HORNET’S NEST Proctor Academy | February 3, 2023 | Vol. 8 | Issue 3
Are You a Procrastinator? By Owen Woods
I sit in my room after a long Proctor day sinking into my bed, knowing I have an English assignment due tomorrow. Do I open myProctor and tiredly revise it, or do I scroll on Tik Tok until midnight…? Many students and some faculty have experienced something similar to this. Procrastination shows no mercy to Proctor. In a survey I sent to our community, 79% of the 84 responses said that they procrastinate. Now if this doesn’t surprise you, that’s fine. But out of everyone who responded, roughly 18 were faculty. This struggle grips many on campus. Research from the McLean Harvard Medical School Affiliate, an international center for medical research, says that procrastination is usually linked with poor mental health, ADHD, and anxiety. Stress and sadness cause us not to be as focused on work, causing procrastination. One Proctor respondent noted, “I have anxiety, so I tend to lose my mind if I’m not caught up on my work, or ahead of my work. Not really a strategy, but it works”. Another wrote, “Taking my ADHD meds [helps], if I don’t have them I constantly procrastinate.” I procrastinate because of my phone addiction. I know many of
you on campus can relate to this, and it’s also why we aren’t getting that much sleep (other than schoolwork). Being a chronic procrastinator fueled by my curiosity to figure out why my smartphone derails me. When there is an assignment sometimes I will just watch videos to try and forget about my work. Another responder explained how summative assessments take more focus and effort and create more procrastination. “Larger ticket items. Hard to start a portion of something I know I can not finish in one sitting.” But next time you have a paper due and your phone looks lonely on that desk or bed, remember that if you complete your work then and there, tomorrow will be only half as hard. If it’s too much for you in the first place, try to establish a routine and set up plans. Don’t let your stress and self-doubt hold you back, it’ll only cut down those grades. One teacher wrote, “Sometimes I see a stack of work that needs to be graded and I want to procrastinate, but then I remember that people are waiting on me and I owe it to them to grade and give good feedback.” We are all doing this work for each other and ourselves, so make Me hard at work at The the most of it Proctor! Hornets Nest