Procrastination
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The house is almost silent and the only sound that can be heard is the clacking of keys and the occasional sigh of exasperation. You start to feel a little lightheaded, as the words appearing on your screen become less and less coherent. You look at your word count, willing for it to spontaneously increase, but give up when you realize you're finally starting to lose your mind. You push yourself to continue, but you can't seem to remember who Brutus was and why you were even writing an essay on him. You glance at the corner of the screen. 4:00 AM. Guess sleep is going to have to hold off until tomorrow...
Procrastination. It's the bane of a student's existence. It's the word that has become synonymous with school. It's the one thing everyone promises to improve on, but hardly anyone ever does. It's a kind of wondrous self-torture...almost sounds masochistic.
Being one of the worst offenders of this crime, (having based my entire work ethic on Mark Twain's “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well". ), I can easily say that procrastination is not only a matter of laziness but is also a flawed perception of time. Let's take an essay for example. It's a common mistake to assume that it can be written, and written well, in the span of a day. Sure, your brain mistakenly assumes that you have a good ten hours to work on it, but until the 1 AM panic begins to set in, you don't work nearly as hard as you could have during those last few hours when you're scrambling to fill your perpetually blank page.
It's never a good idea to underestimate how long an assignment can take because, based on personal experience, I work much slower than I think I do. Something that seems easy in theory can turn out to be very difficult when actually being done. It also doesn't help that there are a mountain load of distractions just waiting for me to give in to them. Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, pick your poison; they can easily make good work of those ten hours.
Now I know that I'm not the perfect advocate for anti-procrastination (far from it.) I, however have suffered through my fair share of laziness and not wanting to see anyone else suffer the same fate, here are some tips that may prove useful.
1. Set deadlines. When a task seems daunting, it's more likely to be put off until later. For example, if you have an essay due next Thursday, tell yourself to have a rough copy done by this Friday. It'll help break up painful tasks into smaller, more achievable pieces.
2. Think about the future. Think about the last time you procrastinated and how horridly painful it was, and tell yourself that you'd rather not go through that experience again. Think about how important doing well on the assignment means to you. Think about the pride that you'll feel when you achieve the "recommended 8 hours of sleep".
3. Rid yourself of distractions. Yes it's painful because there are many other things you'd rather be doing than homework, but keep in mind that this is supposed to be your path to success. Do whatever you can to place yourself someplace where you can concentrate wholly on your work. If your brain is constantly switching from mindless entertainment to a thought-provoking essay, your mind won't work as effectively. Focus, focus, focus!
4. Don't hate what you're doing. If each sentence being written has become a new form of torture, then change your mind set. If you keep telling yourself that you have this "useless, boring, terrible" assignment to do, the less conviction you'll have to actually finish it.
Beating procrastination is not easy. Even after a few victories, it's still there, waiting for you to let down your guard and give in to its temporary satisfaction. Hopefully, you'll be stronger by then. Resist the temptation, and you'll figure out that the assignment isn't as painful as it seems. You're aware of its old tricks and you've come to the brilliant realization that perhaps, and just maybe, a task well done is more fulfilling than a day spent watching cat videos.
Procrastination. It's the bane of a student's existence. It's the word that has become synonymous with school. It's the one thing everyone promises to improve on, but hardly anyone ever does. It's a kind of wondrous self-torture...almost sounds masochistic.
Being one of the worst offenders of this crime, (having based my entire work ethic on Mark Twain's “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well". ), I can easily say that procrastination is not only a matter of laziness but is also a flawed perception of time. Let's take an essay for example. It's a common mistake to assume that it can be written, and written well, in the span of a day. Sure, your brain mistakenly assumes that you have a good ten hours to work on it, but until the 1 AM panic begins to set in, you don't work nearly as hard as you could have during those last few hours when you're scrambling to fill your perpetually blank page.
It's never a good idea to underestimate how long an assignment can take because, based on personal experience, I work much slower than I think I do. Something that seems easy in theory can turn out to be very difficult when actually being done. It also doesn't help that there are a mountain load of distractions just waiting for me to give in to them. Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, pick your poison; they can easily make good work of those ten hours.
Now I know that I'm not the perfect advocate for anti-procrastination (far from it.) I, however have suffered through my fair share of laziness and not wanting to see anyone else suffer the same fate, here are some tips that may prove useful.
1. Set deadlines. When a task seems daunting, it's more likely to be put off until later. For example, if you have an essay due next Thursday, tell yourself to have a rough copy done by this Friday. It'll help break up painful tasks into smaller, more achievable pieces.
2. Think about the future. Think about the last time you procrastinated and how horridly painful it was, and tell yourself that you'd rather not go through that experience again. Think about how important doing well on the assignment means to you. Think about the pride that you'll feel when you achieve the "recommended 8 hours of sleep".
3. Rid yourself of distractions. Yes it's painful because there are many other things you'd rather be doing than homework, but keep in mind that this is supposed to be your path to success. Do whatever you can to place yourself someplace where you can concentrate wholly on your work. If your brain is constantly switching from mindless entertainment to a thought-provoking essay, your mind won't work as effectively. Focus, focus, focus!
4. Don't hate what you're doing. If each sentence being written has become a new form of torture, then change your mind set. If you keep telling yourself that you have this "useless, boring, terrible" assignment to do, the less conviction you'll have to actually finish it.
Beating procrastination is not easy. Even after a few victories, it's still there, waiting for you to let down your guard and give in to its temporary satisfaction. Hopefully, you'll be stronger by then. Resist the temptation, and you'll figure out that the assignment isn't as painful as it seems. You're aware of its old tricks and you've come to the brilliant realization that perhaps, and just maybe, a task well done is more fulfilling than a day spent watching cat videos.
Don't be like Charlie Brown kids...