DJ Rivera
Mrs. Boresen
Expository Writing, 4
Definition Essay
March 23, 2011
Throughout my life I would like to consider myself a work in progress. In my high school career, there has been the one thing that has always been there for me. It's helped me learn from my mistakes, and even makes the mistakes worse than they really should be. Procrastination is the one thing in my life I couldn't consider living a single moment without. I would like to consider that everyone has run into procrastination once in their life, and wouldn't doubt one bit that they wouldn’t regret a single moment of it. As stated at www.unc.edu "Everyone procrastinates. We put things off because we don't want to do them, or because we have too many other things on our plates." And I would like to ask anyone to question this statement, because I don’t see one thing wrong or incorrect with it. Procrastination can be a good or bad thing, but I couldn’t see any reason of trying to dodge or go around it.
According to www.Merriam-Webster.com, the definition of Procrastination is the action to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done. It's done by everyone whether it's intentional or not, it happens and there can't and will never be a stop to it. If there was any way to take procrastination and put it into my own words, I would tell you what it is. I honestly don’t see any other way to sum it up. You’re lazy, you’d rather do something else than what you should be doing, and you don’t get it done till last minute, plain and simple.
In my eyes, I would like to say that everyone is cursed with some nature of procrastination. I always see it in one or two ways, one being that you would wait till last minute, like I did with this essay. Possibly the second route being you try to make up excuses to need to do other things instead of the thing that really matters at the time. I’ve had many moments of dealing with procrastination, and I would list them off but it would just be too long. Procrastination is the one thing that has taught me the most about life than anything else. It taught me that when you blow something off till last minute, you get so caught up with what you are supposed to do. Then what you had to do will either be really bad or it just won’t get done because it’s too much pressure for the procrastinator. I know after reading all this, someone might say that procrastinating sounds like a really awful action. Well yes, it really is. But in the long run, it can really help someone out.
In the long run, procrastination isn’t really as bad as it sounds. From www.Paulgraham.com, “The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators.” I really hope this could change someone’s mind about how they feel with procrastination. With what Paul Graham has to say about procrastinators I could very well say that everything he says is extremely true. Some of the most impressive people in my life are extremely good procrastinators. The first person that comes to mind when I say this would by my mother. I could very well say that I learn my procrastination from the best. I could very well say that my mom is just as good of a procrastinator as I am myself. When there is something to be done in my life, there is always going to be something that I’d rather be doing instead. When it comes to choosing between what I have to do and what I want to do, the thing I want to do will always come first. And not only can procrastinating sound kind of good, but it has a whole lot of bad consequences in the end.
Procrastinating has never resulted in a consequence that isn’t a bad one, but it sure is exhilarating doing it until you get in trouble for doing it. It could result in a failing grade, or letting someone down, or losing ownership on something that you have to pay for monthly. “Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don't take a lot of commitment on their part.” This is from www.psychologytoday.com. I could never say that Procrastinating is someone’s choice on how to live their life. I would like to say that procrastination is brought at least once into a person’s life. It’s just their choice of whether or not they want to overcome it and how they might overcome it as well. From someone with past and even recent experience with procrastination, overcoming this could feel like the biggest weight off your shoulder.
Procrastination is obviously something that everyone, in their life, has bumped into it and had the choice of overcoming it. It is the one thing that makes the person who they truly are. I really couldn’t put this any other way, procrastination is one huge life changer. It can make you very successful, but at the very same time, could make you very lazy. As a famous quote from Don Marquis, “Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.” Never look passed yesterday, and always try to keep up with today as well. This could be an arch enemy to someone, when at the same time could be a great accomplishment. I promise overcoming procrastination isn’t very difficult, but if you don’t try, it can definitely be the downfall of someone’s life.
"Don Marquis Quotes - The Quotations Page." Quotes and Famous Sayings - The Quotations Page. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. <http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Don_Marquis/>.
"Good and Bad Procrastination." Paul Graham. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html>.
Marano, Hara Estroff. "Procrastination: Ten Things To Know | Psychology Today." Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness Find a Therapist. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200308/procrastination-ten-things-know>.
"Procrastination - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary." Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/procrastination>.
"Procrastination." Home | The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Web. 24 Mar. 2011. <http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/procrastination.html>.
