As I stare blankly at a white screen, void of any writing that needed to be done for this blog, I realize what I’m doing: procrastinating.
Since I evidently had writer’s block and was procrastinating my post, I chose the very meta route. So, welcome to The Art of Procrastinating.
I would definitely call myself a serial procrastinator. I submit things (such as these blogs, hehe sorry Jim!) at the very last minute, and quite honestly find some thrill in that. Midnight deadlines call my name, and the “Submitted at 11:59pm” message has become tantamount to receiving a good grade.
I can’t comprehend starting an assignment weeks or even days before it’s due … with no deadline in sight, what is driving you to finish? Upon asking this question in my head, I realized that this was the true meaning of procrastination for me: deadlines. And so, I resolved to change the word with often negative connotations — I am not a procrastinator, I am simply “deadline driven.”
Put simply, I need a quickly approaching deadline to scare me into working. Two hours to write a paper? You got it. Five days? I’ll wait until the last two hours, but thanks for the notice. The only thing having a lot of lead-time to finish an assignment does, is tell me on what day I’m going to be staying up later than usual, and how much caffeine I must consume to do so.
But, the reality is, procrastinating is hard … It’s not for everyone. It’s a skill, perhaps even an art. Because what happens if you miscalculate? If you don’t hit “Submit” by your deadline? If the message that comes after is red, and not green? Admittedly, this has happened to me … but in some ways it made me stronger … it helped me find how much I can really handle.
So now? Procrastinating to me is textbook. There is no other way. For my First-Year Writing Seminar, we have 5 page papers due almost every Monday. When do I start them? Sunday night. When do I typically read the chapters that the paper is on? Sunday night. But this is not laziness … This is simply waiting for my drive to kick-in to high gear. In some ways, maybe it’s patience for holding out this long.
Either way, I find myself sitting on the floor of the East 4 Hallway every Sunday night, book in hand, blanket wrapped around me, laptop burning my thighs … and I’ve come to seek this moment out. I procrastinate these papers because it’s kind of fun in a way. And, as I sit in Commons writing this blog, I know I will feel the same as I hit “Publish” in a few minutes – “Submitted at 11:59am.”
Anchor Down,
Brooke
**note: this post should be read entirely sarcastically**