Max Cowan said he is both a procrastinator and an incubator.
“I had to write an essay last semester, and I put it off forever,” Cowan said. “I woke up the next morning and I proofread it and it didn’t have a single verb.”
Cowan, a University of Idaho freshman, said he now realizes that essay-writing in the wee morning hours isn’t his strong suit.
“I still don’t know how I did that, but since then, I don’t write final drafts at 3 a.m., and I always save some time the next day to proofread,” Cowan said.
Putting things off generally leads to negative consequences, but can be beneficial for certain tasks. Cowan said it is important to prioritize.
“I look at tasks, and I ask, ‘What needs to be done now, and what can wait?,'” Cowan said.
He generally puts off rough drafts, and repetitive homework in favor of extracurricular tasks and final drafts of papers and projects.
“In a final draft, you not only need to get your ideas straight, but also your spelling, grammar and formatting,” he said. “At 3 a.m., ideas you can maybe get (right), but spelling isn’t going to happen.”
Some things, like projects that require unique ideas, are better to put off.
“I am a very social person. My brain requires other people to converse with to think through things. So setting aside time to privately think about things doesn’t really work for me,” Cowan said.
Incubation is a form of procrastination, but with a different predetermination, said Sarah Stout, manager of Tutoring and College Success.
“Procrastination is the decision to put something off that you know needs to be done. Incubation is when a student can perform what they consider to be higher quality work if they wait to the last minute,” Stout said.
While procrastination and incubation sound similar, the two work styles have an important difference.
“(Incubation is) still procrastination, but the difference is motivation,” Stout said. “If you are motivated to do well on something…then you are able to make the decision to act.”
Everyone deals with procrastination, but Stout said, it can become a big problem for college students who are learning to manage their own schedules.
“When students procrastinate — their grades are affected, they don’t get a project done, they don’t study appropriately for an exam, so they have lower test scores, they don’t get their homework assignments done, they don’t meet with their study groups when they are supposed to, they let others down,” Stout said.
Stout said the pattern of being let down by your own inability to finish a project can thoroughly damage the student’s self-esteem.
“(Students that procrastinate) avoid things further, and they procrastinate even more — they won’t talk to their professors (and) they won’t own up to what they’ve done,” she said.
Stout suggests several ways to deal with procrastination, including use of a planner, realistic goals, and prioritization of activities. Stout also suggests finding a friend with good time management skills and modeling their behavior.
If the problem may have underlying issues, it is important for students to seek help at the Counseling and Testing Center, from their academic adviser or by making an appointment with either Sarah Stout or June Clevy in the Tutoring and Academic Assistance Program office, which is on the third floor of the Idaho Commons. Students can also enroll in College Success Strategies courses every semester.
Students in group living environments, such as Greek houses or residence halls, can also sign up to have either Stout or Clevy do a procrastination workshop.
Stout said the worst thing to do is isolate.
“A lot of students isolate themselves, they don’t talk about it they make excuses–there’s always a reason. They need to make a decision to not use those excuses, to get beyond it.”