Welcome to the Later Club!
One of the most important things to recognize about procrastination is that (almost) everyone does it! You’ll see this over and over if you scroll through these pages, but procrastination is NOT an issue of laziness or apathy. Far from it! Multiple scientific studies show that procrastination is an issue of negative emotions related to the task at hand—in this case, school or writing.
Before you read further, we encourage you to consider your own relationship with procrastination—how often do you do it? How much do you beat yourself up over it? How do you get out of it? You may consider sharing these reflections with your students, if you’re comfortable, when the subject comes up. It turns out most procrastinators feel a sense of shame, and feel that they are all alone, even though nothing could be further from the truth!
Check out our resources for instructors below. You’ll see we have a few lesson plans there. There are a number of ways you can talk about procrastination with your students. Whatever you do, we suggest you start an open, honest conversation with students about what procrastination is (and lead them to this site!) There’s also a mini-unit, which lasts two class periods (with a brief follow-up on the third day) and can be used in First Year Writing classes or any class in which you want to teach an introduction to reading and genres of research. This unit has been incorporated into the ENG1101 Model Course, but it can be modified for 1121, upper-level courses or courses outside the English Department.
And don’t forget to take a digital stroll through our Later Library!
Start addressing some common causes of student procrastination.
Take a look at this mini-unit on procrastination (two class sessions and a day three discussion).
Check out this 30-minute lesson plan for discussing procrastination in your class.
These lesson plans are specifically designed for classes supporting English Language Learners.
Already did the 30-minute lesson? Here’s a 15-minute follow-up for later in the semester.
Want to read more about our research on procrastination here at City Tech? Don’t put it off! See the science behind the Procrastination Station.