Happy Holidays and Ponderments

Happy holidays! I’m finally on break, and it feels absolutely wonderful.  Tuesday was my last day (rather late but oh well), and it is such a relief to have nothing to do for a whole twelve days.
-
Anyway, on to the post.  I’d just like to say that I apologize if this post sounds a little boastful. It isn’t meant to be; the information is just to try and back up my point.

A few days ago, as I was thinking about doing my research paper and how much I procrastinated on it, I came upon an intriguing thought.  Is procrastination really detrimental, or is it actually helping me?

I took a vocabulary test this past Monday.  It was on three units of vocab, which consisted of a total of 60 words.  As usual, I had extremely procrastinated and didn’t study until homeroom.  I looked over the words for the 20 or so minutes that homeroom lasts for, and then took the test the next period.  When I got it back the next day, I had gotten an 87.

Granted I had already a general idea of what about ¼ of the words meant, but an 87 after 20 minutes of studying surprised me a little.  Previously, I would also study on the bus and a few minutes before homeroom, which was about an extra 20 minutes, and I would still get high 80s.  I had never waited until homeroom to start studying, and I wasn’t expecting to be able to remember as many words as I had.

I remember the vocab units I had back in elementary school.  They consisted of only 15 words, and we only did one unit at a time.  Nonetheless, I would study for about half an hour and even have my dad test me on those fifteen words.  I usually got full marks on the vocabulary tests back then, and granted if I did study more for my vocab tests nowadays I could probably still get full marks, but the rate at which I retain information now astounds me, something which is all thanks to procrastination.

I also tend to be able to produce somewhat high-quality work in a short span of time.  Last year, for English, I always ended up typing my papers the morning of the day they were due on, and I never got lower than an 86 (I’m pretty sure anyway).  For a creative writing paper that had to compare a modern day song with a book, I did it at three in the morning and got a 92.  The same goes for my research paper, which got a 90.  I remember hearing people complain about the long, agonizing hours they put into their work, while I just did it in the shortest amount of time possible.

It does make me feel a little cheap though, because I spend little effort on my work and earn good grades, while people who put in tons of effort may/may not end up with a good grade.  However, this may be helpful in the future.  What if someone’s asked to do something in a few hour’s notice (and I’ve heard this does happen in workplaces)?  People who are used to taking their time will be panicking frantically.  Meanwhile, it would be easy for me because I’m used to completing things at the last minute.  This would be a very helpful trait in that situation.

While I’m aware that there are many negative effects from procrastination, right now it seems that it’s helping me in a few positive ways.  I am able to rapidly memorize things.  I can produce decent work in short spans of time.  I also find time to do things when there is seemingly none.  Due to this, it makes me wonder if procrastination truly is as bad as people make it out to seem.
-
Anyway, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa, happy holidays, and have a great new year.