Week 10: The Procrastination Station

Hey all,

So it's really late (like almost 2 AM late), but today was Sunday, so that means a blog post for you. I'm going to try to keep it short.

My week was spent writing essays, then procrastinating, then writing more. Honestly, it makes for a pretty boring synopsis. But it was also a really stressful week for me.

I'm a hardcore procrastinator. Anyone who's been at school with me knows that there are very few assignments that I ever start more than a day or two before the due date. I usually play it off as confidence or boredom. At the end of the day, I get the work done.

But I don't do it because I'm bored or even because I think the work is easy. I procrastinate because without the pressure of the deadline hanging over me, I can't do anything. I'll sit at my laptop with the internet turned off, trying to get a head start on my work. For like an hour. Without typing more than a few words. Even things I enjoy writing, like this blog, get pushed to the absolute last minute (or sometimes a little late, like tonight).

Yesterday is a great example. I had a short story due this morning. I had an idea for a setting, the characters, the conflict. It was pretty much fully formed in my head when I went to sleep on Friday night. When I went to the library to write it, I didn't get a single word typed. Not one. I ended up watching the entire season of Dear White People which had just been released on Netflix. It's a great show, but it really should have waited until after I'd finished my story.

I wrote it today and I'm fairly proud of it (until it gets workshopped on Thursday, at which point I'll hate it for a little while), but that doesn't do much to soothe my frustration at my inability to sit down and work when I want to.

So far, I haven't been able to find a system that allows me to motivate myself to get work done in advance. I've got a bit of a lull in my workload right now (which means that nothing big is due in the next 3 days), but if I could, I'd be getting ahead on some assignments that are due in a few weeks, but close together.

This didn't actually end up being short, but it was cathartic and that's what public forums are for, right? Sorry it's not about Australia or whatever.

See you next week,

Emily

(P.S. If you also have a hard time not procrastinating and something has worked for you, feel free to send it my way! I may have already tried it, but I'm running out of ideas.)