To begin with, as a representative of Gen Z, I want to declare honestly that I was extremely procrastinating with starting to work on this blog. And now let’s move to the main point, to our lovely Gen Z. Lazy, addicted to the Internet and gadgets, easily distracted, infantile and procrastinating, it’s all about us. I would probably agree with most of these adjectives that are describing my generation putting us in an unpleasant position among other generations. However, I want to focus on one of these descriptions specifically, on the aspect of procrastination in studying of Gen Z.
For some who are not familiar with such term as procrastination, in simple words, procrastination is an obsessive tendency to postpone things to the deadline. When you’re catching yourself on such thoughts as: “There is still time! It can be done tomorrow. Wait!” Congratulations! You’re a Gen Z procrastinator. Procrastinators consciously lose useful time which they could spend on the solution of a specific goal for other things that have no relation to the task. For example, before you sit down to work or study, you arrange smoke breaks, snacks or endlessly watching videos with unnecessary information. However, I don’t consider Netflix TV series as unnecessary information.
So, in most cases, when people hear the word “procrastination” they have a negative perception, negative associations about it. When I say to others that I’m a genuine Gen Z procrastinator, I often receive such responses as: “ Do you realize that it's wrong? You need to be able to plan everything. Time-management is so important in studying!” And, of course, their main argument is that being a procrastinator will put you in constant stress. But are the words “stress” and “procrastination” even related to each other? If you are waiting till the last moment with starting to work on your assignment or project, it doesn’t’ mean that you will be stressed doing it. Maybe, it’s just more convenient for you. Maybe, it’s part of your usual routine. Anyway, it’s just some beginning, some of my thoughts that are bothering me. Procrastination is the part of me and I want to prove that there’s nothing bad in being a procrastinator. Conversely, there are a lot of benefits in being a procrastinator. Which ones? Let’s see… But first we need to understand why Gen Z tends to procrastinate, we need to observe the roots of this lovely blossom procrastination tree.
Modern students find it increasingly complicated to follow the rules and frameworks created by universities. In other words, our deadlines that are always on fire. Why is it so difficult? The answer is simple. Because the variety of choices of actions is very large and can often interfere with the focus on one thing. Especially when it comes to limits and deadlines. We have our lovely Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp that just can’t stay quiet even for a second because of the huge number of notifications. And what about our favorite Netflix and YouTube? For sure, they would bankrupt without us, right? When there are so many things to do, our studying can wait till the deadline, it’s patient enough. While procrastination will show us its positive sides.
To start with, let’s imagine two students. One of them is a procrastinator and another one knows everything about the importance of time-management doing all the projects and assignments step by step and in advance. How do you think who will be more stressed in the end? But be careful, it’s a tricky question. For sure, the procrastinator will be more stressed but only for a while, during finishing the task at the last moment. And after the submission, this person will be fully relieved and continue with his/her happy procrastinating life. While the student who’s doing everything in advance will feel the constant stress. Why? Because he/she will think about the next step that should be done all the time. So, in the end, the procrastinator will get less stress. The level of stress, of course, will be higher but the amount of it is much smaller than for the planning student.
Procrastination can also be useful when you need to determine the actual importance of tasks. By delaying small things, we eventually negate their value. And often it turns out that they were simply not needed. It actually leads to less stress and time-saving. So, procrastination helps us to focus on the most important parts of studying. You can’t learn everything, you don’t need so much information. Otherwise, your head will just blow up. And procrastination is taking care of students filtering the information to remember. As for me, it’s quite a good argument to start loving your procrastination back.
Moreover, one interesting thing is the connection between fear and intuition. You will be probably really confused right now. She was talking all this time about procrastination and now she is trying to change the topic! But let me explain. It’s easy, you will see. To be honest, when you’re procrastinating, you still have an unobtrusive feeling that you will not manage or you will fail. And here comes the fear! You’re afraid to fail the project or exam. You’re thinking: “If I started earlier, it would be much better than that”. But we’re here to focus on positive things of procrastination in studying. So, our intuition is appearing to make our life easier. The fear causes the rise of intuitive perception and sometimes we can look over the horizon. Our intuition will lead us to the world of crazy, risky ideas about which we couldn’t even think being calmed down and not under the control of procrastination. And with these unique ideas, you can bravely start your project knowing that it will be outstanding and catchy!
Well, there is a possibility that you’ll not agree with what was said before and you’ll be still unsatisfied with the fact of being a procrastinator. I should consider that not everybody in is proud to be a Gen Z procrastinator just like me. So, here is a small and very easy to implement advice: try to trick your brain. Next time doing your to-do list put the most important projects not at the beginning of the list but in the end. Don’t scare your consciousness with massive assignments, start with easy ones, the ones that are taking less time to be implemented. You’ll be managing to finish them really fast and you’ll see that it’ll be even hard to stop studying. Just start, it’ll give you undeniable confidence and then your brain will do everything for you. However, I’ll continue my procrastination in studying and who is with me, please, like my post! And remember, worry less, there are lots of perks of being a procrastinator.
Author: Ms. Daria Gerasimenko, Hospitality Master Student at Hotel Institute Montreux (HIM), from Russia.