Procrastination as a Negative Sign

Life is full of obstacles, and in time we eventually overcome them. At times we face our tasks head on, but we occasionally tend to push problems we deem difficult. In other words, we tend to procrastinate problems until the absolute last minute. The habit of procrastinating only has negative outcomes and should be handled seriously. Therefor, procrastination should not be practiced because this leads to poor quality in the work and a negative impact in mental health.

The quality of one’s work is defined through the amount of effort that person puts on their task. With limited time, that work tends to have poor quality. By postponing tasks till the very last minute, the person only completes the assignments to beat the clock. This sense of urgency causes the procrastinator to never reach the full potential of the assignment, and thus results to a poor grade. In the article, 10 Good Things and 10 Bad Things About Procrastination, Suzanne Kane stated, “A study by Case Western Reserve University determined that college students who procrastinated … and poorer grades by semester end” . Even through a study that was conducted on college kids, the result remains the same, procrastinating will only lead to poor results. Given the limited amount of time that a person puts themselves to, the work would not have the same quality opposed to a person who did not procrastinate. Therefor, procrastination should not be practice as the outcome will only have negative results.

On the other hand, procrastinators may argue that postponing tasks last minute actually helps them be more focused and more determined to finish. Although procrastinators view the last minute crunch as a way to be more focused and determined, this actually has a negative impact on health as they place themselves in more stress by attempting to submit the task on time. In the article, Depression and Procrastination, Timothy A Pychyl stated, “She found that scores on the measure of depression were significantly correlated with scores on the measure of procrastination. This positive correlation indicates that the more depressed we are, the more we report procrastination, and vice versa.”  Through this study, students were able to correlate procrastination with depression which proves that procrastination has a negative impacts to mental health. Anxiety and stress are another negative impact toward mental health. In the article, “On Stress, Anxiety, and Procrastination”, Bill Knaus stated, “When anxious, you anticipate that something threatening is coming your way”. By pushing tasks away, anxiety continues to grow the fear or dread of completing the assignment. The results of this is avoiding the problem or procrastination. Stress is another negative effect on mental health and is defined as a reaction to change. Procrastination only has negative impacts toward mental health which can result to more serious matters.

Procrastination is a habit that mostly everyone has and is extremely difficult to overcome, but definitely not impossible. Through the consistent act of beginning assignments before hand, the tendencies of procrastinating will slowly fade. The elimination of procrastination in our lives will only help us be more successful in the future. Procrastination should be handled seriously as it will result in poor work quality and negative mental health. Postponing tasks does not have any positive outcomes and is a habit that should not be practiced.