Save this article for later. You do have e-mails to check, wall posts to make on Facebook, an afternoon shift and a friend’s gig to go to tonight. Plus, you’ll get to it right afterward … right?
Not quite, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education. The college and university focused newspaper reports 70 per cent of post-secondary students usually procrastinate.
Compare that to the general population, of whom only 20 per cent put tasks off and students start looking like the young slackers they’re reputed to be.
But before writing off more than one-million students who returned to college and university this month, comparing their circumstances to preceding pupils might help explain just why so many of them delay.
“Students have way more things on their plate now than they did 10 or 15 years ago. They are balancing a lot more than a student club,” says Christie Goode.
She’s the Vancouver-based creator of HomeworkTree.com, a new online planning resource for post-secondary students that help them to allocate time to complete assignments and offers homework tips.
Goode says the context of university creates a perfect environment for procrastination. “(University) is a unique environment that breeds this possibility. It’s a social and work context that doesn’t happen in other areas of life.” She chalks up that circumstantial distinction to the abundance of long-term deadlines, extra-curricular activities and free time only typical of students.
In spite of the educational tie, Goode says student procrastination can put more than just grades at risk. Health impacts like higher stress and depression and ethical impacts like increased cheating and plagiarism are just some of the added consequences Goode says procrastination leads to.
To avoid such dangers, she suggests becoming gradually more intentional about assignments.
“Exercising a little bit of discipline every week to reach a goal goes a long way in exercising that muscle.” The “muscle” is self-control, says Goode; a function Australia’s Macquarie University found can be strengthened through exercise like any muscle in your body.
