When BC student Marianne DeSilva was asked to express her view on procrastination and how it relates to college, she replied, “Ask me later.” Students procrastinate in everything. Studying for tests, math homework, reading that novel for history or English class. All of these are often put aside and are dealt with at the last minute.
Many students find that they work better under pressure and that is why they wait to the last minute to do things, according to various BC students.
Steven High, a 20-year-old psychology major at BC, admits to procrastinating on a regular basis.
“When it comes to procrastination, I am the king,” High said. “I don’t do things until the morning it’s due.”
But procrastination is a double-edged sword.
“I do a really good job but I don’t learn as much, I just get the grade,” he said. “If you want to actually learn, then plan ahead.”
Another way to deal with procrastination is to not procrastinate at all.
Nineteen-year-old BC student Katie Swank takes that approach.
“Procrastinating gets you nowhere,” she said. “If you don’t (plan ahead), then you’ll start watching TV, or you’ll start eating, and then by the time you know it, it’s nine o’ clock and you have to go to bed.”
Steven Holmes, a political science professor said that he procrastinated as a student.
“As a past student myself, I found that I procrastinated especially early in my college career,” he said, “But as I realized that the more organized I became and the better prepared and on time I was with getting assignments done, the better my grades tended to be.”
With college applications due at the end of last month, and students now registering for spring classes, the counselors here at BC have been busy.
BC counselor Don Turney has had his share of dealing with procrastinating students.
“I really hate it,” Turney admitted. “But it’s also tempered with me being a procrastinator myself when I was that age, so there is that bit of compassion towards them.”
But Turney also has dealt with students who don’t procrastinate.
“The people who take care of business, and get things done on time, they got the world by the tail,” he said. “They get their names in first for financial aid, they get their names in first for classes, because they don’t procrastinate.”
Turney offered some tips to help stop procrastination.
“The key is to get organized,” he said. “When is this due, when is that due, and write it down.”
When people see the reward of not procrastinating, this will condition them not to put things off in the future according to Turney.