Although very different, all humans have one definite thing in common: we all procrastinate. Whether you are procrastinating right now or you have in the past, the act of procrastination is a universal trait. More then likely we will all procrastinate in the future and in turn receive that guilty, panicked feeling we all get. You know that feeling, the one you get when it is 3 a.m. and you are writing the tern paper due at 8 a.m. that morning. Procrastination has always been seen as wrong. This one word, which according to Brynn E. Holloway in the department of psychology at Missouri Western State University, is "derived from the Latin verb procrastinare which literally means to put off or postpone for another day." The act has been looked down upon, advised against and avoided as much as possible. But, what if we all decide to stop feeling guilty? Instead of being seen as awful, what if we looked at procrastination in a new light and decided it can be a great thing. In a time where we are constantly plugged into the world, procrastination should be looked at as a way to relax. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres stated during her Here and Now comedy tour in 2003 that "procrastination is not the problem. It is the solution. It is the universe's way of saying stop, slow down, you move too fast...procrastinate now, don't put it off."
If you are still unconvinced that procrastination is all right then here are some reasons why waiting a little is the way to go. Written by Lynn Lively, The Procrastinator's Guide to Success holds some of these reasons. Procrastination can help create time for something else that is more important, put a trivial issue into perspective, cool down your anger, get more useful information and help you survive an "off" day when you are mentally frazzled. Of course, like with all good things, there is a down side. If done incorrectly procrastination can hinder situations rather than help, make you miss an opportunity, reduce the amount of time available for a correction or rework, drain your mental energy and lose preparation time by getting a late start. The biggest problem with procrastination is that it is easy to continue procrastinating even though there are things to be done. There are many tricks to make sure you are a smart procrastinator instead of a lazy one but the two most important ones are to make sure you eventually do the work and don't fall behind. If you do fall behind you will be the college student staying up all night trying to pound out the term paper while experiencing that guilty feeling. And the second trick is to do things right the first time so you won't have to do them over. This way the term paper that you wrote in such a hurry won't receive an "F."