<p>It’s 10:20 pm and all 3 of my hs students are working on hw. All weekend they have reassured me they had very little or no hw. On Saturday they slept in and watched lots of TV. Tonight they came home from youth group and start working at 8pm.</p>
<p>S has 7 am class. What is going thru their heads?</p>
<p>I’m in grad school and this weekend, I procrastinated homework until a little earlier today that’s due tomorrow.
I can guarantee that if my dad was still in school, he’d procrastinate until the last minute now well into his 50s. </p>
<p>Some people are just procrastinators.</p>
<p>I think I’ve always been that way. Admittedly far from optimal.
Fortunately, it hasn’t prevented me from acquiring a few degrees and having a couple of careers (thus far).</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it appears that expatSon is cut from the similar cloth.
Except that he’s a lot smarter.</p>
<p>“Play now, work later.”</p>
<p>Or…</p>
<p>“This work really blows. Let me not do it now.” Then in the 11th hour…“Aw, crud. I really should get this done.”</p>
<p>Or…</p>
<p>“I’ll relax now so I have enough energy for this later.”</p>
<p>Or…
Or…
Or…</p>
<p>Or how about, “It will only take half an hour to do my 20 calculus problems, write a 3-page paper for English, and study for that Chinese test! So I’ll start on Sunday after dinner and some Facebook!”</p>
<p>“I can guarantee that if my dad was still in school, he’d procrastinate until the last minute now well into his 50s.”</p>
<p>LOL. I’m tired of policing Mr B who has a class tomorrow and still has not finished reading the 100 pages he needs to read by tomorrow morning. </p>
<p>And then there are procrastinating clients who make me pull allnighters… :rolleyes:</p>
<p>LOL! To be fair, BB, when it comes to my paid work- I’m always on top of everything! </p>
<p>It’s just school work -.-</p>
<p>Work better under pressure?</p>
<p>Or at least that’s what I keep telling myself as I crank out a 7 page paper at 3 in the morning.</p>
<p>I’ve pulled out a glorious 15 page paper in two days on top of a calculus and physics exam that were on the same day 15 minutes apart. Professor said it was one of the bests papers turned in. :)</p>
<p>Pressure works wonders sometimes.</p>
<p>Until it doesn’t.</p>
<p>Well, duh.</p>
<p>I was cured from all nighters & SOME procrastination by earning a 0 on a test that I stayed up all night to study for. I simply couldn’t focus and could barely even read. Fortunately, the test didn’t count but I never repeated that particular strategy. I think it was a blessing I learned it in HS.</p>
<p>I HATE it when procrastination by other makes ME rushed for time and inconvenienced, but it seems to happen more often than I’d like. <sigh> My S is pretty good at planning but D is still MUCH more of a procrastinator than I’d like. They are 26 and 24, so maybe one day she’ll improve.</sigh></p>
<p>I think some people are just made that way, honestly. I am smart enough to know that it makes a lot more sense to do my work and then be able to fully enjoy the free time that’s left over. (At least in theory - as a doctoral student some would argue that if I have free time I’m not dedicated enough.) That said, I will still do the stupid thing and procrastinate EVERY TIME even though I know I will wind up exhausted and miserable as a consequence. </p>
<p>The biggest problem is when us procrastinators magically get it done every time. That’s somehow been the story of my life until this morning, but now I’m having to face the music and explain to my advisor in an hour why I did not accomplish the reasonable list of things he asked me to do in the last month. Wish me luck…</p>
<p>S1 and I are both procrastinators. We’ve both learned how much time we need to get things done and start with enough time to complete the task. Are there times we’re both stressed out about maybe not finishing in time? Sure, but those are rare enough occasions that it hasn’t changed our behavior.</p>
<p>
That’s what S says. And he’s perfectly happy to get a B or C. Imagine what he could do if he actually had time to read his work before he turned it in! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>^ LOL. I always do pretty well on them too but it’s not worth the last minute stress! But it happens every semester so I apparently never learn.</p>
<p>Let’s explain this with temporal discounting. </p>
<p>Leisure right now is preferred to leisure in the future. We can trade leisure now or leisure in the future for the same end result of getting homework done. Thus, we take leisure now, forgo leisure in the future, and procrastinate the work we need to do.</p>
<p>Makes sense I think.</p>
<p>My D has shortened the list of colleges to which she is applying from 8 then to 5 and now tonight, facing two more essays at the 11th hour, she decides that 3 is good enough. She has an AP Gov test tomorrow that I know she hasn’t studied for and I find her playing/surfing on her computer. She has lofty ambitions until it involves sacrificing her leisure time. I am at my wit’s end and am afraid she is jeopardizing her future! I don’t know what I can or should do at this point.</p>
<p>For those who are familiar or interested in the MBTI personality types, this type of behavior would pretty much describe a P (perceiving) person vs a J (judging) person.
My son and I have had and still do have many battles over this. He is very much a P person and I am a J which unfortunately precludes me from leaving him alone and letting him do things his own way and learn from his own mistakes.</p>