Can Procrastination Sometimes Be Beneficial? Believe it or not, procrastination is not a new phenomenon.

It has always been around and it will more than likely be around forever. Procrastination is defined as the act or habit of putting off or delaying something, especially something that needs immediate attention (dictionary.com). Everyone does it, whether it is for school, work, or chores around the house. I will be the first to tell you that I am probably one of the biggest procrastinators ever. I am not exactly sure why, but whenever I am assigned to write a paper or do a big project, organizing my underwear drawer, cleaning my room, doing dishes, and catching up on my cyber world with Facebook and Twitter suddenly become so much more important. My main problem is I basically get really nervous when I am told to write a paper because I do not have much confidence at all, which forces me to wait until the last minute to do it. For all you readers, I highly recommend that you do not follow my example. Trust me, it just adds on unneeded stress. However, some writing scholars seem to believe that procrastination may not be such a bad thing. Muriel Harris believes that it does not really matter if you are a multi-drafter or a one-draft writer because there is no easy way of writing. If you are a procrastinator and you do only write one draft, then maybe it is not such a bad thing. In most cases, procrastination can be a pretty big deal, but in other cases, not so much. This all leads up to the big questionscan procrastination sometimes be beneficial and why do people procrastinate? All throughout my middle school, high school, and college years, my teachers and professors always said do not wait until the last minute to do this. You will regret it if you do. I guess I probably should have listened to them. It is not so much that I like to wait until the last minute to do things, but rather, if it is not something I really want to do, then I have a hard time motivating myself to do it. Robert M. Klassen, Lindsey L. Krawchuk, and Sukaina Rajani, from

the University of Alberta, department of Psychology, conducted two studies to explore the academic procrastination among 456 undergraduates. Study one was conducted to show the relationship between academic procrastination and self-regulation, academic self-efficacy, selfesteem, and self-efficacy for self-regulation. This study showed that even though there were many other self-variables that play a role into procrastination, self-efficacy and self-regulation are the biggest factors when it comes to academic procrastination. Study two was conducted to show the academic and motivation characteristics of negative procrastinators, which are undergraduates that are more influenced by procrastination. Their studies found that 25% of the 195 participants in study two were classified as negative procrastinators. This type of procrastinator is basically a person that has a lower GPA, lower predicted and actual class grades, and lower self-efficacy and self-regulation (Klassen, Krawchuk, and Rajani). Now that we are aware as to what the big factors are in procrastination, another big question that comes up is why do people procrastinate? I interviewed a group of Undergraduate students from Ohio University about how they procrastinate and why they do it. Drew Brown, 19, sophomore, and business major stated I procrastinate because I do not like to do the work and it does not interest me, therefore I have no motivation to do it. When it comes down to it, I do what I need to do to understand the material in my own way and get my degree so I can be on my way. On the other hand, Danielle Goldsberry, 20, sophomore, and a Special Education major, says that she does not consider herself a procrastinator. I feel that if I am not doing something productive, then I am wasting my entire day. Whenever I have something assigned to me, I just feel like I need to get it done then so I do not have to worry about it later. Now for procrastinators, such as myself, I tend to not consider myself as a multi-draft

writer (Harris). Ideas come to me at random times, such as when I am out walking or conversing with a friend. I normally plan what I am going to talk about in my own mind and do a little bit of research on the topic I am about to write about, then sit down and start typing. Although I do consider myself a one-draft writer, I do tend to go through my paper periodically and look for mistakes and correct them, add, or take out things as I go. I guess in a way that could make me a multi-drafter within the same paper. Within Harriss article Composing Behaviors of One- and Multi-Draft Writers, he also has another scholar named Patricia Y. Murray, who also considers herself a one drafter. Her style is pretty similar to mine, she notes that prior to typing, she sees words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs taking shape in her head. Her composing, she concludes, has been done before her fingers touch the typewriter, though as she also notes, she revises and edits as she types. (234) In this case, procrastination would not seem so bad after all. On the other hand, Harris also talks about why being a multi-drafter is a good thing, which is pretty difficult to do if you wait and procrastinate. When you are a multi-drafter, there are many benefits to doing them, such as having teachers critique your work so that you know what you need to work on in order to have a better paper, and having peer reviews. Anne Lamott, in her article Shitty First Drafts, talks about how first drafts are the childs draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. What she is saying here is that your first draft is where you get all your ideas out on paper and not to worry about how it looks at that point, because no one is going to see it and you can always shape it up later. According to Lamott, practically even better news than that of short assignments is the idea of shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. This gives me a better feeling when it comes to my own writing, just knowing that even the best writing scholars

write shitty first drafts in order to write even better second and third drafts. After all, practice does make perfect, right? After all is said and done, there are some pros and cons when it comes to procrastination, but once you start to know how to manage your time with it, it is not all that bad. Some scholars will always believe that procrastination leads to bad papers, but then other scholars will say it may not be as bad as they think. We all have our own writing styles and our own unique ways so some students may feel that they write better under pressure and people have different reasons as to why they procrastinate. Just always keep in mind that organizing your underwear drawer, cleaning your room, doing the dishes, and catching up with Facebook and Twitter will still be there when your paper is done and over with, so they can wait.

Works Cited Ariely, Dan, and Klaus Wertenbroch. Procrastination, Deadlines, and Performance: Self-control by Pre-commitment . Massachusetts Institute of Technology, May 2002. Web. 1 Mar 2012. <http://pss.sagepub.com/ content/13/3/219.short>. Fritzsche, Barbara A., Beth Rapp Young, and Kara C. Hickson. Individual differences in academic procastination tendency and writing success. University of Central Florida, 06 Feb. 2003. Web. 1 Mar 2012. <http://www.sciencedirect.com /science/article/pii/S0191886902003690>. Harris, Muriel. "Composing Behaviors of One- and Multi-Draft Writers." NCTE. National Council of Teachers of English, 13 Dec 2010. Web. 5 Mar 2012. <https://blackboard.ohio.edu/ bbcswebdav/courses/ENG_151_120_LEC_WINT _2011-12/Harris_one_and_multidraft_process.pdf>. Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor, 1994. 21-27. Print. Procrastination. (n.d.) Dictonary.com. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/procrastination