The house is silent except for the ticking of the clock, a constant reminder of the little time I have left. I type away at my keyboard, hoping I can get something that will pass as good enough. The thoughts of my family scolding me circle my brain. “You should’ve worked on this yesterday,” they said, “You could’ve been finished by now,” they said. They’re asleep by now, as I wish I was. Ignorant, foolish me, how could you have waited so long to do this unending project? I wish I could go back, to have done some work before, but alas, I had done nothing and this is my fate. A meager 5 hours of sleep if I'm lucky. I press enter and finish my document. Finally, sweet relief! I go to submit my project, but my stomach drops as my eyes move across the screen. There’s another document due tonight. I hang my head in sorrow as I open up the due assignment.

All too often I find myself in a situation very much like this one. I put off some work and decide to do something else. Maybe I decide to play video games, hang out with friends, or draw. Whichever it is that I decide to occupy my time with, my homework still doesn’t get done. Sometimes it’s not even homework. I’ve done the same with projects too. It’s quite a strange sensation. It’s like you feel like you have all the time in the world. You look at the time once, it’s 6 o’clock. What feels like five minutes later, you look at the time again and it’s 10 o’clock. All of a sudden your laziness reverses and you find yourself rushing about, trying to get as much work done as possible.

There's only one place this all happens for me. Well, two, technically speaking. There's the mental place where your brain decides to put off the work, where it decides to have fun instead when it decides to sacrifice sleep for fun. Then there's the physical place. It's quite depressing, really. The sight of the clock, the dark room, the light from the computer screen, all mixing to a constant reminder of what I did to myself. I’m so used to it at this point, it doesn’t really phase me. Its how I spend a lot of my time. Just sitting there on the kitchen chair, legs extended under the table. I usually have some sort of music to make the work a little less boring. The TV flashes in the left corner of my eye, as my mom usually watches TV late at night while I’m still working.

It’s kind of ironic, I don’t think of myself as lazy often. I feel like my personality is more of a “get it done” kind of way. Although when it’s late at night and my fingers fly across my keyboard or scribble down writing onto paper, it sure doesn't seem like it. Sitting in my plaid PJ pants and my green shirt, I know it’s going to be a long night. There’s more going on in my head, though. Thoughts bouncing around, wondering what’s good and what’s not. The constant battle of if I should play a game for a little bit or strap down and get my work done. When you’re tired, sleep-deprived, and bored, your mind becomes a battlefield, where the only victor is sleep itself, whether or not you’ve finished what you’ve set out to do. It’s not just me, though, us procrastinators come in many shapes and sizes. I’ve heard stories from the brainiacs, the jocks, and everyone in between. It’s pretty much the high school norm.

Procrastination isn’t for everyone, though. Some people don’t do their work at all and mess around too much. Some don’t waste enough time so it’s not even classified as procrastinating. In the middle, there is a very slim spot where procrastination takes place. But even sometimes it can be too much for even the most experienced students to handle. It’s like a game of cards. Sometimes it’s skill, sometimes it's not, sometimes it comes down to the cards you got. It can also be hard to comprehend. Waiting while you could be doing your work, then rushing at the last minute? It sounds stupid, I know, but it can really help sometimes, it just comes down to the person.

Although procrastination is usually considered a bad thing, sometimes it can really help with getting work done. With little time to do some work, there’s no time to slack off or get sidetracked. Sometimes it's worth putting work off for a little while just so you can focus more on it later as opposed to trying to multitask with work and being distracted. It’s a delicate balance of slacking off and working hard, but the weights vary with each new assignment. Procrastination can be a hindrance and a blessing at the same time, it just really depends on who’s looking at it and what the outcome is.