As the semester comes to a close, finals week quickly approaches, and Like Groundhog Day, it tends to feel like a repeat of the same cycle every semester. You procrastinate all Thanksgiving break until you’re finally back on campus and remember the pile of assignments, projects, and essays awaiting you. Remember that online asynchronous class that you signed up for, thinking it’s gonna be easy? Well, now you’ve waited till the end of the semester to finish all the assignments from months ago. So why do we procrastinate knowing we have all this work to do? Procrastination shouldn’t be seen as laziness, it is a build-up of stress, fear, and the search for temporary relief. Between going to classes, socializing, and taking care of yourself, it can be hard to fit in an ample amount of homework and study throughout the day. When the pressure builds up, procrastination becomes a way for students to temporarily ease the stress. Starting an early morning library session ready to be productive only to realize halfway through your “break” you wasted an hour on TikTok. In the moment, watching TikToks and relaxing is more rewarding than completing that assignment. Many psychologists refer to this as “temporal discounting,” which means valuing immediate rewards over future consequences. Another reason for procrastination is that this is the first time many students have free will and aren’t constantly being told what to do by their parents. While this can be a great thing, it also takes a lot of responsibility to get up and study for the exam tomorrow instead of watching an entire season of The Office. A lot of students also use procrastination as an adrenaline rush and a way to work under pressure. These students use this last-minute bout of energy to save their grades. While this is great for some, procrastination can still lead to stress and burnout and even take a toll on academic performance. To break this cycle it’s important to remember to work smarter, not harder. It’s not all about working non-stop, you break large tasks into smaller sections to manage it easier. Finals week is hard enough, you don’t need to be fighting the guilt that comes along with procrastination too. It’s not a bad habit, just a reflection of stress and workload. Remember that it’s still important to take those breaks as long as the work is still getting done.