Procrastination: A Bigger Issue Than You Imagine

Written by Stanley W.

What do the teachers and administrators in AISG need to address the serious procrastination issue so that students can enjoy life in school without anxiety and stress? 

An image of a clock with the word “deadline” and all the hands of the clock getting closer to it from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-wait-the-science-behind-procrastination. 

According to the American Psychological Association, over 80% to 95% of college students suffer from procrastination, and high school is not far from that. Even though schools have been around for hundreds of years, procrastination still exists as a problem for students. It’s one of the most common problems in schools and universities. According to a Statistics Teacher at the University of Texas named Dana Stiles, teachers can’t seem to help since students have no idea how to ask for help, especially after the pandemic. Of course, this does not immediately mean they’re not doing anything about it, but this is an ongoing issue that needs to be talked about. Just like any other school, AISG students have a hard time dealing with procrastination themselves.  

“This is a challenge,” one of the Technology and Data Coordinators in AISG, Tim Evans, said while getting interviewed about his perspective on procrastination in school, “even for the most dedicated adults.”  

According to the Counseling and Psychological Services of the University of Kansas, procrastination could lead to large amounts of anxiety, low self-esteem, low confidence, negative thoughts, increased laziness, unproductiveness, inefficiency, etc. Procrastination also gets worse and worse as time goes on without any treatment, leading to self-hatred, self-harm, and worse.  

“I feel bad about my grades,” said Manoj H, a student in 10th grade who suffers from procrastination himself, “Worse when my parents yell at me for it.” 

After all the problems they had to deal with one by one, not a lot of students will reflect on their actions and ask, why did this even happen in the first place? 

According to the McLean Hospital, there are hundreds of reasons why students would rather procrastinate than do the actual work. For example, they don’t think the job is useful or enjoyable, they have the fear of failure, they have perfectionism, or they just want to put it aside for later but end up never doing it. Technology also plays a huge role in procrastination. Video games, for example, distract students from stressful project assignments and transfer them to a world of their imagination. Video games also provide instant rewards and prizes after playing on them, which differentiates from average homework assignments, where it seems that not much is given after completing it.  

An example of a 10th–grade math homework of an AISG student that was turned in a month ago. Since then, there have been no points, grades, or even comments from the teacher after handing in the homework.  

As technology becomes more and more advanced, video games become easier and easier to access for students. Students have a hard time looking for sources to research on where there is an extension on the top right of the Google webpage that links them directly towards games like minesweeper or Tetris, which, obviously, is more entertaining than looking up articles for your next science project. Social media also is designed to try and capture the attention of their target audience. Students might open their phone to see some homework that are due soon and suddenly see hundreds of notifications pop up from their apps such as Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter (X), showing them cute puppy photos, funny videos, or exciting news happening online.  

“It makes you lose touch with reality, and to be dragged into a different ‘digital’ dimension in which you have a better chance of success,” Jimmy Z, a 10th grade AISG student, explains about his experiences with video games, “most of the time juxtaposed against the chances of the real world.”  

The administrators of AISG had discussed some plans to stop procrastination, but in a way that does not alter the behaviors of most students. According to Tim Evans, AISG is trying to convert technology from a distraction to a support tool, and we have seen this situation being conveyed in the past few years. For example, school Wi-Fi can shut off some gaming websites students commonly use, including Minecraft, Roblox, etc. They also provided hundreds of easy-to-use sources to use when researching so students don’t have to go scrolling through the internet researching. They also started introducing AI technology for self-learning and online research for students to use. These methods sound very well thought out and helpful in stopping procrastination, but according to a public survey I gave out for my school, over half of the respondents have overdue/late work.  

While AISG is helping students overcome procrastination using technology and tools, they forgot the main reason for procrastination, which is the students’ decision. While these methods seem very useful and students could use this to make their school life easier, that does not hide the fact that most students have no interest in doing the work in the first place or have any sort of self-control to stop them from going to do other things. These methods AISG are using are only a temporary solution and don’t fully solve the problem of procrastination, which means it’s hard for AISG to fix the issue.  

“Procrastination is an integral part of getting things done,” said Jason Boyd, an AISG art teacher, who has experiences of students procrastinating on the assignments that he gave out, “No human is capable of non-stop sustained cerebral effort for 90 minutes straight.”  

Overcoming procrastination is a difficult task, but there are some other strategies that AISG could implement to reduce procrastination. According to the National Institute of Health, some schools/universities are already implementing methods to reduce procrastination. For example, they use projects to practice time management, where students must set their own deadlines on what to do, over the course of a few months, to finish this project on time. This gives the students freedom to choose what to do and how to do the project.  

Another method is peer reflection, where teachers quickly give feedback on the student’s work and give some feedback with some chances of improvements. This makes the students more satisfied with their work and have a larger idea of why they did the work in the first place. These methods give more chances to the students to make their own decision on what they want to do and when they want to do the assignment without having too much stress about the deadline.  

Another method that I would like to include is changing the way teachers post homework assignments or grade projects, because students need to work on assignments that are actually worth their time and can help improve their studies in class. For example, instead of the large amount of word problems in most math assignments that barely gets graded after the deadline, teachers can include specific equations that will be discussed about next class and have the students explain it for a prize. For projects, set up a due date that all of the students agree on, but also fair enough for the teachers to grade on time.  

Education is a very stressful part of our lives, but that does not mean it’s a bad thing. Our school still gives lots of chances for those who struggle to catch up, and those students will eventually do just that. As teachers and school administrators slowly address the procrastination situation more, the students also need to make some changes to their decision-making to help with their procrastination.  With some help, every student could eventually overcome procrastination and enjoy school without stress.