Procrastination
and the
College Freshman

I want to talk about procrastination. Truth be told, it is an epidemic amongst high schoolers, from freshmen to seniors. Why do we do it? I’m curious to know. When we come home, many of us don’t start our homework until hours after checking Facebook and our e-mails and going online and video chatting with friends…why? I don’t understand it, yet I’m guilty of this, too. I get distracted easily or I get caught up in something that has nothing to do with my homework.
But really, why do we procrastinate? We know the implications: procrastination means we’ll start our homework late, which means we’ll rush and do a poor job. Then, we won’t be able to go to sleep at a decent time, which means we’ll be tired the next day, which means we’ll pay less attention in school, and so on and so forth. Procrastination negatively affects the sports we play and the classes we take, not to mention our sleep cycle and work ethic. It upsets our parents and our teachers. We don’t feel like we’ve been successful in our studying – our grades suffer, our sense of accomplishment suffers.
I don’t like to think into the future, but I will just for a moment. I’m slightly scared that next year in college, I won’t arrive with a grounded work ethic. I’ll want to procrastinate, I’ll get distracted, I’ll put off my work. But is that really what I want? Not at all. I want to finish high school with a serious sense of my abilities as a worker. I want to be able to focus and finish things at a decent time. I want to sleep! The fact that I’m worried about this concerns me: I should be able to put a stop to this before I move on to college, where I will be completely independent. Isn’t it time to step up my work ethic?
So how can I make this happen? How can I turn over a new leaf, as my second semester as a senior no less? I think the easiest thing is to write goals. This week, I took a post-it note and wrote down the assignments I wanted to complete everyday. It’s a rocky and a slow start, but at least it’s a step. I’ll let you know how it goes…