Lucy and Vayda here.
It's T- minus 2 hours until we’re attending the long night against procrastination. Shout out to Francie for telling us several times, since October, about the blog post for this event and we both were so excited to write it. However up until this morning we had basically given up on trying to even write anything because let's face it, we’re just a mess. But then we’re sitting here at like 6:45 pm, the night of, not doing anything because we’re going to this thing where we’ll do our work, in theory….. So we decided to do this together. :) Procrastination. What a word. What does it mean to you? Usually everyone can agree we’ve all dealt with it. Listen, we’ve all been hovering over our laptops and books at 9 pm having planned the whole evening to write a paper, that’s due at 12 am, but all we’ve got is a thesis. Here’s how we’ve experienced procrastination. Lucy: So It’s Thursday night, and I’ve been blessed with no classes on Fridays, so my weekend starts now. Every Thursday I make the plan. You know the plan. To do all my work, rewrite all my notes, finish my papers, and organize everything. It’s a good plan. But then I get a notification, from Netflix, recommending a Christmas movie they just released, and I'm thinking, I can’t just ignore that. So one Christmas movie turns into another, and I'm suddenly down this rabbit hole of cheesy, borderline awful movies. But that’s just Thursday night. I have three more days to get it together. You’d think somewhere in those days I’d pick up one of those textbooks I spent all my money on, but instead, I realize my room is messy. Or my car is dirty, or my bed is too comfy to leave. Plus every Sunday morning my family and I usually go for a hike. Afterwards my blood's pumping, and my brain is cracked out from those endorphins, which makes it probably a perfect time to finally start on those assignments right? I know it is, my family knows it is, and yet, I end up sorting through old family pictures or something unproductive and unnecessary. Then I’ll get a message from Vayda, usually around 7 pm Sunday night, she asks me how I'm doing, and if I I’ve done everything I planned to do. I send back, “I’ll try again next weekend.” but I never do. Vayda: After a very long Sociology class on a Monday morning at 8 AM, I walk out of class and start running in the -1c weather to my vehicle usually parked in the very back row. Now don’t get me wrong, I often tell myself to leave my house very early to get a decent parking spot so it doesn’t feel like I’m running a marathon to get to every class. But I often leave so it gives me enough time to roll up at 8 am. Half the time I’m in bed and it’s 7 am and I have to leave in 20 mins and usually lying in bed versus getting a decent parking spot always takes the win. This is an EVERYDAY occurrence where I am walking (running) to my car and I hop in and see the disgusting mess of what almost looks like my room. For some reason, I like to leave everything in my car and let it pile up…. I will let it sit there for days, weeks, months and some of my stuff has been living in the car for probably a year. One day Lucy jumps in my car and can’t help but mention the mess that has taken over. I basically tell her to “ignore it.” After the multiple times of me telling Lucy to just “ignore it” she was fed up. Lucy forced me to drive all the way to Walmart; we picked up a bunch of cleaning tools. We then gave my car a beautiful soak, leaving her with a sparkly finish. We ripped back to Lucy’s house where she tore my car apart. Literally tearing everything apart. She was throwing things left, right and center and I just felt so vulnerable in this position. After a devastating hour of Lucy ripping my car and I apart, I felt a tad better. Being able to scrub and sanitize my car, I felt some relief and lightheartedness. Many of us can say they have experienced a lot of assignments, homework and tests that are just being thrown at you. Like my car, I tend to see all those things and just shove it away, and then all of it just piles up and I sometimes, actually almost always forget about it. We would just like to thank OC for putting together this evening/morning to potentially help us tackle our bad habits, especially during this difficult month. Shout out to some of our professors who made it down to offer their expertise for us. We definitely need it. Who knows, we might actually get some things done or…………
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I am known in my family for procrastinating; it was a common occurrence in my early school years. I would always go to my parents with some assignment or other to ask for help. It got to the point my dad would see me coming and ask, “Is it due tomorrow?”, and it always was. I would love to say that I learnt my lesson and did my homework with time to spare but to be honest, I just got better at hiding my panic.
My most recent exploits take the cake though. I will do almost anything other than my homework, including cleaning the bathroom. My mom doesn’t seem to mind my new homework diversion technique. This week I was at a loss as to what needed to be done around the house, then it dawned on me, the perfect solution! My mom and I live in an RV year-round, so we need to make sure cold air doesn’t get in. What is more important, being warm for the winter or school work? My decision was made to insulate the RV. In order to achieve my goal, I had to climb on top of the trailer. It’s not very tall, maybe 12 or 13 feet and it is pretty easy to get up. None of this mattered when I suddenly rediscovered my fear of heights! I am twelve feet off the ground and there is an alarming lack of guard rails to keep me from falling to my death. This was no time to panic though; there was work to be done. Getting down was another problem I was not ready to address. I had no idea how dirty the roof was. If I did, I certainly wouldn’t have worn my good jeans. It is also quite icy up there which was a bit of a shock, especially when I had to lay directly on the ice in order to get the insulation in the right place. An hour later, covered in dirt from crawling around on my hands and knees, frozen to the bone, I am finally finished. Now comes the hard part. I have to get down. Everything looked so easy from the ground. A million thoughts race through my mind as I attempt to maneuver my way to the ground. “Why do they make these ladders so tiny?” “What the hell was I thinking?” And my favourite, “I should have just done the essay!” I don’t know if this has cured me of my procrastinating tendencies, but I will definitely choose my diversions a lot more carefully from now on. NOTE: Micaela was not harmed in the writing of this blog. Procrastination. What a woeful time it is to be alive, browsing the internet while the acrid stench of unfinished or not-even started essays fill the nostrils. It isn't our fault, really. It's the allure of the web, aptly named as it sticks our focus into a seemingly endless array of data strands, webbing composed of memes, blog posts, and interesting research on a topic completely unrelated to your course. It feels wonderful. In the way that people describe drowning. You know it's not a great place to be but there's no way to fight it, and it doesn't feel too bad either. Water consumes and envelops. Darkness sets in. Except for one little octopus. Your pet octopus, in fact, that you truly care about, who couldn't survive without you. Yes, this refers to your unfinished work. Ain't that cute.
Sooner or later, the creature extends an inky black tendril for attention, slapping you across the face, begging to be acknowledged. Anyone with a shred of empathy for themselves or little tentacled fellows will reach out and be dragged back to reality. The reality of living as the legal guardian of an octopus. Back to the non-metaphor, your work will suddenly exist again and doing it is very much the right thing to do. Some physically recoil at the imposing task at hand, checking their phone reflexively for comfort. Others let loose a jovial but nihilistic chuckle before sobbing internally. "GET TO WORK", your mind screams, causing your vision to go fuzzy and lose focus on the infinitely interesting screen. "Just one more video", you reply, realizing that this is the part where everyone fails. After just realizing that you can't swim, the diving board somehow remains appealing. This is the part that requires some intervention. Presenting: The Long Night Against Procrastination. Also known as The Second Most Appreciated Event in the College Library After the One With Cookies, this is a very well timed last resort effort to get things done. There's support in every direction, peers to review every other direction, and a sizable collection of actual, physical, real books. There's also some psychology built into why the event lasts until two in the morning, which is that everyone's standards drastically lower when tired, so the perfectionist blockade drops, allowing spontaneous fast writing. Reviewing after a decent rest is recommended but not necessary. Getting something done will always surpass nothing, and this event lets you do it surrounded by really cool people who are also struggling though life! Maybe you'll meet friends, maybe you already have friends! All I know is that this Thursday night is going to lead many people to the shore. Today has been a flop. Sure, maybe 'flop' isn't a great word, but it is perfect for describing the sheer amount of unproductivity that has taken place on this day. I'm currently sitting in my third Starbucks of the day, drinking my fifth cup of 'Wellness Rev Up Black, Oolong and Green Tea Fusion' that's designed to boost productivity of the day: with all of my tabs and documents open to start working on my English thesis presentation, (Hi Francie :\ ) and the most I've done is re-read my original source and create a rough idea of what my thesis will possibly be about.
Though I find many excuses to procrastinate, my most common one happens to be: 'Oh I'll just do this quickly and then jump into my work'. If I'm eating a sandwich, I'll just watch an episode of TV whilst doing so, continuing watching after my sandwich crumbs are dry and crusty. Or my friends will start blowing up my phone and my brain tells me that 'I must respond as I am available'. The excuse that I find the funniest happens to be along the lines of, 'OH MAN, I should try to complete all the islands in Poptropica because I haven't played that game since I was 8 and OBVIOUSLY I'll be able to do it quickly and be covered in those virtual gold medals because I'm THE BEST!'. (Does anyone else remember Poptropica? haha :P). I have written exactly zero words in my presentation document, but I am up to season four in my quest of re-watching Friends. I started three days ago.... Because, why start something today when I can have a great and relaxing day and start t-minus 18hrs before the due date on an essay that I have done no research for??? (Hi again Francie, DEFINITELY NOT the first essay I handed into you...) Yes, clearly I am a procrastinating mess, but I get away with it because I always manage to hit that due date even if I haven't slept in 36hrs or arrive in class an hour late. And with my eyes tired, napping on my arms during class, I always do get just a little bit of satisfaction of finishing despite my 'being a complete sh*t person and actually the worst' (my own words). Because there's always that small bit of your brain that feels satisfaction when something is done: especially in a race against time. I'd like to think I'm slowly getting better... I've started using timers, stopping and starting frequently as to give my brain required breaks and to give myself the pleasure of still partaking in whatever my brain came up with that day. But, here I am, sitting in the third Starbucks I've been in today, (in an effort to change my environment to work harder and not be distracted), my fifth cup of tea nearly empty, and zero words written in my thesis presentation document. Clearly, today has been a flop. |
OC faculty, staff & studentsWe made this space available to share our sometimes sorry, sometimes heroic, stories of procrastination. Please scroll down to read all the entries. To submit, send your entry to [email protected] Archives
November 2021
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