Procrastination is the act of leaving a task or chore until last minute. You tell yourself that you’re going to complete the task in five minutes or in an hour, but a long period of time passes and it remains undone. Most students will admit that they procrastinate about schoolwork. While an essay might be assigned a day or a week in advance, it is not unusual for students to wait until the deadline is only hours away before starting. This may cause stress and promises to be more on task but it never seems to change.

High school is also the time when many teens get jobs. Balancing school work and a social life can be a challenge and often teens choose sleep over completion of a school assignment and procrastination in that area can have dire consequences. This practice might causes stress which can lead to loss of sleep, which can result in a negative attitude. When one assignment is not done, it doesn’t go away. Instead, the assignments pile up and, with them, so does the stress.

In order to prevent procrastination, steps need to be taken. One of the recommended steps is to keep a planner and break down tasks into reasonable chunks. We need to keep in mind that leaving everything until the last minute will impact the quality of our work and the results will not be reflective of our genuine ability.

Always remember that, if you do your work long before it is due, you’ll have more free time later. The quicker you get it over it the better, and the less time you’ll spend building up the stress that develops through procrastination.