Procrastination Speech.

University Degree Education and Teaching

SPE 111.01

5/19/03

Procrastination Speech

A poster depicts a huge polar bear lying prone on a flue of ice. The caption under it reads, "When I get the feeling to do something, I lie down until the feeling goes away". Such is the sigh of the student procrastinator: broken by frustration, unable to catch up, chained by stress and sustained by the simple apathetic response, "I don't care anymore". Yet, most people who procrastinate have not cheerfully handed in their resignations. In fact, students struggle incessantly to shake off procrastination. We plan and schedule; we write down and underscore; we promise and make resolutions; we organize and reorganize. Generally, we accomplish short-lived refreshment from procrastination, and then crash soundly back into it. The bad tendency to procrastinate is one that, for students, often leads to stress, late assignments, and lower grades.

Stress is a result of procrastination. This stress is derived from increasing the demands placed on the student, increasing how intimidating an assignment is perceived by the student, and by giving the student a sense of failure when a lower grade is received. When a student, for example, receives an assignment for a ten page paper, due in two weeks those students will recall being weary-eyed staring blankly at the screen, trying to reach the minimum word limit on a paper as a deadline approaches. Many will think, "Why did I decide to start this paper this morning instead of two weeks ago, like I had planned?" Meanwhile, others, those labeled "non-procrastinators," sit comfortably in their dorm rooms watching reruns of "The Simpsons." This increase in demands results from not working on the assignment earlier at some point in the allotted time. The student perceives a sense of ‘missing out,’ causing a form of depression increasing their overall stress level until the assignment is completed.

As the due date for a paper approaches, the assignment may begin to seem too big to complete thus starts to intimidating the student causing motivated procrastination. Intimidation-motivated procrastination usually expresses itself as avoidance and the intense desire to either delay performing a task or wait for its expiration so that it no longer has to be dealt with. Often one task is related to another and the cluster of avoided tasks increases over time. As outstanding tasks mount, the procrastinator becomes resigned, depressed, and inactive. As a result, the student becomes susceptible to stress related health problems.

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After five hours of backbreaking labor writing a paper, it is completed, it is handed in to the instructor, and then after waiting for a couple of days for the instructor to grade the assignment, it is returned to the student. Psychologists Dianne M. Tice and Roy F. Baumeister of Case Western Reserve University examined the performance, stress and health effects of procrastination on students and on the quality of students' work. They found that students who procrastinate reported lower stress levels and fewer illnesses as semesters began. However, when papers came due and exams were scheduled toward the end of the semester, procrastinators reported higher stress levels and more illnesses. Procrastinators received lower grades on average than students who did not procrastinate — on all assignments. This lower grade gives the student a ‘sense of failure’, which further adds to their stress.

Late assignments are an obvious result from procrastination. Procrastination leads students to underestimate the time needed to complete the assignment, promotes disorganization, and hinders the student’s ability to conform to changes in classroom schedules. When a student receives an assignment and is given an ample amount of time to complete it, the student may seriously underestimate the amount of time required to complete such an assignment. With this comes, setbacks, delays, and late assignments if they are not completed within the allotted time.

Procrastination and disorganization are integrally linked. In fact, procrastination-oriented disorganization occurs in three primary areas, distractibility, forgetfulness, and lumping. Students can get distracted easily and it is not surprising to find procrastinators explaining that a task is left unattended to because "something else came up". Typically, forgetful procrastinators assume they have an excellent memory and often insist that they remember even though they appear to have forgotten and it is common to hear "Of course, I remember. I was just about to do it". Finally, a major part of procrastination- oriented disorganization comes in the form of "lumping" or "chunking", that is, the willful perception that most tasks come as an inseparable whole (a "lump") that cannot be subdivided and dealt with systematically. The harried student who thinks of "writing a ten page research paper" as a massive single-lump task would likely procrastinate over writing the paper, bad habits such as procrastination promote disorganization, this increased disorganization leads to damaged information, missing handouts, and missed due dates.

The ability to adapt to changes in the classroom assignment schedule is necessary for a student. Without this ability, if the classroom assignment schedule were to change, the student would be unable to produce the work. For instance, an assignment is assigned to be turned in to the instructor in two weeks, after a week the instructor decides to advance the due date to that day, the student would be left with nothing to show for himself. Thus, the student’s inability to conform to changes will degrade the student’s overall grade on such an assignment or cost the student the grade completely.

The result of procrastination done by a student is lower grades. These lower grades are due to reducing the time available for completing the assignment, reducing the quality of work produced, and by changing the student’s priority from studying to completing the due assignment. After putting off doing the required work for a college course the time available to complete the assignment is reduced causing a ‘rushed’ feeling and changing the student’s focus to speed and finishing the task on time.

While ‘rushing’ to get the due assignment completed, students forego quality for quantity. As time available to complete the assignment wanes away the focus to produce quality work. In a study by Kansas state college 85% of students that did not start their term papers when they were assigned received lower grades than students that started right away and worked on the paper until the due date.

When a student puts off doing an assignment until the last moment, the student must change their priorities from studying to completing the due assignment. When making a total transition from studying to completing an assignment, the student may not perform as well as other students who not only completed the assignment, but also, did the required reading and activities. Abraham Lincoln said, ”Better to remain silent and appear a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Overall, a student who procrastinates is unprepared for class and does not perform as well as prepared students, causing a decline in the students overall grade in the class.

Procrastination is a negative cycle from stress to tardiness, from tardiness to declined performance, from decline performance back to stress. However, with the systematic visualization method, you can see yourself achieving your goals and you get a solid idea of the effort required to get there. Even hazy, indeterminate visualization can help a student’s brain get ready for the real thing. That kind of preparation can lead to academic success, and to reduced stress as well. Some of the things you can do to reduce procrastination include recognizing self-defeating problems such as; fear and anxiety, difficulty concentrating, poor time management, indecisiveness and perfectionism. Identify your own goals, strengths and weaknesses, values and priorities. Compare your actions with the values you feel you have. Are your values consistent with your actions? Discipline yourself to use time wisely: Set priorities. Study in small blocks instead of long time periods. For example, you will accomplish more if you study/work in 60 minute blocks and take frequent 10 minute breaks in between, than if you study/work for 2-3 hours straight, with no breaks. Reward yourself after you complete a task. Motivate yourself to study: Dwell on success, not on failure. Try to study in small groups. Break large assignments into small tasks. Keep a reminder schedule and checklist. Set realistic goals. Modify your environment: Eliminate or minimize noise/ distraction. Ensure adequate lighting. Have necessary equipment at hand. Don't waste time going back and forth to get things. Don't get too comfortable when studying. A desk and straight-backed chair is usually best (a bed is no place to study). Be neat! Take a few minutes to straighten your desk. This can help to reduce day-dreaming.

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