Procrastination and cramming: how adept students ace the system

Clear power differentials between teacher and pupil and the assignment of well-delineated tasks within specified time constraints characterize the academic system. Most university students are supremely adept at working within that structure. Many students who outwardly adapt to the system, however, engage in an intense and private ritual that comprises five aspects: calculated procrastination, preparatory anxiety, climactic cramming, nick-of-time deadline-making, and a secret, if often uncelebrated, victory. These adept students often find it difficult to admit others into their efficient program of academic survival. Although such behaviors are adaptive for school rhythms and expectations, these students may also try to impose them onto personal relationships, including those that are psychotherapeutic. The students' tendency to transfer their longstanding habits of procrastination and cramming to the workplace after graduation is less problematic. The argument is made that school rhythms and expectations shape the workplace, not vice versa. Methods of addressing the troublesome aspects of these work styles are suggested. Rather than attempting to change existing work patterns, the therapist can identify the underlying psychodynamic drama and its attendant manifestations that are becoming problematic.