I’ll Start Tomorrow... If You Are a Procrastinating Student, Stop What You're Doing and Watch This

Have you ever given up on an assignment simply out of fear of getting a low grade? As an educator (in my real-world job), I see this all the time – in fact often it’s worse.  Assignments are one thing – but whole qualifications? I have seen some of my students give up revising for resit exams because they are so afraid of putting in the work and still not passing that they would rather not try at all - and fail again. (it seems to be, emotionally, the outcome with the least risk). I'll Start Tomorrow could have been written and produced by any number of my own students!

What makes it all the more tragic is that most of the students I see exhibiting this kind of behavior are perfectly capable of passing the qualification I teach (which is exam only with no coursework).  However, they choose to fail it – and although I have been able to get through to them beforehand, some still slip through the metaphorical net.  

There must be some serious psychology behind this – and perhaps the video above should give me some insight into this – even though it depicts a student “doing” an assignment, rather than preparing for an exam.  From the comments below the video on YouTube, it certainly looks like a similar train of thought.  First, there is time – so much time before the assignment is due that procrastination invariably takes hold.

One commenter admitted that “this animation was like so beautifully relatable it hurt” and another said “literally my whole entire life described without using words right here.”  I could go on – there are so many different permutations and combinations of the same thoughts and feelings that it would be an act of procrastination in itself to carry on reading them or, indeed, adding more here.

I wonder what advice I would give to this student. It would have to be different from that which I give in classes when students focus more on their conversations than the work they are supposed to be doing.  That is always “work now, chat later” and that often works in a classroom situation because they know that if they do the work I am far more relaxed about them having a chat with each other once it is done.  This is different.  I guess I could also say try to study a subject that you are interested in enough to look forward to doing the assignments – but my own experience at university (where I studied English Literature) didn’t really reflect that either – I love literature, discussing it, reading it, embracing it – but it was very different when it came to writing about it critically. 

I suppose this is something I can think about another day (see what I did there?).  I have to say this animation does seem to have hit a huge nerve with the viewers.  Technically, it is pretty flawless – I love the design of both the protagonist and the backgrounds.  The story is cleverly told, with a number of flash-forwards about the consequences of procrastination (and the end of the world would probably put a stop to it, that’s for sure).  Some of the visual metaphors are, surely, taken from real dreams. Yet what it captures very well is the state of panicus pensi (fear of the assignment and yes, I just made that up) which goes with the whole student malarkey and a condition that usually goes hand in hand with rigor pavoris (stiffness of fear). Yup, made that up too.

This very clever, very entertaining and very true animated short was directed by Skye Wei. It was produced by Shi Hao and Ling Chen with additional animation by Dou Yang and Xixi Hu.  Originally created for Bilibili’s (basically China’s version of YouTube crossed with Twitch and anime fandom culture) 2026 Bainianji, a special produced annually by the platform to celebrate Chinese New Year. This is the English language version and hats off to Skye for releasing this fantastic work for those of us who don’t speak Mandarin.

So, is the student in this animation able to overcome their procrastination and commit to work without deviation until submission?  You will have to watch it and find out – but if you are a student reading this, you may find the ending a little bittersweet to say the least!