Procrastination

By Ashley Rocco

 

“Ashley Beth what are you still doing up?” questioned my mother as she unexpectedly barged into my bedroom. It was hard to believe that it was already 11 o’clock at night and I hadn’t even begun writing my English paper, or finish studying for my exam in Spanish. I knew that it was essential to my grades to complete all my assignments, but I also knew it was just as important for my well-being to get as much sleep as possible; averaging five hours nightly was unfortunately not enough. There wasn’t much I could do though, and I spent the remainder of my evening at my mahogany wood desk staring blankly into my computer screen. Procrastination is harmful to your grades and self knowledge because waiting until last minute creates stress, you do not absorb all important information, and your work will not be completed to your full potential.

            The next morning I had great difficulty keeping my eyelids apart. Exhaustion had completely taken me over. Luckily, after gulping down more than the daily recommended supplement of Monster drink, I had enough temporary energy to get me through the rest of my classes. With this new state of mind though, I came to recall a bus load of assignments I hadn’t had the time to complete the evening prior. In turn, I spent my lunch period running between my locker and the library as I attempted to finish off two hours worth of work in a matter of 25 minutes. Each throbbing beat in my head seemed to signify each point my grade declined. I knew I would be regretting this later.

            The two hours in Spanish seemed to pass by as slowly as the daily lunch special through ones digestion system, little or no movement. My energy drinks were causing me to crash fast, and I was only a quarter of a way through my 150 question exam. While I had spent three hours studying, I felt even more clueless than I had before. “You have 10 minutes remaining class” said my teacher in Spanish; at least I believe that is what she said. This unconscious high, combined with a foreign language, was harmful for the brain cells and blood vessels; of which I could already feel exploding in my head. I aggressively made my way out of class as soon as the bell rang. How in my right mind could I have allowed myself to procrastinate?

            I really did believe that my day was so awful it couldn’t get any worse. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I sat down in my regular seat, in my 3^rd hour English class; in hopes of gaining a sense of relief. Instead I found myself frantically completing my essay. My paper was only half way done and what was finished sounded like the ungrammatical speech of a preschooler; even down to the “gaghalgb”. In all honesty, it looked like I had my finger placement wide off the mark, but could one blame me? Typing deep though with extremely glazed over eyes are what we call in chemistry heterogeneous mixtures. They do not fuse well.

            By the weekend I had finally caught up with all my work, got the much needed sleep I was craving for, and was beginning to unwind. This was until my mom made yet another abrupt appearance within my quarters. This time however it was to express her rage about my newly posted marks on Edline. Procrastination, while for some it has its advantages, for most however it is harmful for the grades and interferes with our ability to expand our knowledge. It in all reality it can only generate stress, deprive one of essential information, and decrease the value and potential of ones work. As humans we have a tendency to put off work, the reason is more or less unknown, but in the words of William James, “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging of an uncompleted task.”