Procrastination: the art of getting by Studying the motives, neuroscience, and effects of the three types of procrastination BY HIMA RAJANA
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rocrastination plagues most of us to a varying degree, resulting in staying up to finish an essay for some, or cramming in class for others. According to essayist Paul Graham, procrastination can be split into three different types: working on nothing, working on something less important, and working on something more important. What is common to all three types is the biological reason for procrastination: the brain is wired for it. “Procrastination is a battle of the limbic system, the unconscious zone that includes the pleasure center, and the prefrontal cortex, or the internal planner. When the limbic system wins, the result is putting things off for tomorrow,” said Usha Iyer, School Psychologist for Cupertino Union School District. Because the limbic system is mostly automatic, our brain tends to run away from unpleasant or labor-intensive tasks. The first kind of procrastination involves doing unproductive tasks over more important tasks Procrastinating in this manner is
related to perception of reward. “Procrastination forces you to work really hard,” said senior Andy Tsai, who struggled with an intensive research project at Stanford University. “I went up 3 to 4 times a week, and would just sleep when I got home because I was so tired. Then I would wake at midnight to do homework. Ironically, when I don’t procrastinate, I can be less efficient.” Dr. Brittany Stevens, Lynbrook School Psychologist, explains why. “Humans work well when they are motivated to do something,” said Stevens. “There has to be a sufficient perception of threat, or we engage in leisure activities, which are pleasurable and soothing to the brain.” The second category, doing minor tasks as opposed to major ones, is based on a predisposition toward instant gratification. “I over-
come procrastination by setting time intervals in my head so I can estimate how much time I have to ‘slack off,’” said sophomore Yaoyao Pei, who is a yearbook staff member, swimmer and runs a blog with two others. A psychological phenomenon known as “decision fatigue,” suggests that it’s better to get difficult things done earlier in the day. “Every time we make a decision, however major or minor, the glucose levels in our brain drop slightly,” said Dr. Indre Viskontas, neuroscientist at UCSF and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. “That is why we’re more likely to not want to do things near the end of the day, especially if we’ve already made decisions about easy things.” The third and final kind of procrastination is unique in that it may not be perceived as procrastination at all. Instead of focusing on simple tasks than can be easily checked off and forgotten about, these procrastinators focus on big-
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picture efforts.” “Many seniors put a lot of effort into making Homecoming amazing,” said senior Victor Xu, the self-named “Grandmaster of Procrastination.” “I let some homework slide, thinking about what I would remember, the AP Lit study guides, or Homecoming, and Homecoming seemed bigger in the grander scheme of things.” Stevens believes that sacrificing little things for bigger tasks may not be considered procrastination, in a sense. “You have to value what you should be doing, but sometimes the smaller, more routine tasks are not sufficiently rewarding, so you end up focusing on the bigger project,” said Stevens. “When you procrastinate and don’t get things done, there is an increasing sense of dread and guilt.” According to a study by McCown and Richards in 1964, procrastination increases through adolescence, plateaus in the mid-twenties, and steadily declines through the sixties. Procrastination, like all shortcuts and strategies, comes with side effects, and Kwon, Tsai and Xu all agree that sleep deprivation is the biggest one. “I feel guilty when I don’t finish homework,” said Kwon, confirming Stevens’ statement regarding impending dread. “I make wake up early to finish things, so I get really sleep deprived.” Although losing a couple of hours of sleep one night to finish an essay may not seem like much, it adds up. “What hurts is the sleep loss. You’re consistently ‘off by one’ and it’s no fun to be catching up,” said Xu. Tsai’s research involved 12 to 20 hours per week, including the commute, and this took a toll on him. “This messed up my sleep pattern, because I would sleep in class to be awake for my research,” said Tsai. While there are entire professions built around avoiding and overcoming procrastination, understanding the science behind it is the key to overcoming it, and in some cases, accepting and embracing it.
Past experiences inspire future college essays E
ach year, thousands of high school students spend hours trying to discover who they are and how to describe the entire essence of their personality in a single-page college essay. Alongside the test scores, recommendations and resumes that accompany every college application, essays are a crucial component of the application process. Essays provide a forum for students to elaborate on activities or experiences that have influenced their personality as well as offer insight for college representatives to learn about their character and motivations. Guidance counselor Jenny Dumas said, “As more and more selective colleges moved away from personal interviews, they incorporated the essays to tell about who the candidate is as a person. For candidates with similar backgrounds and test scores, essays can be something that will separate a candidate and add a bigger piece to the puzzle.” To help students write college essays, English teachers are available during application season during homework center in the library and the district also coordinates summer writing classes. Senior Sindhu Addepalli believes that college essays generally reflect what a student spends the most time on. “I wrote about karate because the time I spend on it reflects who I am as a person and what my priorities are.” Most students end up writing about activities that they have been strongly committed to for a significant amount of time because it reflects not only their commitment but also provides an insight to their character.
In order to be able to write a more impactful or reflective college essay, it can be helpful to plan summer activities which allow students to explore when they have free time, thus providing them with a unique experience to write about and the ability to stand out above their peers. When senior Jacqueline Lin visited and worked with impoverished children in Qinghai, China this past summer, she began to realize her love for linguistic-and-deaf studies and referred to them in her essay short answer while expressing “my desire to return there” and incorporate her studies there. Lin was accepted to Stanford, Rhode Island School of Design and many other art colleges. In order to ensure that her essay reflected her true personality, Lin went as far as to find a specific time where she believed her inner self could truly come out. “I write best at 4 a.m. that’s just my personality. It’s when I’m in a drunken stupor without ingesting any alcohol. And just let the emotions guide you,” said Lin. Lin feels that other students should also attempt to find a time or place that brings out their true personality and freely write during that time. The biggest challenge most students face is answering questions which ask them to explain why they want to attend a particular school or pursue a certain major. “Everyone is going to say general things, and you need to find a way to be individualized to who you are,” said Dumas. Sophomore Nidhi Navaratna learned about the essay writing experience by watching her older brother go through the process. “I’ve learned that it’s probably best to
start the essay early, perhaps in the summer after junior year,” said Navaratna. “My brother started writing them around mid-October of his senior year, and I remember him very stressed out and never sleeping.” In order to encourage diversity within essays, many colleges offer interesting prompts for students to creatively approach. The University of Chicago is well-known for its provocative essay prompts which allow students to show their creativity and interests. Senior Weian Wang, w h o was recently admitted to the University of Chicago, said that the University of Chicago’s prompts “inspired me to be creative throughout the whole process” and apply the same creativity to the typical prompts for other colleges. For the University of Chicago in particular, she feels that the prompts not only allowed her to think more creatively, but also accurately reflected what it would be like to attend the school. For all her college essay prompts, Wang began in the summer to allow enough time for her to brainstorm, change ideas and write a few drafts to allow for a
slightly easier work load during the school year. She said that the writing process varied between the schools she applied to. For some, “I worked [the essays] out and thought about specifically what I wanted to write, especially if I wanted to talk about a particular life experience or academic project that I pursued,” said Wang. Wang recommends that future college applicants collect a resume of key events thruoghout their high school career so that they can refer to them when writing their essays in the fall. By accumulating information for potential essays throughout several years, brainstorming before the essay becomes much less difficult As students keep writing essays describing their personalities, they should consider key experiences in their lives that reflect who they are as people.
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY JANE JUN
BY EESHA KHARE