Better Late Than Never?

Taylor Morton
BMHS Pridetime Reporter

Procrastination is a term high school students are all too familiar with. Putting school work and assignments off till the last minute has become common practice. Most high school students will admit to procrastinating, and most of them have good reasoning for doing so- or so they think.

Bash Cunningham (‘18) says “I procrastinate because I have enough trust in myself that I’ll get my work done before an assignment is due but I always pt it off til the last second.

“I like to be busy” says Valentina Zuleta a senior who likes to keep a full schedule. “I end up scheduling so many things in one day that I put off my work and end up with no time to complete it.”

Ali Walsh (‘18) says she procrastinates on the classes she likes the most because their most often the easiest. “The simpler the assignment the more I procrastinate” says Walsh.

With so many students pleading guilty to it, procrastination is a normalized problem. Although student schedules are filled with sports, clubs, college applications on top of the ridiculous amount of work teachers assign, its important to not wait to complete assignments last minute.

According to physiologicalscience.org “Evidence suggests that putting off important tasks causes stress, and this additional stress contributes to negative psychophysiological impacts on the body”

Mrs. Sullivan a health teacher at Brien McMahon High School says you should avoid procrastination at all costs. Procrastination may not seem like a big deal but it can seriously affect your health, attitude and body.

“The biggest health risk with procrastination is sleep deprivation. Teenagers need at least 9 hours of sleep” says Sullivan. “If your doing a project at two a.m. your not going to get enough sleep.”

Being sleep deprived from staying up late studying or finishing homework can lead to a poor attitude the next day in school. Your lack of sleep can affect your relationships with friends and faculty, increase stress and cause lack of motivation, and its all due to procrastination.

“Procrastination is a vicious cycle” says Sullivan. And she's right. Once you start it's hard to stop. Despite this there are a few ways to help curb your procrastination and start being on top of your studies. Mrs. Sullivan says the first step is to eliminate distractions around you.

The obvious answer to completing your work is getting rid of the distractions around you. Your phone is the biggest procrastination factor. By keeping your phone in a different room while studying you isolate yourself from distractions are more likely to get your work done and be more productive.

Second, set a goal for yourself even if the goal is small. Sullivan says “Writing out your goal will make you more likely to achieve it. Written goals are also harder to forget.

Finally, “Don’t be too hard on yourself!”. “One way for chronic procrastinators to reduce stress is by targeting the harsh self-critical thoughts that disrupt adaptive coping” says Physcologicalscience.org. If you start late on assignment don't internalize your frustration. Use your emotion and put the effort into your school work and assignments. ​