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The typical mentality of a general college student in the wake of a nearing homework deadline is something like this – “I’ll watch another half an hour of this movie or I’ll listen to this song one more time; I can start my homework after that. ” Often we see that students procrastinate doing their assignments till that point where they barely have time to finish it.
They might think that whatever they want to do other than their assignment might have more benefits at that moment ; and it is seen most of the times that their ‘willingness to pay’ for something that will temporarily take their minds off their pending homework is always greater than doing the homework itself. I think the major reason for this short term escapism might be the fact that the college student leads a very stressful life.
An average college student is someone who has left home not long ago. The very fact that the student has to manage day to day activities of life without any help from a guardian makes it difficult for him/her to prioritize the chores at hand. Motivating oneself and managing one’s time when one faces stress or pressure is a difficult skill to learn; and it is specially difficult for a college student who is inexperienced about handling life in general.
They not only have to deal with parental /societal expectations of doing well in school but also have a lot going on in their lives like part-time jobs or challenges of living with roommates. In the eyes of a student, an assignment/project is seen as a banal aspect of daily life and however irrational the decision to procrastinate may be, they procrastinate over and over again. Also, some people are of the opinion that a human’s subconscious mind unknowingly likes thrills and working till the last minute might be thrilling in a strange manner.
Other common reasons of procrastinating the homework maybe fear of failure or the fact that the work maybe too complex and intimidating for the student to grasp. Lastly, it is often seen that the student generally submits on time whenever the student is made aware of the fact that there might be a punishment if the homework submission is late. According to an economist, the reason for this is that students think that the benefits of facing no consequences by finishing a work on time outweigh the costs of facing an unpleasant punishment for late submission.