Story By: Brooklyn Weber, Staff Writer
It is a common misconception that procrastination is a sign of laziness. It can be agreed among societal stereotypes that procrastination is a word with a negative connotation—it is compared to lack of effort or a low sense of responsibility, and especially in school settings, students who struggle with procrastination may be labeled as dumb or careless.
Aside from general stereotypes, psychologists and researchers online share studies claiming that procrastination is most affiliated with mental illnesses or disorders like depression, anxiety, and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Not in any way are these untrue—a tremendous amount of high school and college-age students struggle with depression and anxiety, most of whom are aged 18 to 25. But does that really say that they are the only reasons for procrastination? Why is it that when asked why do people procrastinate? Google responds with several websites, nearly all of them claiming that procrastination is directly linked to mental illnesses?
It could be very confusing for a student to struggle with putting off their schoolwork until the last minute and not knowing how to change their habits, and when they try to find answers for it, their parents or teachers call them lazy, or their research tells them that they are depressed. Now, it is not to say that Google or any other search engine is the most reliable source for finding information. Although it would be unlikely that psychologists and researchers are non-credible, they only ever share studies that collect general and factual information among the most common causes of procrastination. And while facts are important, procrastination is not the same for everyone. There are several reasons as to why one would avoid obligations and tasks besides the most commonly believed factors.
Therefore, would it not be important to share the personal perspective of the students? A lot of the time, students may find an important or long assignment daunting or confusing, and so, they will not know where to start, especially when they are afraid of failure. On an opposite note, some students may simply procrastinate for the rush of adrenaline that comes from saving an assignment for right before the due date that pushes them to get it done quicker. But whatever the reason for procrastination, the real question is: at what point is it fair for procrastination to be considered bad?
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