People all over the world struggle with a common problem: procrastination. Students at Grand Valley State University are no exception, but before you let that buzzing in your pocket take priority over that midterm coming up, there are ways to not only curb the negative effects of digital overload, and shed some light on to why our gadgets have become such a big issue in the first place.

“Some people are more likely to procrastinate, some are less likely and want to get things done,” said Eric Klingensmith, coordinator of crisis services and staff psychologist in the GVSU Counseling Center. “It depends on their learning style, how they manage their anxiety, and how they organize and manage their time. Everyone is going to be a little bit different with that.”

Though individual reasons for distraction come in many shapes and sizes, vastly different from person to person, Klingensmith said there are some common threads in the phenomena of procrastination. Anxiety, he said, is one of them.

“When we get overwhelmed by something, we generally tend to put it off, maybe until we have to and once we get focused on it,” he said. “The bigger the project seems, the more people tend to deflect and do something else.”

Karel Swanson, program coordinator for structured learning assistance and an academic adviser for pre-major students, said she thinks there are three main reasons why students procrastinate.

The first boils down to pressure – the fact that some students feel the need to pursue perfection, and perform at a level they just may not be able to achieve. The second is all about perspective. Swanson said some students might have an unrealistic perception of how much time they’ve allocated for a specific task. Finally, just like Klingensmith, Swanson said the third major reason for student procrastination is being overwhelmed, a common diagnosis for college-aged students.

“(Students) are sometimes just feeling overwhelmed, perceiving that they have too much and not knowing where to start, so they just keep putting off starting,” Swanson said.

With a 488 million regular users of Facebook’s mobile application, as reported by company statistics – including the 96 percent of college students reported as users of the social media site – some are pointing at social media as the source of procrastination in college, but not as the sole cause.

“I think it’s one thing to procrastinate with,” Klingensmith said. “I don’t think social media or social networking by itself is better or worse, I just think it’s one more thing that people can procrastinate with.”

There are many tips students can use to aid them in overcoming this common problem. The Counseling Center offers workshops throughout the semester on anxiety and time management. It also has several pamphlets that students can use as a resource, including one that offers first-step advice in diagnosing the problem.

As far as curbing that distracted behavior, there are a number of ways an individual can do it on their own, but GVSU’s Counseling Center also offers workshops throughout the semester on anxiety and time management, including pamphlets detailing a step-by-step diagnosis available for student use that offer wisdom like, “To understand and solve your procrastination problems, you will need to analyze the situations that are most problematic to you,” and more.

Klingensmith said the first thing he does to help students battling with procrastination is to figure out what’s at the root of the problem – what’s causing them to procrastinate and why.

For the overwhelming things, he advises students to skip the late-night cram sessions and break the task down into smaller, more manageable pieces that will, he said, give the student a sense of accomplishment.

As for the perfectionists, Swanson said those striving for infallibility should seek excellence instead of perfection, and learn to be satisfied with doing their best rather than focusing on the negatives.

“Reduce your level of expectations out of yourself, and don’t expect perfection,” she said.

Swanson’s most prevailing piece of advice for tackling procrastination? Just do it.

“We all have things that we procrastinate with, that we prefer to put off, we’re afraid to start or too overwhelmed to start,” Swanson said. “Usually what I tell a student is to just start, because usually once you can have some degree of accomplishment, you’re able to continue. The problem often with procrastination is getting started.”
[email protected]