The Art of Procrastination

By Sulaah Bien-Aime

It’s 10:39 p.m., and my final paper is due tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. for my Technology and Culture class — which means I have less than two hours to get it done. You may be asking yourself: Why did I wait until the very last minute?

That’s the age-old question top scholars have debated — why do students wait until the final hour to do their work? They even gave it a fancy name: Procrastination.

As students, that’s what we do. We procrastinate. We leave things for the last minute because somehow, the thrill of playing Russian roulette with our grades gives us a strange high. Maybe?

Some procrastinate and fail — and are completely okay with that. But most of us still want to do well. We just want a less painful, more efficient way to get there.

After two glasses of cheap red wine — GATO NEGRO, to be exact — still no buzz. I’m sipping like it’s been fermenting for a decade, reading my professors’ last emails like they’re cryptic messages from another realm.

And I decided:

Instead of writing a scintillating, allegorical, politically inspired piece on Frank Underwood’s narcissistic rise to power in House of Cards — the one that’s supposed to be my final showdown before graduating from John Jay on June 1st — I’d write about something more real: this painful habit I’ve developed over four years.

Every year, I promise myself I’ll do better. Every year, I fail. Like making a New Year’s resolution and breaking it by January 2nd.

So I had to ask myself — should I go out like a G and risk getting an F? Because that would be tragic.

I’m sipping GATO NEGRO. Maybe if I had the guts to light some Black Haze, I’d thrill you with another kind of story.

But alas — we’re talking about procrastination.

Since the first day I stepped into kindergarten, I’ve been asking: Why was school invented?

Why get up at 7 a.m.? Why spend the entire day — from 8 to 3 — in a building with morbid, institutional colors, absorbing information that only 1%, maybe 10%, will ever be useful in real life?

That burning question stayed with me through elementary, middle school, high school, and college. At every stage, I resented the system. And somewhere deep down, I rebelled.

In elementary school, I cried. In middle school, I got angry. I became hormonal. By high school, I thought I was adjusting — until the safety nets disappeared.

No more parents checking in. No more teachers holding deadlines over me. I was on my own.

So for all the scholars out there wondering why students procrastinate — if that doesn’t give you a clue, I don’t know what will.

According to psychologytoday.com, the answer is deeper than you think.

“Procrastination, in large part, reflects our perennial struggle with self-control, as well as our inability to accurately predict how we’ll feel tomorrow… or the next day.”

Perennial? Is it that serious?

Apparently, yes.

“Procrastination is a complex psychological behavior that affects everyone to some degree. With some, it’s minor. With others, it’s a source of considerable stress and anxiety. It’s only remotely related to time management. Procrastinators often know exactly what they should be doing. They just can’t do it.”

And as I sit here — now 12:04 a.m. — I’m wondering: Is it really that deep?

Do I struggle with self-control? Am I anxious? Stressed?

Honestly, the only thing on my mind — besides my bed — is that this is all a bunch of B.S.

I’m no more anxious than the average New Yorker. And let’s be real — in the city that never sleeps, were we ever not going to procrastinate?

Most students wait until the last minute because they’ve got “better things to do.” Or they’re professional crammers — the ones who live for the adrenaline, who stress their bodies just to flex the next day:

“Yo, I just did this last night.”
“I knocked this out at work an hour ago.”

And the worst part? They get an A. They win. So the cycle continues.

The deeper I went, the more I asked: Do I need therapy? Do I need to be medicated?

Because the article broke it all the way down — listing traits like:

Low self-confidence
“I’m too busy” syndrome
Stubbornness
Manipulation
Coping with pressure
And my favorite: the frustrated victim

Low self-confidence? That means I supposedly feel inadequate, incapable of meeting expectations. And I’m sitting here thinking: It’s just a paper. Not a full-blown breakdown.

But now I’m mentally checking off boxes like I’m taking a quiz I never asked to be in.

“I’m too busy”? Oh, you think?

I work full-time. Go to school full-time. And I’m a full-time single mom.

Suddenly, I felt a little better. Maybe it wasn’t all on me. Maybe the system gets a little blame too.

Then there’s stubbornness — that feeling of being pushed around, and saying, “I’ll do it when I’m ready.” Except I signed up for this torture willingly.

Manipulation? That’s ego. The party doesn’t start until I show up.

But did I even want to be at this party? Or was I just following the script: Go to school. Go to college. Get married. Retire in Florida.

Could I be doing something else?

Coping with pressure was the one that hit hard.

“Procrastination is often truly difficult to eradicate, since the delay behavior has become a method of coping with day-to-day pressures. Obviously, if one is ‘cured,’ others will put new demands and expectations upon you.”

Cured? Really?

Now my delay has become a condition? We’ve moved from stress to diagnosis.

But nothing beat the label of frustrated victim.

Apparently, I’m supposed to feel like I can’t get things done like other people. But let’s be real — 99.9% of students are in the same boat.

That 0.1%? They’ve made school a career, mastered the system, or been institutionalized by it.

They don’t know how to function outside its walls. Like… get a job. Or worse — get jailed.

Actually, let’s keep it basic: Get fired. Experience the real world. You want to talk about procrastination? Try enforced procrastination.

It’s now 1:02 a.m. And somehow — this is a paper.

I’m researching. I’m citing sources. I’m drawing conclusions.

And I realize: I’ve been sucked in.

My mind shifts to the labyrinth — the metaphor, the game.

“It’s a game which has endured, bringing the age-old experience of moving forwards and going astray into our time…”
(Nicolai & Wenzel, 2012)

This isn’t just procrastination. It’s the game.

We wander in circles. We seek meaning. We diagnose, label, and try to cure what might just be our way of surviving.

We give meaning to everything. Even to this. Even to me not writing this paper earlier.

But the truth?

Between work, school, and parenting, I barely have time to breathe.

It’s not poor time management. It’s unrealistic expectations — and a system built on them.

We’re set up to fall behind. We’re set up to procrastinate.

And I say: Own it.

This society thrives on pain and pleasure. Everything else is fleeting.

Like this pain I’m feeling at 3 a.m.

Because if I didn’t care? I would’ve quit hours ago.

I’ve succumbed to the game. I’m its puppet.

But maybe — just maybe — being a procrastinator is the last part of my identity I haven’t surrendered.

 

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Nicolai, O., & Wenzel, J. (2012). Labyrinth — Ein Buch in vier Vorträgen. Leipzig: Spector Books.

Procrastination. (n.d.). Retrieved May 05, 2016, from http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html

Psychology Today. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination

[1] Psychology Today. (n.d.). Retrieved May 04, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/procrastination

[2] Procrastination. (n.d.). Retrieved May 05, 2016, from http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html

[3] [3] Procrastination. (n.d.). Retrieved May 05, 2016, from http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html

[4]Nicolai, O., & Wenzel, J. (2012). Labyrinth — Ein Buch in vier Vorträgen. Leipzig: Spector Books.

Re-edited on August 15, 2023