Procrastination

think Navy Blue and Black, that should inspire you!!!!

 

M.R.,

Why procrastinate now when you can do it tomorrow?

 

He'll respond tomorrow.

 

Yeah, but ten will quickly turn into nine, nine into eight, and so on...

I've got a five-page paper on Hamlet due Tuesday that I've had a month to work on and have yet to start(and yes, I realize the irony). Oh well, I guess some of us are just doomed to never learn.

 

Why bother? Wait until the day before the deadline to start the assignment. I did some of my best work in college under extreme stress, usually with remarkable results. Take it from a life-long procrastinator: If it worked for me, it can work for you!

If all else fails, I'm sure a man from the future will lend you the use of his time-traveling phone booth in order to prevent you from failing the class.

 

or maybe he'll just bring a book listing sports champions of the next 50 years and tell you that if a young kid or a crazy-looking white haired man comes asking about it, than you should "erase" them.

 

Would you like a good story.

I am a Broadcast Journalism major-basically my other 3 classes this semester don't matter.

I frequently miss class etc.

Sociology-the only one that I was in jeopardy of making below a B, i miss half the lectures for the 2nd test-he claims its 90% lecture based, anyway i get almost all the terms from the book, read the assigned readings and whatever notes i had.

I got an 82.5 basically clinching a B for the semester.

And my last chem test, i realized the teacher put her notes on the web, and since it is stupid and from 3:30-5, i often skipped and just used the book and got the notes from the web. 90 on the exam, A for the course right now.

I do best by memorizational learning, and the night before an exam honestly. So I love procrastinating

 

There should be some medication for it. I'm plauged by it.

 

I'm experiencing a bout of it myself right now. I have 2 major projects due this week that I have yet to start on, and yet here I sit doing nothing...

 

DVauthrin,

When I was at UT, I changed majors from Engineering to Business. I had one class way over in the Physics building, so I was only going to go for tests (it was Pre-Calculus, but I had already taken Calculus...go figure).

One day I was strolling by, so I decided to pop in. It was, oddly, very crowded.

The instructor had changed the syllabus and we now had a test...that day. I lucked out with a 'B', but I think I've had nightmares about that day ever since.

 

I'm experiencing it right now...I've got a major paper "outline" due tomarrow, which is basically half the grade in my high-school dual credit college English class...and I planned on doing it earlier this weekend (known about it for about 6 weeks), but totally forgot, and I still really don't feel like starting on it. Sunday nights suck. I guess that's why everyone's always tired on Monday.

But this is just a minor case...since this is a pretty easy assignment. I've done much worse, as far as waiting to do major assignments.

 

My trick: 1 tyrosine in the morning on an empty stomach, at least 30 minutes before brkfst. Often works for me.

(tyrosine is an amino acid that is a precursor of some neurotransmitters that increase mental acuity; seems to get me over mental laziness)

 

Manny I have a great Idea for you. . . . . . . . . Ill get back to you later with it.

 

Cohen, damn that must have given you a heart attack

One time last year I overslept for a biology exam, but the prof was very nice about it and I got an A in the course.

 

well i usually show up about 50% of the time for most classes (100% for the real ChE class) so i don't miss test days, but damn that would suck. the closest i ever had to that was walking into word power in high school and finding out we had a vocab test that day and i hadn't even looked at the 30 words. very luckily, she always gave us about 10-15 minutes to look over it before the quiz and i actually had every word memorized by then (i am also lucky to have a very good memory) and got a 100.

as far as procrastinating, i'm not sure if any ChE at UT has me beat (well at least those that i have my classes with). only my one friend really comes close. we have this lab, FunLab (fundamentals of lab technique or something) and they tell us the first day it might take 15 or 16 hours to do the lab. so when do i start the first one, at 7pm, 17 hours before it's due at noon the next day. i finish at 11 am and i still had to sit through the lab the next day. man i was about to die from tiredness. we get 2 weeks to do it but i've pretty much resigned myself to the fact i won't start before the last night so now i pretty much purposely screw my sleep schedule up (i've got a 4 day weekend each week so it's easy to screw it up) so that i'll be tired in the afternoon on tuesday, take a 5 or 6 hour nap, and then will be fresh to stay up all night and work on the lab. luckily the last 2 were a little shorter so it hasn't been that terrible.

i also never do homework until the day before or study for tests until the day before. i just can't do it. and with digital cable and league pass, i really can't make myself do stuff early, i'm just too damn busy watching television and playing basketball.

 

Some of you guys are either lucky or procrastination pros. My science major has humbled me and brought down my status to "coaster". Apparently they don't like to hand out science degrees for people who fall through the cracks of laziness...

I'm at an all time low when it comes to procrastination. The type that scares the bejeebus out of you and you seriously consider changing your bad habits (seriously)... (no seriously, I've been thinking about it for months now...)

For my midterm last week, I waited till 4 in the morning to finally get started literally from page one. If you've ever read the wonderful world of physics/genetics/neuroscience, it's a hard dillemma to either scope out how your Rocks are doing, dabble in a little hangout humor OR study these wierd ass problems you didn't even bother going to class to learn...

So morning turns into day and after that midterm I go have some makeup sleep wondering how lucky I am to remember physics with 3 hours of nap time(only one was planned). Night time comes and my alarm is there to greet me with the "you have to study for another midterm alarm". Four snoozes later I feel like I can make a difference and get cracking on the studying. Not without eating first. And watching the Simpsons rerun. And Conan O' Brien. And surfing the web. And taking a shower. And organizing your table. And taking out the trash. (Most of my productive work comes out of procrastination, who figures?) It's four o'clock again...

Last year it wasn't so bad. I could crack down on the last day and study for 8 hrs straight (on coke and coffee, caffeine pills ruin your nap), sleep for a couple hours and walk through the midterm with a smug smile on your face in front of the suckers who put some work into it. But things have changed.

The answer to procrastination came to me of all places in those English portions on your SAT exams. It was a real study on why people procrastinate. You can actually be addicted to procrastination. Think about it, that moment of crisis, your blood is pumping, your mind is sharp, and focus has never been clearer. Are you high or what?? Add that to the fact that you always seem to pull through no matter how things might seem, and that's a recipie to put things off till the last minute. Yes, there are those sparkling moments of pure down in the dumps failure, but your mind has so many victories and losses to choose from that it chooses the easier route. The reason might just be that simple...

It's getting harder and harder for me to actually read and absorb something from the book if it's not some last minute studying. There's so many thoughts going on in my head other than learning and they sound so much better. It's like I have some form of ADD. Nothing goes as planned, and it's not getting any easier. Eh... I do a lot of writing, for a lazy procrastinator. If I ever do change my ways, then I'll be able to write about it.

 

i really think i'm addicted to it. i really almost want to do stuff at the last minute even though it ends up being no fun. i almost feel that that's how i'm meant to function and doing it another way might screw me up. in high school, when i actually had english classes and had to read novels, i always put it off. i knew i was going to read it (had to keep the gpa up) so it sucked to put it off but on some level it seemed to make sense. i didn't want to read some chapters a week before the test and not remember it later and then just have to go over it again. i wanted to read the last 1 or 2 days (not the whole novel but a huge chunk) so i knew it would still be fresh. i might practically go blind from reading so long, so late at night, but i knew i'd have it memorized and that's the only way i knew to do it. i mean i could say i like watching tv and other stuff, but i really just put it off cuz i like too. it's like a challenge and i almost feel like i'm wussing out or something if i do it early. everyone knows i put stuff off, it's almost like my rep would be damaged if i said "yeah, just finished that paper up 3 days early and am reading the assigned chapters for next week right now." no one wants to hear that from f4p, they want to hear i was up at 7 am studying for an 8 am test. luckily, no stuff to do this week so nothing to really procrastinate.

 

Yeah, I usually had plans to read the whole novel when I used to have English classes, but then I fall back to plan B and halfass my way to success.

I'd read the first and last couple of pages to the remaining chapters I didn't read, and then I'd read the last to chapter to clean up any ambiguities. If some character did something of note, I'd scan through the pages for that character's name and fill in the blanks. That method plus online summaries (if you were lucky), and a natural penchant for BSing by focusing on the stuff I know and pretending like I know the other parts gave me and easy time with essays. It also gave me no incentive to read any freaking assigned book. And I really like reading good books too...

 

The hardest part is starting.
Just start!