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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 1999)
rent Owens sits down to write a paper. Once he has sharpened all 10 of his pencils, called three friends, cleaned his room, taken a shower and itched the weather channel for an hour, he finally gets n to business. e surfs the Internet for a while, then sits back n at his desk. He decides he is tired, so he takes little nap to ‘revitalize’ himself. The clock reads 1(3 a.m., and Trent finally finds himself ready to ^et down to business, mmeaiate surgery. ■fc ver y 0ne ,j oes an d whereas many proclaim them- , selves to be royalty in the field, procrastination, like .o'urteerforhe'pr^ ((xxU is an undeniable pa] . t o( co n ege life co apsedTliura£^^®Q WenSi a sen j 0r telecommunications engineer- ing major, said the quality of his work improves with the degree of desperation he feels. ■‘‘Procrastination stimulates creativity,” Owens said. ^^Vhen 1 study ahead of time I don't do well — 1 think I work better under pressure.” ■A central theme of procrastination is the belief that ^^frthing else comes before the responsibility. Owens gHid sometimes he gets desperate for something other than his school work to do. ■'Til do anything that I'm not supposed to be doing," ^Mvenssaid. Til even clean my room. 1 mean, you've to rationalize doing the dishes somehow.” ■Some students are at one with their procrastination, 1 while others are in denial about their habit. Brandon Rivera, a iumor aerospace engineering ma- jor, said his stalling tendencies are just practice sessions (prthepost-graduation “real world.” “Procrastination prepares you for the real world,” Rivera said. “It prepares you for jobs with tight schedules.” Problems arise when a group of self-admitted pro crastinators get together to spend their time-wasting skills together. Matt Green, a senior architecture major, said not hav ing anything to do gives students time to plot their next night of procrastination. “I am really good at procrastinating,” Green said. “In my major, it’s customary for professors to assign pro jects that will keep you up for a week. Then you have nothing to do for two weeks — kind of this ebb and flow kind of thing. ” Green said he uses the extra time to come up with fun stuff he can do when he will be behind a deadline. “We get together and do just about anything we’re not supposed to be doing,” Green said. “We make wear able models, play frisbee, drink beer, sUrf the net, make unnecessary phone calls and hang stuff from the tiles. Now that I think about it, we do a lot with the tiles. ” While others use procrastination as an excuse to get creative, some spend their time wondering about the theoretical impact on society this habit can cause. Taylor Delleney, a senior agricultural development major, said it is society’s fault that he procrastinates. “Procrastination is like everything else bad in the world,” Delleney said. “You only do it because every one else does. Procrastination breeds laziness.” Delleney said when he procrastinates, he is really just mentally preparing for the rest of his day. “I’m usually doing something more important,” Del leney said. “I’m not procrastinating; [it is] more like planning what I’m going to do with the rest of my day.” Although students may feel procrastination is a way of life, others espouse the virtue of timeliness. Richard Johnson, a lecturer in the center for acade mic enhancement, said if students put as much effort into their studies as their procrastinating they would be much more successful. “Students are content settling,” Johnson said. “Over achieving does not have a value.” Johnson said some students take their past achievements for granted, and bring bad habits with them to college. “Society does not demand a lot from students,” Johnson said. Part of the procrastination problem stems from stu ERIC ANDRAOS/The Battalion dents’ experiences in high school. Johnson said students who have it easy in their late teens will suffer when they bring the same attitude to a college campus. “ [Students] have gotten by with mediocrity in the past. They didn’t try very hard in high school and they passed, and now they are at a fairly prestigious university. ” Johnson said although he was at one time a procras tinator, he found out soon enough procrastination was not the right approach to life. He also said there could only be one possible advan tage to putting things off until the last minute. “If it gets stressful enough,” Johnson said, “ then stu dents might learn not to do it in the future. ” 1:00 PM. We, behind KFC nextT .0andGo.com Chief Serrano, Night NewsE illing, Sports Editor is, Sports Editor tacre, Radio Producer lynecek, Graphics E# 1 ers, Photo Editor trown, Web Master dents at Texas A&M U»' i | ment of Journalism. Ns' ! i 15-3313; Fax: 845-264 : du onsorship or endorser^ ing, call 845-2696. 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