Courses that focus on developing strategies for time management are available through the Dennis Learning Center, Kelsey Varzeas, a second-year doctoral student in higher education and student affairs and an academic coach for graduate and professional students at the Dennis Learning Center, said. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
With spring semester less than two weeks away, some students may be worried of falling into the same cycles of procrastination they found themselves in last semester.
Helena Rempala, associate professor and psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, said reasons for procrastinating can fall into two categories: psychological and physiological.
Rempala said psychological reasons for procrastination arise from some form of emotional block that prevents students from starting a task.
“It’s an emotional noise that we start attending to much more than to the plans that we have, and the motivation and the reasoning behind actually scheduling ourselves for something,” Rempala said.
Some reasons include:
- Fear that there’s not enough time to do something perfectly
- The concern that a task is too big to undertake
- Uncertainty of an outcome or fear of failure
- Test anxiety or concerns about grades
- Self-defeating thoughts and convincing yourself you won’t succeed
Rempala said students could also struggle with learned helplessness — a belief that arises out of multiple failed attempts to avoid a negative outcome — as one could adopt the mindset that no matter what they do or how much they study, learning or understanding a concept is impossible.
Kelsey Varzeas, a second-year doctoral student in higher education and student affairs and an academic coach for graduate and professional students at the Dennis Learning Center, said procrastination results in overwhelming pressure for college students.
“I personally feel like students should want to learn, but it’s not always the case,” Varzeas said. “And especially when it comes to pressure-filled situations, it makes it difficult to learn.”
From a physiological perspective, Rempala said procrastination is caused by a lack of hyperactivation in the reward system in the brain, meaning students don’t have enough energy or motivation to accomplish a task. She said when activation levels are low, students can work through assignments by matching the size of the task with their energy level.
“How long do you feel like you could do [a task] without really feeling exhausted?” Rempala said. “Do it for that amount of time. Don’t do it for longer, because you don’t want to fool your brain into something like that, because next time it will not believe you. It will just stay on the couch with you.”
Rempala said stimulating the brain by moving also helps to increase energy levels, whether that be completing yoga poses in the living room or taking a walk outside.
Varzeas said creating a schedule with fixed times can help prevent procrastination. She said the calendar should not only include tasks such as classes, meetings and study time, but also mealtimes, sleep and breaks.
“If we don’t include those, then we’re overworking ourselves or overscheduling ourselves,” Varzeas said.
Rempala said when scheduling, tasks should be broken down into smaller, more manageable increments. She said assignments don’t have to be finished as soon as they are started and breaking tasks down in this manner can quell thoughts that a task is too big to accomplish.
“Make a schedule, but make your schedule, not the Super Woman schedule,” Rempala said.
In addition to developing a manageable schedule, Varzeas said it’s important for students to remember they don’t have to complete their tasks without help. She recommends reaching out to professors or having virtual study sessions with classmates to work through difficult concepts.
The Dennis Learning Center offers academic coaching via Zoom, which is free for undergraduate, graduate and professional students, Varzeas said. Students at the Columbus campus can also sign up for free online peer tutoring in math, chemistry and physics. Varzeas said courses are also available through the Dennis Learning Center that focus on developing strategies for time management.
Both Rempala and Varzeas said it’s important to understand that procrastination is a behavior, not an identity. She said students should avoid internalizing procrastination as something they can’t overcome.
“For students who feel like, ‘Oh, I’ve always been a procrastinator,’ or ‘I can’t ever beat procrastination,’ you certainly can and you can always work on this,” Varzeas said. “Even if you’re halfway through a semester, you’re still able to work on your procrastination. You don’t have to start it at the middle, or at the beginning of a semester, or at the end of the semester. I guess, essentially, it’s never too late.”
