As a student, if you procrastinate, if you skip your homework, if you flake out and only put in half effort, you are the only person who suffers. This is absolutely nothing like the real world.
In college I usually tried hard, but if I got super busy it was not out of the ordinary for me to skip a few questions on my homework assignment. (I never skipped class though! That counts for something, right?) If I had a high grade in a class, I would slack off and not proofread my next paper, and gladly coast on a B-. It was a pretty nice life, never giving myself too hard of a time about grades, just letting myself be content with a slightly-above-average GPA. So basically, I learned nothing about time management and disciplining myself to churn out my top-quality work until graduate school when I was a full-time intern teacher. Being thrown into the real world wasn't too hard to start managing money and paying bills... what was tough was realizing that my effort actually affects other people.
At my real job, in my real relationships with family and friends, and in taking care of my home and my self, there is no room for procrastination. If I leave my lesson plans to the last minute and email my children's ministry volunteers at the last minute, I'm left with last-minute cancellation, and I'm left out to dry- the kids at church would suffer the consequences. If I push off texting back my friend, I actually won't casually bump into them in the dining hall tomorrow to catch up- our relationship would suffer real consequences. If I leave grocery shopping to the last minute, my husband and I end up eating goldfish and peanut butter for lunch- our bodies would suffer real consequences. Cause and effect is more than just a GPA now. Instead of my actions changing that somewhat meaningless number on my transcript, they're changing my whole community.
When-I-was-a-dummy, I made any choice I wanted because I knew I could pay the consequence and it would all be "even." I procrastinated because I was willing to accept an inferior product as my own. Now, I have to make choices based on a bigger picture. I am learning not to procrastinate because it doesn't affect just me.
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