In high school, students that get work done ahead of time and divide their workload among multiple nights are like unicorns. They rarely exist, and when they do, they are impossible to find (I’m not giving up yet though, I have a unicorn hunt planned for the weekend). The average student procrastinates and avoids homework until the night-or period- before it is due. Such habits are usually seen as harmful. There is some truth to that, however it is also important to recognize how beneficial taking time off from homework can be.

As students, we often get caught up in our responsibilities. Most of our time gets eaten up by school, homework, sports, and jobs. Taking time for yourself and your friends is vital to mental health. To completely ignore those things for the sake of your responsibilities makes you miss out on some of the best parts of high school.

Every once in awhile, you should do things for your current self rather than for your future self. Just be productive with what you do instead. Practice a hobby, go socialize, take a nap. Take a break, but don’t waste it. Make a memorable experience instead of just binging Netflix when you procrastinate. Go out with your friends on a weeknight. Last night, on a Thursday, I went to a concert and did about 30 minutes of homework afterwards. My night could have been a forgetful 3 hours of homework and a couple episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” but instead, I went out to a concert with friends and had an experience I will never forget. The best part: I still got all my homework done. It took some multi-tasking, but I still got it finished, and managed to go to a concert on a weeknight.

As a teenager, procrastinating is natural, and in some cases, unavoidable. But instead of using the time gained by putting off homework to be lazy, do something productive. Improve yourself in non-academic ways instead of numbing your brain, as tempting as it may be. If we all started dedicating our off time to activities that further us as people and allow us to squeeze the most out of our time in high school, we would have a lot more in ourselves to be proud of. My personal goal: spend all that time on guitar. I would gain a lot more skill and mastery over the instrument than i already have if I applied myself using the time I take off of homework.

We are going to procrastinate, no question. Make the most of it.