Understanding and Overcoming Procrastination | McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning

Classroom Resources for Addressing Procrastination, by Dominic J. Voge Source: Research and Teaching in Developmental Education excerpted from Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring 2007), pp. 88-96 For most people procrastination, irrespective of what they say, is NOT about being lazy. In fact, when we procrastinate we often work intensely for long stretches just before our deadlines. Working long and hard is the opposite of lazy, so that can't be the reason we do it. So, why do we procrastinate and, more importantly, what can we do about it? As suggested above, some say they procrastinate because they are lazy. Others claim they "do better" when they procrastinate and "work best" under pressure. I encourage you to be critical and reflective of these explanations. Virtually everyone who says this habitually procrastinates and has not completed an important academic task in which they made a plan, implemented it, had time to review, etc. before their deadline. So, in reality, they can't make a compari

Classroom Resources for Addressing Procrastination, by Dominic J. Voge Source: Research and Teaching in Developmental Education excerpted from Vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring 2007), pp. 88-96 For most people procrastination, irrespective of what they say, is NOT about being lazy. In fact, when we procrastinate we often work intensely for long stretches just before our deadlines. Working long and hard is the opposite of lazy, so that can't be the reason we do it. So, why do we procrastinate and, more importantly, what can we do about it? As suggested above, some say they procrastinate because they are l