Over 70% of students in America struggle with balancing their academics with their procrastination according to edutopia.com.
Brynn Cutler is a member of the freshman class of NPHS who participates in cheerleading (fall and winter), voice and acting lessons, tumbling classes and keeping up with good grades.
Cutler tends to spend around two hours a day using social media, particularly Instagram and Snapchat, and two hours a night doing homework.
But Cutler’s busy day schedule means the only real time she gets to complete assignments is late at night, which puts her solidly in the 70% struggling with procrastination.
“When it’s late at night and I’m supposed to be doing homework because it’s due the next day. I just really don’t want to do it,” she said.
Anna Slattery is a hard working ninth grade student at NPHS who struggles to balance school, soccer, basketball and her social life. Procrastination is also a big struggle in her life, yet she somehow always gets her work in on time.
Slattery uses TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. She tends to spend around two hours a day on social media.
Slattery also spends 2-3 hours a night working on homework. This adds up to around 5 hours a day spent on social media and homework.
Trying to balance school work and everything else going on in her life leads her to scrolling on social media to relieve her stress: “I would say it probably negatively affects me because I always get distracted, like, with my phone and just in general social media.”
If Slattery did not have TikTik, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube she likes to believe that she would be able to work faster and harder, since that would eliminate the doomscrolling on her socials. She would be more productive if her phone was off somewhere else.
Since Slattery participates in so many after school activities she only really has time for homework later at night. Like it does for many others, scrolling for 10 – 20 minutes sometimes turns into an hour or more before she realizes how much time has been wasted.
The only way to avoid procrastination?
“Throw your phone to the side and put it on silent, just be locked in,” Slattery said.
Julia Feuerstein is also a 15 year old NPHS freshman. She balances soccer, ASL classes and club, theater and school work.
On average Feuerstein spends 2-3 hours a day on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. According to apa.com the average teenager spends 4.8 hours on social media a day, so Feuerstein and Slattery are below the average.
When Feuerstein has soccer practice later at night the only time for her to do her homework is right after school: “I tend to go on my phone instead of starting my schoolwork as down time.”
Feuerstein struggles with procrastination, so to help this she sets a screen limit on some of her app use. For example, on TikTok she restricts herself to one hour a day to try and prevent doomscrolling for an unlimited amount of time.
What else helps keep her focused and on task?
“I’m also on restricted mode,” she said.
Since Feuerstein spends around four hours on homework each night the time limit and restricted mode really helps. These features are something she would recommend to others.
In addition, she said: “A lot of the time I hide my phone. I hide it in my bed and then I can’t find it while doing my homework.”
Feuerstein may abuse the use of her cellphone sometimes, but sometimes it is also a big help in her studies. For example, she will put her entire study guide into AI and ask it to help find errors.
In order to minimize the effects of procrastination, she recommends: “Make sure that you keep a steady calendar and turn in your missing assignments. Also make sure that you take study breaks and have a good healthy snack to stay motivated.”