One fascinating phenomenon I often see in the Lexington High School community is that procrastination is almost universal amongst the students, yet those exact students end up doing well in most, if not all of their classes. 

While it’s commonly known that procrastination is bad, its presence in our school normalizes it as just another study strategy. As a frequent practitioner of procrastination, I often find myself conflicted seeing people do so well on projects and exams even though I know that they prepared for it at the very last minute. If delaying studying works for people, maybe it’s not as bad as it looks. However, after further reflection, I realized that this exact mindset fosters widespread procrastination in the first place.

As teenagers with underdeveloped prefrontal cortexes who have to deal with the weight of their future every day, high school students are more susceptible to poor decision-making than adults. While it’s sometimes an act of laziness and immaturity, procrastination also serves as an escape mechanism from the stress of high standards and fear of failure. Given the intense academic environment at LHS, the risk of receiving a bad grade in big assignments triggers a student’s instinctive fight-or-flight response. The human brain often chooses the flight response, thus avoiding the task through procrastination. 

However, procrastination wouldn’t be so popular if it didn’t work. The adrenaline rush that comes with doing a high-stress task in a short period of time can often push our brains to utilize their full potential. When I finally tackle my work after a long delay, I find myself surrounded by an overwhelming ocean of pressure in all directions. My fight-or-flight response is once again triggered, but this time I’m left with only one option: to push through with my task. This is why I feel a stronger sense of relief after a stressful task compared to a lighter task since this feeling of a huge boulder being lifted off of my shoulders brings in a great amount of satisfaction. This process fuels a vicious cycle of negative emotions and temporary solutions.

The biggest downside of procrastination is the resulting bad time management. It’s a long-term struggle that is often hard to think about, since it may not affect us in a given moment. However, one way to mitigate the negative consequences of procrastination is to break down assignments into smaller pieces, as it’s easier to divert your attention to the task at hand. Looking around in your study environment, is there something that annoys you? Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel the urge to do something else that’s not academically related? 

I recommend watching and reading content that can spark your motivation. It may be a cliché strategy, but human emotions are a powerful force that can be used to your advantage.