Put an End to Procrastination by Grace

Put an End to Procrastination by Grace - January 2016 Scholarship Essay

One of the largest struggles students have is procrastination. Students across the country put off writing essays, finishing problems, and working on projects, among other school work. The procrastination does not stop there. Some may put off going to the gym or doing the one thing on their to-do list that they never seem to manage to cross off, day in and day out.
I am as guilty as many are when it comes to putting off assignments. Who wants to do the reading assignment when Netflix is calling your name? There are many theories as to why people will prefer to do menial tasks over marking those large tasks off the to-do list. Some believe doing simple tasks, such as scrolling through a Twitter feed, triggers areas of the brain, creating a sense of accomplishment. Others say the large tasks are daunting and that you should try to break big projects into smaller, less discouraging assignments. Another possibility is that students are just lazy and have little to no desire to put forth the strenuous effort to do their work.
Another question I ask myself is why does it seem so much harder to sit down and do my work now that I am in college, opposed to when I was in high school? The work doesn’t seem that much harder. Many tend to think that this struggle occurs because students’ parents are not breathing down their necks making them finish assignments or study for the next test. However, my parents never told me I should be doing my work, I did it on my own with my pure determination to finish my assignment and collect my A. Some say it is students’ ways of rebelling against what they’ve always done. Others believe students procrastinate more because they are always surrounded by friends and there is always something going on. All of these theories are quite possible, but I have my own theory.
A huge change from high school to college, is the loss of structure. In high school you get up and go to school. After school you might go home or maybe you have a regularly scheduled club after school that you go to. After that maybe you go home or maybe you go to your part-time job. Then you can eat dinner, do your homework, and go to bed. These schedules vary from person to person, but generally there was a nice structure to them. In college your classes can be different every day and it is hard to have a ridged schedule that you follow. There is so much time you no longer have to spend in the classroom on a daily basis. You go from having seven hours of classes to about four hours per day. With the extra time, you lose structure to your day. I no longer had the time set aside after my practice before I went to bed to finish my assignments. This, I believe, is the root to my lack of motivation.
Throughout my days, I find myself saying I’ll work on one assignment at this time and a different assignment after that class. However, when the time rolls around, I am sitting, eyes locked to my phone screen, scrolling through Instagram or napping. Why is it then that I always make it to class, practice, or events my friends schedule? I believe it is because I commit to them. I write down my schedule for my classes, practices, and games, blocking out time during my days to go to them. I verbally tell my friends that I will be at their dorm at a certain time, or I send them a text confirming I will be there. By making the verbal or written commitment, I was more likely to do what I said I would do, which leads to my resolution: structure my day and schedule time to work and sleep.
By structuring my day, I believe I will be more likely to actually do my work when I say I will. When I make my schedule for my classes I will include blocks of time for me to work on assignments, using my written commitment to keep myself on track. In addition to scheduling time to work on assignments, I think it will be beneficial set a time when I want to be in bed and wake up. Ideally, this will allow me to get enough rest each night and avoid then need for naps between classes. More importantly, however, this will create a deadline to finish everything for the day. This past semester I found myself consistently awake at two in the morning finishing a paper or assigned problems because I let myself procrastinate, putting off the work until later. By writing down that I have to be asleep, by say midnight, ideally I will do my assignments earlier and not let my mind wander as much during the day. Deadlines, in a sense, provide motivation. Everyone knows the one person that always waits until the last minute and manages to pump out an essay to turn in.
I believe that by creating a schedule that includes time to do homework and sleep, I will curb my procrastination habits. I think I will also be more motivated to finish assignments. With more motivation and less procrastination, I believe I will be a better, more rested student.