In Defence of the Procrastinator
I am a horrible student.
Not in an academic context, though. I actually love school – I even want to become a teacher. I love papers and research and discussions and interacting with people who love the same things as I do.
But “doing school”? “Adulting”? Time management and meal prepping and studying? Forget all that stuff, why should I start doing homework now when I can just do it later?
In defence of the procrastinator, we actually do have some skills.
I find that I produce some of my best writing under pressure of a looming deadline, and after a long day of classes, us procrastinators like to unwind.
I think that there are still ways that we can be productive while procrastinating. I love to discover new music on Spotify (a favourite playlist of mine recently is the UVic Live Music Club Playlist, which includes songs written, produced, and performed by UVic students!), studying for a different class that I would rather be doing than the more relevant task at hand, or catching up with friends from back home that I haven’t reached out to since I left high school.
To those who believe procrastinators don’t get anything accomplished:
I know that the consequences of procrastination largely outweigh the benefits, but on behalf of the procrastinators of UVic, I ask you to just give us a chance to prove ourselves.
Give us the benefit of the doubt that when it comes down to the wire, most of the time, we’re going to create something that is not only usable, but sometimes even exceeding expectations. Have faith in us.
To the procrastinators of UVic:
I get it. And I’m one of you. It is easier to just lay on your bed on your phone, but remember that putting things off doesn’t make them go away. I find that worrying about an overdue assignment takes more energy than actually doing the assignment 95% of the time.
University is a great time for you to try out a new notetaking method or easy meal prep hack! Mine is to study literally anywhere else other than my house, because if I do, I know exactly where my bed and the fridge are. I recently checked out Camosun College’s Alan Batey Library & Learning Commons and it was a great new conducive learning environment!
You’re definitely free to keep up this habit. The beauty of university is that the only person accountable for your education is you. There isn’t really anyone checking your transcript for you to make sure you have everything finished at a given time. But that also leaves a warning: procrastinate at your own risk.
With that being said, now it’s back to studying for the cumulative 40% exam that I hadn’t started reviewing until 2 days ago.
