Don't Start by Rowan

Don't Start by Rowan - August 2017 Scholarship Essay

I am the world’s leading expert on procrastination. For instance, I didn’t begin to write this essay until twenty minutes before the deadline (no joke). I realize that such a venture is risky and not to everyone’s taste, but I nevertheless believe that procrastination can be a useful skill, when used in the correct context.

From a psychological standpoint, procrastination imparts several benefits. Many a harried high school student has claimed that "I do my best work under pressure." The best of them know this to be false in most cases, and as such they do their best to allot sufficient time to complete assignments and conduct research. However, a consolation often batted around by us lesser beings is “My subconscious is working on that essay while I am sitting out here goofing around on BuzzFeed,” and this claim is in fact borne out by research.

Furthermore, procrastination has the result of reducing the goals one is actually trying to accomplish: if it hasn’t gotten done, then maybe it doesn’t have to. Sorting through my papers from my eight grade math class? No, thanks, I’d rather be learning about the invention of the real number line and exploring world-changing proofs through an online course. Procrastination is the ultimate prioritizer.

In addition, “active procrastination” is the notion that one can avoid the big, looming task one has been dreading while chipping away at more accessible items, thus reducing the overall workload and rendering the necessity of starting work on that task unavoidable. Not only does one thus complete the task, but one finds several other to-do’s done as well–as an example, my bookshelf hadn’t been dusted in years until I was avoiding my college essay. Now my room is clean, and I have three drafts done.

While one is procrastinating, it’s more than likely that inspiration will strike, bringing with it the motivation to do an even better job on that research paper than if one had started weeks in advance. With a task in the back of one’s mind, one can explore different avenues of completing it, and examine the world with an eye to useful and relevant ideas.

As a college professor, I would strive to impart some of my own quality procrastination skills to the next generation of office workers, entrepreneurs, and brilliant thinkers. Sure, it’s often looked down upon to put off tasks to the last possible moment, but, if used correctly, procrastination can be an invaluable tool to produce better, more creative work–and, at the end of this course, it might even be on time.