The bell rings and you look up from your lead smeared paper, the numbers blurring together in a messy jumble. The time for taking this exam is over, so you hurriedly circle random answers for the questions you haven’t answered, and hand the teacher your test sheet.

You wish you would’ve studied more, would’ve paid more attention in class. You wish you didn’t procrastinate. 

High school and college students struggle with procrastination heavily, much of that procrastination being attributed to the common fear of failure. I know throughout my high school career I have struggled with procrastinating on assignments I was fully capable of completing, just because I was afraid of failure. 

According to the Programme for International Student Assessment, over half of high school students in education systems admitted that they had a fear of failure. This fear correlates with lower emotional and social well-being among students, as well as higher stress levels. 

In my sophomore year of high school I struggled a lot with learning the content of my biology class. I found the material to be confusing and difficult to pick up, which made me want to put the work off. 

My dislike for the class grew into procrastination, as I kept putting off studying because it took me a while to understand what the terms and concepts were. Then the procrastination festered and expanded, causing me to feel anxiety at the thought of attempting to understand the complex matter. 

This ultimately led me to fearing the failure I knew I would face. It doesn’t make complete sense—if you don’t study, of course you’re more likely to do worse on a test. 

However, fear doesn’t always make sense.

Itamar Shatz, creator of Solving Procrastination, reported that students procrastinate as a coping mechanism in order to have short-term relief from negative emotions associated with school, excessive self-doubt, anxiety due to the fear of being judged, etc.

The aftermath of my procrastination overall had worse effects than any temporary break from stressing over the class I got. My grades on tests began to slip, and my mindset for what I was capable of struggled. 

I knew then that I needed to pick myself back up. I started to look into ways that would help me not feel so overwhelmed by the thought of tackling a tricky topic.

Fuschia Sirois, a professor of social and health psychology, wrote in her article, “Two Counterintuitive Ways to Stop Procrastinating,” that self-compassion and self-forgiveness are two of the most important steps to overcoming procrastination. 

When we feel guilty for procrastinating, we then enter a cycle of self-deprecation. Sirois continues her article by adding that if people continuously think of themselves in a negative way, then they will look for evidence in their lives that backs your mindset up. 

That evidence comes from procrastination. 

Once you forgive yourself for your past mistakes, you’ll find that stopping the cycle of procrastination becomes an easier step to take.

At the beginning of overcoming procrastination, I struggled a lot with self-forgiveness. The guilt of putting aside my work just to feel a little better for a brief period of time overwhelmed me.

 Then, I felt worse about not overcoming my procrastination quick enough.

However once I finally let go of my past mistakes, I saw a quick change in my mindset. I was determined to continue overcoming my fear-of-failure. 

I wanted to do better in the classes that once made me feel dejected before I even began. Starting to learn the content in those classes didn’t make me feel like I already failed anymore. 

While the work in my biology class was still difficult, and I still had a lot to do to completely forget the short-term wonders of procrastination, I was proud of the progress I had made. My test grades began to improve, and I felt a lot more confident for the final exam.

Learning ways to combat procrastination improved how I now perceive high school as a whole. Sometimes it feels like we are going through hard-times alone, but we forget that there are over 2,000 students at Dallastown who may be feeling the same as us. 

That’s why I decided to write this column. As high school students we tend to think that we are going through things alone and that there is no solution to our problems, but that just isn’t the case. 

My column focuses on the things we don’t want to talk about with others—or even admit to ourselves—but need to be addressed to live a balanced high school life. By ignoring these fears, we aren’t preparing ourselves to live healthy lives outside of high school.

These are things I wish my younger self knew.