By Gabriella Gomperts, Features Editor
At the beginning of every school year, I tell myself the same thing: stop procrastinating.
It’s a habit of mine that I hate. Every time I sit down to do an assignment, I end up scrolling through Instagram or reading some obscure Wikipedia article. My assignment eventually gets done, but I waste so much time trying to get myself started.
Every year I try to get myself to stop this bad habit. My life would be so much easier if I did my assignments ahead of time and didn’t have to cram the day before a midterm or final. If I started studying earlier, I would have time to review and really digest the knowledge. If I started writing earlier, I could really perfect my essay or article with the time to edit and look back with fresh eyes. I could even plan out other aspects of my life, like extracurriculars, club events and social life.
This has been a struggle for me throughout my entire academic career, and COVID-19 only compounded this challenge, with ample time to do my homework, work out and watch a full season of TV shows in a single day. The benefits of COVID-19 simply got in the way of improving my time management skills in high school. Now that I’m halfway through college, with a double major, dual curriculum, a handful of extracurriculars and a freelance writing job to balance, you’d think I’d be forced to overcome this struggle. Think again.
And so, I made an appointment with perhaps the most underrated resource at YU, the Learning Success Center. I needed advice on how to get this aspect of my life under control. Time management is a very important skill to have in school, a career, and in life… or so I thought.
I explained my struggles to an advisor, and her response surprised me. She said something along the lines of, “I find when students struggle with procrastinating, they do better by not changing their habits at all, but by leaning into it.”
At first, I thought this advice was a little ridiculous. How could the quality of my assignments improve if I don’t start on them earlier? My whole life I was told that procrastination was a nasty habit akin to biting fingernails. Shouldn’t I be trying to kick it? Wouldn’t the quality of my life improve without the stress of assignments that I have not started weighing on my mind?
The advisor pointed out that my method of doing work works. My assignments get in, I get pretty good grades (usually) and my articles get published. She said it would be harder for me to learn a new habit altogether than to just lean into my way of doing work without having the stress weigh on me.
After the meeting, I really reflected on her advice. My entire way of thinking had just been transformed. Should I really strive to… be myself? Or is that just a lousy excuse to be lazy?
In the end, I decided to give her advice a shot. I have nothing to lose by trying. I’m not even sure when this editorial was due, but hey, I got it done eventually.