Procrastination. It is not an unfamiliar term for most high school and college students, in fact, an accumulated 86 percent of high school students admitted to procrastinating on assignments, according to a 2014 study. Procrastination in a school environment is a large scale issue specifically in high schools. In a recent survey sent out to the whole school, 89.3 percent of 122 students procrastinate.
Senior Zach Engelken, among other students, is currently taking multiple advanced placement (AP) courses this year. Alongside with AP courses comes homework and projects, more than the general courses. Engelken said that his honors Physics, AP Calculus, and AP English classes send him home with homework almost every night. Like many other students, Engelken procrastinates on his homework and projects.
“I think it’s just hard to stay motivated. And sometimes, you know, it’s difficult to really want to do a particular subject or class,” Engelken said.
Procrastination does not only affect AP students, sophomore Lauren Anton who is taking almost all honors classes deals with procrastination as well. Honors students receive many tests, projects, and homework assignments, similar to AP students. For example, Anton’s classes like honors World History, honors Algebra two and honors English two require long hours studying for tests and a large chunk of time working on assignments/projects. Procrastination plays a part in many students academic life, including Anton.
“I’d rather watch youtube or Tik Tok or something instead of doing my homework,” Anton said.
According to Very Well Mind, procrastination can harm social relationships. By putting things off until the last minute, you could place a burden on friends and family. In a workplace environment, turning in projects right before the due date may cause frustration between you and co-workers. High school students experience specific issues with procrastination as well.
“When I procrastinate I have to stay up super late and then I don’t have the energy for the next day,” Anton said.
According to Oxford Learning, students focus on what is happening today rather than what is going on tomorrow, this mixed with the fact that most students do not like schoolwork at home creates a perfect recipe for a procrastination problem. Although it seems like a small problem, procrastination can be harmful to students work and mental health.
“Procrastination just adds to the overall stress that school has, so if you continually push something, farther and farther back and not do it, then you are just adding to your stress.” Engelken said.