Procrastination

[Quantom Quak]

It's finals time at my school, and my classes have two essays due today: one for humanities and one for biochem. I finished both of my essays around Wednesday and revised them yesterday, so I'm all set. I had so much free time today I beat Lugaru and played a lot of other games, and also studied for my other finals. I hoped that at my new school, people would take studying seriously, yet here I am. Sitting in a room posting this thread, while literally four people around me have not done their work. I know a few more people that have not even started, and the essays are due in 13 minutes.

So, why do you think people procrastinate? Is it lack of organization, or are people just lazy?
If you put off your work, why? I can't figure it out.

 

[SoopaSte123]

I procrastinate for several reasons:

1. I'm lazy. Smart, but lazy. I know I can get it done just fine at the last minute.

2. I work well under pressure. I have come up with some of my best theses and ideas when it was crunch time, not to mention I'm one of those people whose first draft doesn't need revision because I'm so picky as I write it.

3. It takes less time. When it's crunch time, I work faster, and therefore spend less overall time working, which leads back to my laziness.

4. Fear. This is a big one for me. If I'm intimidated by an assignment, I try to put it out of my head and worry about it later. It's stupid to do this, I know, but it happens nonetheless.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are the ones that come to mind.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

sometimes people just do not care at all.

that, or there's just something much more interesting to do at the moment

or their grades are good enough for them so it isn't worth the effort

procrastination is a terrible thing

 

[Evil Moo]

I'm procrastinating right now.

I think it is to do with the way our brains interpret different activities. Procrastinating generally means doing something with far more short term reward to incentivise continuing with this activity. Studying or writing a report or essay doesn't have the same quick hit reward and it is often difficult to prioritise the less obvious long term benefits of these tasks over the short term buzz of procrastinatory activities.

 

[TheOneandOnly]

I should be working on 3D graphics programming, but I got distracted by this site.

When I have deadline to work to, I tend to work better when I have very little time. Not quite sure why that is, but I'm sure there's a psychological/physiological reason behind it.

 

[BabyRaptor]

Normally when I'm putting something off it's simply because I don't want to do it.

If it's anything more important than "I'm too tired to shower tonight...I'll do it tomorrow morning" I don't end up putting it off long.

 

[are.you.the.god.its.me.vader]

I tend to bury my head in the sand and find an excuse not to do essays....

There's just too many distractions, I got rid of my Xbox so I could actually do some work, it's just too bad I bought a mandolin!

 

[RaNDM G]

I'm the King of my own nation.

Procrastination.

 

[Quantom Quak]

I just generally fell good after I get something done that I've been working hard on. I feel more confident. Also, I fell like my thoughts are more organized. If I need to change something, I can find it more quickly.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Mind numbing amounts of apathy.

This isn't just laziness, this is laziness turned up to 11.

Also I'm naturally smart, meaning I have even less inclination to get started early.

I have a Maths exam in 2 days, a Psychology exam in 3 days and another Maths exam in a week, I haven't revised for so much as an hour.

Sometimes I wish I could change, then I just go to bed for a few hours instead...

 

[Pyrosomniac]

I'm procrastinating right now. I've got my Leaving Certificate exams on starting next Wednesday, which is also my Birthday, and I just can't focus on them at all.

Also from time to time I find myself so lazy I can barely even finish my own sente-

 

[The SettingSun]

My GCSE (finals) are next week, and i have spent most of today lounging about the house.
Why? Because if i start revising i feel the pressure, if i don't do it i can forget about it for abit.

I'll be fine though, I know what I'm like so I started revising ages ago so now it's just a matter of making it fresh in my head again. I'll be fine...... I hope.

 

[lobster1077]

I'm procrastinating right now. I've got my Leaving Certificate exams on starting next Wednesday, which is also my Birthday, and I just can't focus on them at all.

Also from time to time I find myself so lazy I can barely even finish my own sente-

Ah, sounds like my position last year, I only started studying properly a week before the exams and still managed 380 points, it was a good 9 or 10 hours of study a day though. You better start studying you'll regret it otherwise. =D

 

[SomethingUnrelated]

I have a serious problem with procrastination. Whenever I should be doing something academic, I manage to distract myself with stuff like this very site...

 

[Sticky Squid]

I have my maths exam on monday which determines whether or not I get into the college courses I want...
To prepare for this, I had a 2 hour long discussion about food and browsed the web.

 

[TheIronRuler]

It's finals time at my school, and my classes have two essays due today: one for humanities and one for biochem. I finished both of my essays around Wednesday and revised them yesterday, so I'm all set. I had so much free time today I beat Lugaru and played a lot of other games, and also studied for my other finals. I hoped that at my new school, people would take studying seriously, yet here I am. Sitting in a room posting this thread, while literally four people around me have not done their work. I know a few more people that have not even started, and the essays are due in 13 minutes.

So, why do you think people procrastinate? Is it lack of organization, or are people just lazy?
If you put off your work, why? I can't figure it out.

To tell you the truth, some smaller papers I don't touch will the deadline hovers over my head like democles' sword, the only difference is that I'm not a king. It's a challenge to see how you can pull off an SA in ten minutes worth of recess.
I'm not a native speaking Englishman, therefore I can simply write down an SA while the teacher is checking who's in class, which takes about threee minutes.
As you can see I have some skill in this annoying language, but in comparison to my peers it's as if you would compare an English professor to a toddler.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Boredom.

Sheer boredom of the subject matter makes me not want to write about it.

Especially if there are fun games to be playing.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I sometimes find it really hard to get my thoughts down on paper. It makes perfect sense in my head, but then when I go to write it down, it's gone or doesn't sound right or is wrong in some other way. Working under pressure usually helps.

I end up getting really frustrated and end up putting it off untill later.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

Luckily for you, I have spent the last ten years studying procrastination and it's reasons and causes with a team of the world's greatest scientists. I'll tell you our findings later.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Thing with me is, when I try to do my work early, I can never get any good ideas or points. Something about the impending deadline motivates my thinkerbox to work better.