A lot of students procrastinate. My personal definition of procrastination is when someone waits until the last minute to complete a task.

I have never been one to procrastinate, simply because I hate the stress that I feel when I am rushed to get something done. For me, thinking about how other people procrastinate always follows with how I think those people are just being lazy.

For the most part, most people who procrastinate are lazy, but not everyone. Like me. The only time that I find myself procrastinating is when I am so busy that the task has to be completed last or close to the time when it needs to be done.

I do not procrastinate in this way often, but the time that I did recently ended up being a major mistake.

Unfortunately, I procrastinated completing a big project due to other activities that got in the way. This brought me down to the last day to complete my online assignment. Of course, my laptop was not cooperating.

The project, which was an end-of-the -year assignment, was completely digital. There was no way I could get around to doing it without my laptop working.

I had tried to work on the assignment before my schedule got busy, but I was having the same problem with my laptop at that time as well.

I asked my teacher who assigned the project about how to go about doing the assignment while my laptop was not cooperating, and I was given information on how to fix the problem. I tried what the teacher had told me to do, but my laptop was still not letting me work on the assignment.

The assignment would not load, but I had a few hours until it was due. In those few hours, I had other classes I had to go to.

Right before I was going to walk to the class that my assignment was due for, I looked at my laptop for one last hope. It was working.

I had less than 10 minutes before the assignment was due. I crammed in as much of the assignment to complete it as best as I could.

I did it. I had already had a general idea of what I would have done for the assignment which made it easier to complete it in the time that I did.

I hate procrastination, but now I understand that there are other reasons for it other than laziness. I do not recommend waiting until the last minute, especially for a big assignment, but if it is what has to be done, just be ready for mishaps.

Karena Ozier is a freshman elementary education major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at

kmozier@eiu.edu.