The definition of procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something and the definition of Melissa Ferring is procrastination. Since as long as I can remember, as far back as the elementary school days, I have been a notorious procrastinator. It is something that I consider one of my biggest flaws and I struggle with it everyday,especially at the college level. I like to consider it a gene that runs in the Ferring family, as my 3 brothers always put things off till the last possible second as well.
I’m sure everyone has been there at least once. You have anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks to finish an assignment and yet you wait until 11:59 pm, the night before, to do it. But wait – Blackboard is taking too long, and the assignment locks you out when you try to submit it! Now you have to email your professor and explain what happened, and you know that he knows you’re a slacker. You promise yourself you’ll never let this happen again, but it always does. A common situation I find myself in is cramming frantically, 30 minutes before a test and coming to the realization that I probably would have aced this test if I had given myself an extra hour or two. So many times, I have been stuck between two answers for a question on an exam because I could not remember which one was the right one. Walking out of a test not 100% confident and saying a little prayer that I at least scored above an 80 – This happens every time and I get frustrated with myself. Every time! I promise myself that I will change, yet I always end up repeating the cycle every single time. The biggest thing is that I really do want to do well. I want to get a high GPA and make my parents proud and make myself proud, but I always fall short.
When I think about doing school work, I am so turned off by the idea of sitting down and doing it especially before I absolutely HAVE to. There are so many things I could be doing with my time and the assignment is not due for a couple days soooooooo I’ll just get back to it later… and then later ends up being seconds before the deadline. The pressure from the time limit seems to be the only thing that can put me in the zone, but I really don’t have any motivation otherwise. No matter how badly I want to do well, I seem to always let myself down. With each passing semester I realize this more and more and try harder to fix it. That’s why this semester I am going to really commit to my goal and I hope that it will help distract me from what is going on in my personal life. Using it as a way to get out of bed in the morning, since in recent weeks it has become a mental struggle for me to want to par take in the world.
Is this you? Here are some UAlbany Supports to help you with time management and procrastination:
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- Advising PLUS: Work with upper-class students who can help you to manage your time and break your procrastination habits
- CAPS – Counseling and Psychological Services can help if your habits are rooted in deeper feelings of anxiety
- Project Excel: Project Excel is a program for students who are first generation college students, come from low-income households and/or are disabled
- CSTEP: The CSTEP program is designed for New York State residents (including permanent resident aliens) who belong to historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged groups in STEM or licensed professions and demonstrate interest in pursuing professional careers.
- Your Academic Advisor or one of the Peer Advisors in the Advisement Services Center
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