Sometimes, as a teenager, your mind tends to stray and you might forget about work until you are up late, working after-hours to get it done. This is very common and can be destructive to grades or jobs.
First of all, there are more types of procrastinators than you would think. Procrastinators are classified as:
- Perfectionists/dreamers – who desire perfection but hate doing the details
- Worriers – who don’t think things are right but fear that changes will make them worse
- Trouble makers – who will not do any work assigned to them
- Crisis-makers – who manage to find or make a big problem in any project (often by starting too late)
- Over-doers – who take on way too many tasks.
Now, these are just general categories of procrastinators, so you may not fall into one of these categories. When I procrastinate, it is because I want it to be perfect, but I don’t want to do details, making me a perfectionist/dreamer.
Procrastination may seem nice at first because you relax and take your time, but quickly it will add up. You may intend to do work later and have something come up, preventing you from doing it. Also, if you are like me, you will begin to worry about not having it done and the consequences. Finally, there are the consequences. You could begin to get bad grades, lose pay, get fired, or get in trouble with your parents.
Now, combating procrastination will not be easy. In short you have to get your priorities in order. First, you should get on top of the eight ball and do it right away, but you probably would rather do something else, right? So, you should take a timer and keep track of how much time you spend not working and use that as a basis to work off of. Then, set reasonable goals to handle it. Finally, you should do it. Sometimes, seeing the consequences first hand will give you a swift kick in the behind, too.
Procrastination is nothing more than laziness, so handle it!