Is Procrastination A Good Thing?

Most students procrastinate, which causes them to stress about their work and academic performance. “You have multiple classes,” said Catherine Apilado, a junior student at Lahainaluna High School, “so the longer you leave out that assignment, the more you’re gonna get more work from different classes.” While this seems like common sense, students are divided.

Freshman Hanan Oleiwan says, “get the stuff over with” because putting it off will just cause you more stress than relief. Oleiwan thinks that procrastination causes students to worry about a task that they will still end up having to complete. Finishing the task will at least provide a feeling of accomplishment.

She added that there is no upside to procrastination. “If you are gonna, like, push stuff away last minute, I don’t think that is usually, like, a good thing.”

Apilado, quoted above, thinks that finishing an assignment can give you the feeling of accomplishment. Everything “is just gonna pile up all your work and it's gonna make you even more stressed out about it.” Finishing the work can make you “feel more accomplished and you feel relieved that it is finally over with.”

Some students already feel stressed when they get an assignment. For some students, this stress interferes with completing it. “The stress just causes me to not wanna do it anymore,” said Ka’iulani Balinbin, “so I hold it off till the last minute.” Yet, this creates a cycle for Balinbin because after putting off her assignment, she ends up “stressing even more.”

Students who procrastinate in school sometimes also procrastinate at home. Freshman Salvador Chiang offers an example: “I say, ‘I will do the dishes later’ and then I forget about it and then I get in trouble.” He adds that there is rarely a way that procrastination could be positive and that “The only way it is positive is if it’s, again, if you’re doing multiple things and then you do the easy things first and then do the hard ones.”

“more ideas to do your assignment”

Although some students say that procrastination is bad, some also say that there could be a chance that procrastination could be used in a good way. They argue that in some situations, procrastination can make students more productive.

For instance, Jaiden James Versola, a senior, states that procrastinating may help students “drive more for last-minute work.” Some people do better under pressure, Versola thinks, and that procrastination helps students push themselves in completing their work. It even helps them focus and “lock-in” on the task.

Differently, freshman Grayson Guzman thinks that putting off an assignment gives students time to reflect as “it could let you have the idea sit in your brain and it’s something you can think about constantly.” Taking the extra time, “is gonna help you in your creativity,” says Guzman. He thinks that it gives you “more ideas to do your assignment or whatever work you have to do.”

Sophomore Micah Ganis thinks that there are certain people who should use procrastination. Ganis says “I would probably encourage it [procrastination] for somebody who is like a workaholic.” He feels as though they would use it more wisely than “somebody who's not good at keeping their time well,” because they would most likely just “waste all their time.”

“To a certain extent, I agree that procrastination can be used in a positive way,” says Mr. Ancheta, a math teacher. “Allowing your brain to think through the problem and process the information thoughtfully prior to taking action on it” can be helpful. However, he adds that it may have “a significant negative effect on their [students’] academic performance.”

Science teacher Judd Levy has a stronger opinion. “...I don’t agree at all,” he said. He thinks that students who say procrastination could have benefits are “just being silly,” and “looking for an excuse to be lazy.”

There needs to be a balance”

“Giving ourselves some time away from a task allows us to think more deeply on a topic or get information that may not have come right away,” Librarian Tara Nakata says. But she also thinks that “there needs to be a balance between putting something off, and still allowing enough time to complete it satisfactorily.”

Nakata added that “There might be something that I need to finish - like cleaning the house because guests are coming over, but I decide to work on a crochet project instead. We all make decisions like this that work against us.”

Students are still learning. They all agree that procrastination has a bad side, though some students thought that it could be a positive thing. Freshman Eli Hegrenes sums it up by saying that “It depends,” and that “You can do it sometimes but try not to make it a habit.”