I’ve always been a really good student, but with one horrible flaw – I am the worst procrastinator I have ever met. Think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire when he has three months to figure out the clue behind his egg for the second task, but he waits until the night before. You know the memes where someone is relaxing in bed and the caption reads: “Me enjoying the sleep I don’t deserve after doing the bare minimum”? That’s my life.
My procrastination has yet to affect my grades because I always get my assignments done and turn them in on time (and do well on them), but the habit is still a nasty one. Even being almost done with three years of college, I still wait until the last minute to do everything. I only have two papers to write this semester, and one was due last Friday at 11:59 p.m. on D2L – I turned mine in at 11:57 p.m. Heck, I am even writing this article on the day it’s due.
I wish I could use the excuse that I’m just scatterbrained and can’t remember things, but I always know everything I have to do. I make extensive to-do lists and feel a great sense of joy when I get to cross things as done. If I do something that’s not on my list, I add it and cross it off. I’m one of those people. But I still don’t do anything until the last minute.
I’ve started to wonder, what gives? Am I just that lazy? Where has my motivation gone? Why can’t I start things early and get them done early?
I tell other people that I work better under the pressure, which very well may be true. I concentrate on work and get it done much faster because it has to get done. I spend less time doing work that I would have potentially wasted time staring at if I hadn’t waited. But at this point, this isn’t a good enough explanation. It’s still better to get things done ahead of time.
A person even did a TED talk on the mind of a master procrastinator! If you’re a procrastinator, like me, you need to watch this TED talk. If you don’t watch it, here are some other tips I have come across:
1. Every day, pick the one thing that’s least likely to get done on your to-do list, and get it done (or at least start it).
2. Break up large, daunting tasks into small, manageable ones, and get each small one done separately.
3. When you’re trying to get something done, put away all electronics.
Procrastination is a bad habit – a terrible, no-good, horrible, nasty habit. I, for one, am going to try (maybe successfully?) to stop procrastinating and start getting things done before I need to. It will save me a lot of stress and panic.