The Bigger Risk of Procrastination

Kathrine Lovelidge | Writer

Procrastination is a problem that just about every student can relate to. A study from the American Psychological Association in 2014 found that between 80 and 95 percent of college students procrastinate on their homework.

Whether it’s the midterm paper or the statistics quiz deadline you’re dreading, sometimes it’s easier to push anything tedious or difficult out of your mind until you can’t avoid it any further.

But if doing a task brings us so much concern, trouble, or boredom that we avoid it at all costs, why do we put ourselves in the position of needing to do it anyway? And will we continue to put ourselves in similar scenarios for the rest of our lives?

The trend surrounding procrastination is a curious one. If you ask students why they are in college, many of their subsequent answers relate in one way or another to a degree or further education being a step towards a career they would like to pursue.

And yet, according to a Gallup Poll from 2012, 71.7% of college graduates reported being either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” with their jobs.

According to psychological scientist Professor Fuschia Sirois of Bishop University, behavioral disengagement is a result of procrastination.

Furthermore, the refusal to deal with looming problems, which often extends beyond the workplace, can even have negative health consequences, including making one more vulnerable to conditions such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease.

Perhaps getting into the habit of starting our assignments today instead of tomorrow may positively impact more than just our grades.