Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
sagar patil 8UcNYpynFLU unsplash?width=719&height=464&fit=crop&auto=webp
sagar patil 8UcNYpynFLU unsplash?width=398&height=256&fit=crop&auto=webp
/ Unsplash
Life

I Tried Not Procrastinating For a Week – Here’s What Happened

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at BU chapter.

I am an EXTREME Type B person. Especially when it comes to procrastination. Sometimes I don’t start my homework before 10pm . . . maybe a lot later sometimes. This semester had a slow start – I didn’t have any tests for my entire first month so I literally was doing almost nothing in terms of work. But I need a good GPA now before I take chemistry next semester and inevitably ruin it. So three weeks in, I decided enough was enough and made myself a promise: I wasn’t going to procrastinate at all for an entire school week. I’d let myself socialize as much as I would any week, but all my free time would be spent studying. And from the week of February 11th to 15th, the last week before my tests started, I tried it out.

Photo Credit: JulieDesk

 

Monday (2/11):

I got off to a decent start when I used my hour between classes to get caught up on my marine biology readings instead of just watching Netflix, but by the afternoon I was having trouble. Monday is the only day that I have class well into the afternoon (since I start at 8 AM most days), and for once my 5 classes in one day seemed appealing since there was less time to waste. The problem was that I didn’t have a lot of work to begin with so I wasn’t sure what I’d do during my free time. By the time I got back to the dorm around 5, I felt myself struggling. As 9 PM approached, I resorted to things getting iffier and iffier (checking my email constantly, doing every single move I remembered from the mindful movement class I haven’t thought about since high school, and doing a face mask). For once, I went to bed early, which is something I never do even though I take such early classes.

 

Tuesday (2/12):

Again, the day started off well. I only had two classes and, while waiting for my friend that had a later class to get lunch, I did a lot of work (I usually do better while not in my dorm for some reason). But things took a turn for the worse in the afternoon since it started snowing a lot. We had a Her Campus meeting but it got canceled, which I was counting on to not feel like I had to work for 8 straight hours or something. I hate winter and snow so much I wrote an article about it, so you can see the snow wasn’t exactly the motivation I needed. I tried to remain somewhat productive (I planned out all my articles for the rest of the semester which I would NEVER normally do!) but I ended up not starting my actual work for a while. The end of the week felt so far away. Since I’m a DJ at WTBU, a highlight was making my playlist for my show on Wednesday. I think even a productive person who never procrastinates would say that was okay. I still finished all my homework pretty quickly and I managed to get to the gym for the last twenty minutes before it closed even though the weather was still terrible, something I probably wouldn’t have done normally.

 

Wednesday (2/13):

I continued the pattern of getting work done in the breaks between my classes in the morning, and after lunch it wasn’t so bad since I knew I was going out with my friend for dinner which used up a little more time than just going to the dining hall. Since I still didn’t have that much homework, I started putting important events on my calendar – birthdays, midterms, etc., which I literally never would dream of doing any other week. I went to bed at a decent hour again, and I realized that my procrastination was impacting my sleep schedule more than I care to admit.

 

Thursday (2/14):

I was a little intimidated by the sheer amount of free time I had on Thursday since I only have one class on Thursdays. But it ended up filling up pretty quickly between our Galentine’s Day party for Her Campus and a study session with some friends (that got less and less productive but I guess better than procrastinating on my own). Usually, I finish my articles right before they’re due on Sundays, but I finished last week’s article on Thursday while waiting to have lunch with my friend again. I’m writing this exactly a week later on Thursday again, so I think this experiment might have actually had some lasting positive effects. I also did most of my online Spanish homework that’s due on Sunday night on Thursday, which, come to think of it, maybe I’ll do right after this.

 

Friday (2/15):

After I finished my classes, I didn’t have anything to do until the night but the experiment was officially over, so I basically went back to my lazy self and watched YouTube for hours! But I did have the feeling that maybe I didn’t always have to do that. My issue in the past was that I know some people feel guilty when they procrastinate, but for some reason, I never felt that. But even after a week of (minimal) procrastination, I felt a little bit of guilt.

Photo Credit: Source 

I chose a week when I still didn’t have that much work, which might have made this whole thing more pointless as I spent more time trying to come up with work due in a few weeks I could do if I absolutely had to than actually focusing on my immediate priorities, but the end result wasn’t so bad. I started doing Type A things like planning out my schedule (which I normally don’t see the point of), but now I can see how they’re not so bad. I’m more excited to write my upcoming Her Campus articles since I was able to really think about what I wanted to write about instead of just picking topics at the last second before pitches were due. Obviously, I wasn’t perfect with this no procrastination thing, but I think I’ll try it out again when I do have a test or two and maybe it’ll really help my grades.

 

If you struggle with procrastination as I do, I suggest you try this out; even if you don’t do it for long, doing a little work now will save you from doing extra work later. If you’re way more organized than me and can’t relate to this, I applaud you and I have to say it’s not like I completely changed in a week but I can see how the motivation to get everything done right away can build up. Maybe someday I’ll get there . . .

 

Want to keep up with HCBU? Make sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, check out our Pinterest board, and read our latest Tweets!

Olivia is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences studying marine science. She loves the ocean and summer more than anything and wants to live somewhere warmer one day even though she's spent her whole life in Massachusetts. She also likes music, night runs, and writing pointless things.
Writers of the Boston University chapter of Her Campus.