High schoolers face an abundance of responsibilities, with extracurricular activities and homework assignments consuming after-school hours, leaving little wiggle room for free time. With such tight schedules, students must manage their time efficiently to meet deadlines. This is easier said than done. It can mostly be attributed to procrastination, a habit that almost everybody struggles with but rarely finds a solution to. Since many LOHS students grapple with the same issue, the question arises: is procrastination curable?
The problem of procrastination is an umbrella for many types of workers. There are four main types of procrastinators, each with their own personality and reasons for putting off work. The Performer is someone who thrives on the thrill of doing something at the last minute and will purposely put off work until the last minute. A Self-Depracator procrastinator makes excuses for themselves, pitying their unfortunate studying habits and getting no work done in the meantime. An Overbooker might say yes to everything and fill their calendar, only to get overwhelmed and not get anything done. Similarly, Novelty-Seeker procrastinators take on new things while still needing to focus on another, ultimately never finishing anything. Taking all these habits into consideration, the weight of frustration from feeling lost can be lessened if there is a start to understand how to fix them.
I myself am a procrastinator, even to the extent that my parents decided to find me a “procrastination coach” over the summer to fix the problem. The program included weekly sessions identifying where I was getting distracted in my life and learning tools to help me correct it. I can’t determine whether these classes brought miraculous results, and I still wonder if my struggle in stopping procrastination is a problem only with me, or if the majority of my peers share the same sentiment. Sophomore Blake Anderson shares how hard it can be to stop putting off work until the last minute: “Once people start procrastinating and realize they can get away with it, it’s addictive. Once you realize you can, it becomes a cycle.”
Forcing unnecessary stress for convenience isn’t worth the high chances of burnout that come with this lifestyle. Luckily, despite how consuming our habits can feel, they’re not forever. Anderson describes that to start to fix procrastinating “you have to accept that you are. If you don’t, you won’t fix it; if you do, remove the things that distract you.” Many of us can agree that getting distracted is a common occurrence, and that can make beating procrastination even more daunting. What’s important is to be patient with ourselves and to remember that the little steps matter. Although it’s surprisingly and frustratingly hard, putting your phone away and turning on Do Not Disturb might be the easiest way to begin.
