Basic HTML Version
24
July – September 2013
www.deltalivingmagazine.com
Photo by Yuki Pan
By Yuki Pan
Deer Valley High School
Student Writer
I
n the typical student life-
style with constant streams
of work to complete, people to
see and countless other things to
do, who would put tedious home-
work assignments first?
You say you’ll get to it in an
hour.You do other stuff for now.
Then it’s midnight, and you
curse yourself for not stopping
after the first, second or seventh
hour.Next time, you think at three
in the morning as you rush your
assignments, you’ll be better about
getting to work.
But will you really?
“Many psychologists don’t call
it procrastination,” Deer Valley
psychology teacher Walter Gorski
said.“It’s more like our natural ten-
dencies to maximize pleasure and
avoid pain. And it’s much more
pleasurable to text somebody or
watch television or do any number
of other things.”
He notes, as many students per-
sonally know, the consequences of
procrastination are often tremen-
dously more negative than tempo-
rary pleasures are positive.
“I’ve had to stay up late because
I procrastinated on homework. I
felt like a failure. I began to hate
myself, and stress and negativity
just built up inside,” said Christine
Lee, a senior at DeerValley.
“I always say, ‘I’ll do it early.’
Then I give in and I don’t,” said
JacobVirtusio, also a senior.“I lose
sleep but I also lose respect for
myself because I know I could’ve
done my work earlier, but I de-
cided to be dumb instead and do
something else.”
Because procrastination is a
behavior refined through evolu-
tion, resisting it requires outsmart-
ing yourself: Don’t indulge in easy
desires now—watching cat videos,
playing Minecraft, getting Chipo-
tle—thinking that somehow, your
future self can be trusted to handle
your heavier responsibilities.
After all, future-you eventually
becomes now-you, and now-you
has just proven to be a no-good
procrastinator.
Here, Gorski gives some ad-
vice on overpowering your natural
temptations to procrastinate.
“You have to identify the things
that are creating those temptations.
As hard as it might be sometimes,
you have to get rid of them,” he
said.
If you know that oneYouTube
video leads to many more after,
power off your computer. Put
your phone somewhere you can’t
check it.Work away from your dis-
tractions, so your mind can better
focus on what needs to be done.
If you tell somebody you’re
going to accomplish something,
just making it public means you’re
more likely to stay on task.
“Write a list of things you want
to accomplish,” Gorski added,
“which is a similar proposition as
making it public.”
In other words, create imme-
diate incentives for doing your
homework.
Tell your parents you’re going
to do something. To avoid disap-
pointing others and embarrassing
yourself, you’d better strive to fin-
ish it.
Procrastination affects many of
us, especially those suffering from
“senioritis.” It’ll follow you to col-
lege, your job and to everything in
your life, unless you make the ef-
fort to shake that habit.
And make that effort today,
because you never know if future-
you is up to it.The now-you that’s
reading these words can be..
“It’s more like our
natural tendencies to
maximize pleasure and
avoid pain...”
Due Tomorrow,
Do Tomorrow