Procrastination (Speech)

Ladies and gentlemen, despite my better judgement, I would like to begin today with a confession. I am a chronic procrastinator. I procrastinate on almost all of my school assignments and assigned tasks in my day-to-day life. In fact, I even waited until the last minute to write this speech.

I am here today, however, to convince you that this is not necessarily a negative thing. In fact, procrastination is a very common habit among students and people in general, and, for those people who do procrastinate; it often has some positive effects.

I believe that procrastination has, unfortunately, developed a bad connotation over the years. Too often is it associated with stereotypical slackers, who are too lazy to do the work before the last minute.

This of course is not true and I am personally offended by this association because I am not a slacker. Those people who do procrastinate have just chosen to go about life in a different method that is more convenient for them. Rather than planning out their lives, these people live in a day-by-day, short-term situation, and this makes them happy.

As far as I'm concerned putting off things you can do today until tomorrow isn't a bad thing. One must consider that maybe I'm just pacing myself, making sure I don't take on too much, giving my life a chance to catch its breath. When viewed this way, it would seem that, contrary to popular belief, procrastination reduces stress.

I've heard many people who are of the opinion that they "suffer" from procrastination. But is it procrastination or just plan guilt? I think it's the latter. People labour under the belief that procrastination is bad, and that if they don't space out their work, it will make the task more difficult. The problem lies in the fact that when one spaces work out over time, it leaves them with no time that is free.

I think that it is best expressed in the line: When in doubt, waits it out. Take a breath. Don't be in such a hurry to fix whatever ails you