quotes, “Time waits on no one” (Lua Hadar's Blog, 2010). The quote stated above is one that I have heard many times, not only in my educational life but in my personal as well. I have learned from this quote and I know that in order to stop procrastinating, I am going to have to come up with a plan or a better way to overcome it.
Individuals including myself have our reasons for putting off a task which causes procrastination. Students from the University of Texas in San Antonio generated a causes and cures list for procrastination including fear of success or failure, overestimating the time left to complete a task, underestimating the time required to complete the task, believing that they must be in the mood to do a task, and over reliance on time-saving modern technology (utsa.edu). The reason I procrastinated was due to overestimating the time left to complete a task. At the beginning of school, the professors handed out a syllabus that outlines the entire semester. At the time of my incident I always made the excuse, “Oh I can start on it this weekend” or “I still have time.” It wasn’t until the assignment was due in two or three weeks that I realized that I needed to start on the essay as soon as possible because I was taking three other classes at the same time while I was taking Community Ethics.
Cures or Tips to prevent procrastination are to communicate with your professor, use your resources that are available, and time management. According to the students from the University of Texas in an Antonio, other cures/tips include changing your flawed thinking to positive, realistic thinking, set goals or have a plan, prioritize and divide your tasks, organize your work area and tools before you begin, use a semester calendar and reminders to help you complete important tasks, and reward yourself when you finish on time (utsa.edu). I find that time management, prioritizing and dividing tasks, as well as organizing your work area and tools before you begin works for me. I always make an outline before doing an essay and make sure I have the necessary tools when I have a project.
As a result, procrastinating on an assignment or project is not a good thing. It is not good for the student or their grades. The tips outlined above can help with procrastination and make life in class easier. I have learned from my mistakes and no longer procrastinate like I had in my prior college years. My New Year’s Resolution is to become a better student in 2016 and I am going to make this a priority as I continue to strive for excellence in my studies. My education means everything to me and achieving my Master’s Degree is my ultimate goal.