Like many procrastinators, I was one of those smart kids who never needed to study up until the end of high school. I recently met again with a childhood friend who recalled with amazement how i never, ever studied. My mom tried to warn me while we were growing up that lazyness was dangerous but it seemed more convenient to not listen to her at the time.
Fast forward to university. Without stressing too much about it, I got admitted to one of the top 3 schools in Canada in science. My serious problems started. At the school I went to, I was still somewhat above average in smarts but I was way below the norm when it came to conscientiousness. I started to fall behind on the necessary work. Once in a while I’d find motivation and do absolutely great. It’d never last a whole semester though. Because I was smart, I could still manage low Bs and Cs while doing everything at the last minute. I’d foolishly take pride in the fact that I could still pass the class while studying at most 1h per week. But Bs and Cs weren’t what I was used to. I was a smart kid and that was the only thing I knew how to be. Since I wasn’t getting good grades anymore and i just couldn’t put myself to work, my self esteem took a nosedive. I eventually failed out of the physics program at McGill university. I deeply regret it because had i stuck around, I’d have not only enjoyed a great education but I’d have gathered an incredibly accomplished peer group.
I worked at lame, unskilled jobs for a few years. I put off finishing university for a few years. I finally found the energy to go back in math at a lower ranked school. Not much had changed about me so I pretty much procrastinated my way through my degree. Granted, I did work a little bit harder that time. I graduated with a decent but utterly average GPA.
I think I was still smart because the classed where I got the best grades and that I enjoyed the most were the most challenging math classes where I was able to find :
1)a student i studied together
2) a teacher i discussed the class with regularly so i had to keep up
I’m still struggling with lazyness and procrastination.
I’m doing some professional examinations in which you have several months to study for a test. These examinations cannot be crammed for in a few days. Yet i foolishly waste money registering for those tests and then not alloting the recommended time to study for them. In the 3 or 4 days before the test I typically put in 10hrs of study or so per day but that’s never enough.

I hope most of you find a solution to that problem sooner than later like me. My life isn’t over yet but procrastination and lazyness has pretty much ruined my 20s and 30s.

Oh, just to add, I agree with Bill’s comment above mine.

I ended up getting turned off from medicine from all the science classes as well the mentality of some of the students who would be very selfish and not wanna help others learn [basically UNKIND human beings] or would even hinder them if they could. It disgusted me.

I used to LOVE learning, and I actually LOVED math and science as well. But now I am completely over it, I don’t really care for any of the science and math subjects I used to love. I wish I did…Now I’m just bored and uninterested.

UNINTERESTED, that is the worst thing a student can be…

[BE WARNED, THIS IS A LONG POST, SORRY!!]

In high school I was one of the top 5 in my school, I had a great GPA, worked hard, was involved in school, and had aspirations of college. I got into UC Berkeley so I did good on that lol. However, I was always conflicted though over what I wanted to major in, and if I really wanted to pursue becoming a doctor in the future. I used to want to be a doctor really badly when I was a child, really badly…but once my family started to say stuff and assume I would be going into medicine as it is good and earns good money, I got confused as to if it was THEIR guidance that made me want to be a doctor, or if I genuinely did still want to. I am a bit of a rebel, so in this case it worked against me as I lost my motivation for medicine thinking it was a push rather than my own decision.

Anyways, I wasn’t sure what to major in, nothing really held my interest. I went into a major that I don’t really care for and am not passionate about, Social Welfare, because it was open and the classes to fulfill it are VERY BROAD in terms of subject matter [econ, poli schi, psychology, anthropology etc], which I liked a lot.

Deep procrastination hit me in my 2nd year, and HONESTLY, I still have it. i was taking classes for my major and pre-med classes, both of which I did not really care for, and as a commuting student I was not able to participate in campus life nor make many, if any, new friends. THAT I think is another thing people should do, get INVOLVED in some way at campus so you have at least some motivation.

My procrastination is BAD. I have even had to stay an extra YEAR to retake classes and try to finish all sorts of incomplete grades, some of them have already lapsed into F’s. Some got extensions but I missed those deadlines as well so I got F’s. My GPA has suffered SOOOO much, I am ashamed to tell anyone in my family about it. They don’t know and I really hope they never will. I have SOOO many regrets, and if given a second chance I wish I honestly could just REDO all my college years….alas that won’t happen. I have to accept the past, look and analyze what I should have done differently, and then TRY TO CHANGE from there.

It is NEVER, never an issue of the work being too hard, it’s easy enough. It always, ALWAYS has to do with my MOTIVATION to even START something. I have completely lost it in college. I had it in high school and I don’t know how to bring it back…I would even prepare myself and give myself time to write a paper or complete a reading, and then I would end up wasting time on frivolous stuff.

At this point in my life, I spent an extra year in college that my friends around me don’t even know about, I totally lied to them and said I had a part-time job. I have lied to a lot of people about this and I feel really bad. My parents know, but they don’t know WHY I stayed an extra year….

IN CONCLUSION: I have ZERO motivation to do stuff. My brain just feels really lazy and I have a lot of self-hate and depression going on as a result. I have graduated with a degree I don’t care for, and have STILL not figured out what I want in life. This is bad LOL.

I learned my lesson WAY TOO LATE on how procrastination could go from a once in a while thing to a lifetime embracement…I just hope I get out of it.

First thing is first, try to find the motivation to look for a job…LOL

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