Without a doubt—most students have heard the familiar phrase that all procrastinating does is hold a person back. Whether for the smallest in-class assignments to major multi-partnered projects, procrastination is viewed as a bad thing.
However, I believe it’s not, as long as you know what you’re doing.
Procrastination isn’t for everyone—more evident in some students than others. I can confidently admit that I don’t lack within the skill, only excelling instead. To develop a general foundation for this, you need to be aware of at least three things:
The due date, the difficulty of the work, and your own capabilities in the subject.
There’s almost always more variables when it comes to each assignment. Although, it doesn’t take away the fact that these three things are the most important information you could find for the best success in both good grades and enjoyment.
Remember—these three things are always apparent when you want to procrastinate. Though, it’s how you use them to your advantage that’s important.
The Due Date
You need to be aware of when the assignment is due. You can’t plan out waiting until the last minute if you’re not sure of when to turn it in. This may be one of if not the biggest reasons I’ve seen most mediocre procrastinators screw up.
They, of course, don’t fail the assignment, though they lose the points they could have earned if they properly planned ahead to procrastinate. The grade goal varies between each student. Admittedly, most procrastinators are trying to get it over with.
As for myself however, striving for the best grade while procrastinating tends to result in my best projects and somewhat large assignments. The most vivid example I could provide is Masse’s shoe box project:
It had been an unintentional procrastination emergency, honestly! With the due date the next morning I was able to nab basic art supplies from JOANN Fabrics and an old shoe box. The night was spent with a monster can and a somehow never drying box coated in white paint. Though, when I had checked Aspen the next week—I saw a hundred, a hundred!
I hadn’t let the moment get to my head because obviously, I could have been both proud of my work and get a hundred as well. Which is why taking note of the due date of any assignment, whether you assume easy or not, is important when procrastinating work. This leads onto another important factor to consider, the difficulty of the work you’re leaving off until later.
Difficulty of the Work
This is the make or break for most plans, whether it could save you with only a five minute assignment or leave you reading a section for the rest of an assumed free evening. It’s why you need to at least look at the work to see what you’ll have to deal with later when the time comes.
Similar to checking the time the assignment needs to be turned in, you have to at least look at the work to determine how long it could take. I don’t mean a simple glance at the title either. There’s certainly been at least one assignment every student has glazed over briefly only to check on it to see it needs effort to complete it at all.
Once again mentioning the shoe box project, this had almost become one of my worst make or break works when I had undermined the difficulty of personalizing it toward myself and interests. It had clearly been pure luck that I was able to drive myself into an adrenaline-like state to finish it.
Establishing the difficulty of any work entirely depends on your own capabilities—something that you need to figure out before you even attempt at procrastinating on small assignments.
Identifying Your Own Capabilities
Probably the most important step to procrastinating in general, you can’t do an assignment last minute if you don’t know your strengths. Imagine, you slack off on a math assignment assuming it would take a good ten-ish minutes based on assumed ability. You open your chromebook and click open the assignment to see problems you hadn’t been expecting—by now you need to go to bed before you’re too tired to do that history reading in the morning.
Such scenarios can be avoided if you take a moment to take note of the other two variables and combine them with your own capabilities, the due date and difficulty.
Combining the previous additions with your own capabilities ensure an easier time completing assignments due the next period.
Academic strengths and weaknesses could include the following :
History
English
Language
Math
Sciences
Of course, each student is skilled within certain subjects than their peers, making it a skill. Similar to how some may struggle in a subject while others thrive within it.
It’s why you need to come to terms with what you’re actually good at to determine what can be done quickly and what couldn’t be done efficiently.
Obviously, this has taken a much more spiritual turn—looking into both yourself and what you are able to do. It doesn’t take away from the fact you need to know what you can do rather than just hoping you could pass by on the bare minimum.