Procrastination, the tendency to postpone our duties, is a general evil, especially in a time when there are so many distractions and temptations in the form of leisure.
But among students it is almost inherent, even among Ph.D. students: all students spend about a third of their waking hours on amusements that they themselves describe as a form of procrastination.
Leisure before exams
On average, students dedicate more than eight hours to leisure activities during the two days before exams , and their inability to properly manage time is one of their main concerns, according to themselves, and one of the reasons for dropping out. the studies.
This trend exists regardless of the level of studies being studied, as Piers Steel explains in his book Procrastination: Why we leave until tomorrow what we can do today :
It is one of the main reasons why most candidates for a doctorate leave their studies before they have obtained it. After his name will appear the letters ABD (acronym in English for "everything except the thesis").
This tendency to postpone homework because we don’t feel like it, because there are more interesting things to do, or because we simply feel immense laziness is so powerful that it boycotts even the most carefully laid plans and throws away the effort accumulated over the years, even if it doesn’t have any. sense :
As incredible as it may seem, after having achieved admission to very competitive academic programs, after having completed all the doctorate courses, after having compiled, perhaps, the data of the thesis, when they only need to write and defend it, at least half , never completes the process despite the immense investment of time and the considerable reward it would bring them (on average, 30 percent more salary).