Procrastination is a BIG Problem

Hi, I’m a student at Catlin Gabel, and I have a BIG problem. That problem is procrastination.
Procrastination has been a problem with students for a long, long time. This dilemma goes
back to 700 B.C. I’m serious! It all started with a Greek poet of the name of Hesoid. He had
put off all his writing to do the next day, and that’s what he wrote about. The poem was:

“Do not put your work off till to-morrow and the day after; for a sluggish worker does not fill his barn,
nor one who puts off his work: industry makes work go well, but a man who puts off work is always
at hand-grips with ruin.”

Our friend Hesoid was not the only one who struggles with procrastination,
the Blue Banner website did a study about how many college students procrastinate, about
90% - 95% of ALL college students procrastinate when doing school work.  When you step back
and take a moment to think about it, you realize that it is a very big problem.

Procrastination can also be the cause of other things beside bad grades, it can lead to
anxiety as well. For example, this year in math class, I have procrastinated quite a bit, and
it has lead to my anxiety and loss of sleep for me. I also know of many other students who
suffer from the same problem as me. The reason I like cultures class so much is because
I got to be better at not procrastinating. When I came to Catlin Gabel in 6th grade, I was
introduced to a new academic subject called Humanities. I knew it was basically history but
the new name threw me off. I thought it was a crazy new thing. The first few projects were
small, and pretty easy, but about four months in we were introduced to the main project, and
it was called R.I.C.E., standing for Rome, India, China, and Egypt. We had to research about
the history of the civilization that we chose, and eventually had to present a project in front of
parents. The teacher gave us a list of things that we had to do, and a due date and that was
pretty much it. We had to plan out when we were going to do it and how. Ours teacher gave
us almost every class just as a free period to work. I didn’t take the work periods seriously,
and I procrastinated SO MUCH. It came up to the last week of the project and I had to cram a
month of work into ONE WEEK. I was very stressed and I only worked in Humanities the whole
week, but I pulled it off. That week was one of the most stressful weeks of my life, and I
learned to STOP procrastinating.

Now, in 7th grade, we had two projects just like R.I.C.E., and I got through them just fine.
I am a lot more organized and less stressed, and I have 6th grade Humanities to thank for
that.

Credits:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/63887/procrastination-through-ages-brief-history-wasting-time

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-procrastination-2795944

Photo Credits: http://wittywinks.com/procrastination-a-step-by-step-guide-to-stop-
https://procrastination.com/what-is-procrastination