Edit Desk: Breaking the procrastination cycle

If you’re anything like me, the cycle of procrastination is painfully familiar. 

In class, your teacher passes out an assignment, for which you immediately write the due date down in your planner. Even with the date practically staring at you, you do everything but write your paper — scrolling mindlessly, hanging out with friends and completing “preferred” homework for your other four classes. 

Suddenly, time becomes your scarcest resource.

You sit down and turn out the essay. Instead of being inspired by the time to ideate, create and revise, you’re distracted by a ticking clock and increasing levels of stress.

Somehow, you produce something satisfactory, or maybe even exceptional.

Identifying as a high-functioning procrastinator can feel like a fashionable title. It always works out for you. No matter how often you go down to the wire, you routinely pass the class with a good grade. 

I’m here to tell you that what you’re sacrificing is far more important than the time you’ve saved.

Writing an ambitious paper devolves to meeting assignment requirements, reading a chapter is lost to scanning a summary and solving a math problem reverts to a Chegg search. We rob ourselves of an educational opportunity by finding an easy way out. We deprive ourselves of the possibility of failure or success in favor of painless passability. 

I often think back to classes I’ve boasted pride-worthy grades in, but wish I had the knowledge disseminated in the course more readily available. 

The reality is, you only take a class once. I will likely never again sit in a geology lecture with the knowledge of a renowned professor at my disposal or write another paper about the history of Brazil’s indigenous population. 

When I say I am a “good” procrastinator, I neglect to see my education as anything other than the sum of 120+ credits taken on a 4.0 GPA scale.

I’m not suggesting we are to blame, either. This mindset is simply the product of a society that views us as our test scores and accomplishments from the second we step foot in elementary school. As we go through college overextended and overwhelmed, it can feel as though procrastination and subsequent academic shortcuts are the only options. 

Oftentimes, it is the pressure for perfection that drives my procrastination. The high standards I set for myself deceive me into believing that staving off a difficult task is better than completing it below my personal expectations. If I don’t try, I haven’t yet failed.

But your grades are not the only indicator of success. Ask yourself: what is your desired outcome after four years in college? 

As much as an education acts as a pathway to career opportunities, economic welfare and social status, it is also how we become better citizens, more critical and creative thinkers and lifelong learners. 

I don’t want to graduate without having embraced every opportunity to grow intellectually. This cannot be achieved by succumbing to my procrastination and doing the bare minimum. 

Time and time again, we’re told that failure is necessary for growth. Yet, the very structure of our education system seems to be built against that principle. My own tendency toward perfectionism and procrastination certainly inhibits this, and it makes me wonder if it was fostered by this system. 

While I may not be able to overthrow the system, I want to give myself the time to stare at a blank page not knowing what to write and re-try a problem I am continuously getting wrong. My mind is worthy of the space to ponder and debate uncomfortably, to not have the answers and work through them anyway. I deserve the opportunity to actually learn.

I am not arguing that we should never cut corners, but rather that we stop viewing these comforts as favorable outcomes. I believe the ability to be confidently knowledgeable and articulate ideas will last longer than a semester on the dean’s list or graduating cum laude. 

Allow yourself enough time to get the experience you want, not the grade you feel you need.