According to the Oxford English dictionary, procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something.
It will surprise no one that I have often been accused of procrastinatory tendencies. I freely admit it. What some people see as me just putting something off is the action of me in my creative process. While I am not doing the assignment/cleaning/item on the to-do list, my brain is thinking about the assignment.
I would caution against this. It can cause a lot of anxiety.
And students don’t need to be adding to their anxiety about school.
I have had many thoughts and plans and “fixes” to being a procrastinator. These have either been given to me, or I was told about them, or I found them on my own.
Because no one likes to be a procrastinator. No one wakes up one day and says to themselves well, that paper/assignment/dissertation isn’t due for 10 days, I’ve got plenty of time. Only to wake up the day before it is due thinking “oh no!” and pulling an all-nighter to get it submitted on time.
For example, I have a 5-page paper due next Friday night. At 2359.
I know what it is to be about. I have been considering it since I learned about the paper. I have started the mental process of thinking about it. Thinking through each of the asks. Thinking how I am going to keep it to ONLY 6 pages.
Yes, I am in a PhD program and still struggling with this. I KNOW I am not alone. I’ve been like this since I first started writing my papers on the family computer and printing them in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
I have 2 things due in the next two weeks. My goal is to finish the paper and submit by Wednesday 1/31. My second goal is to finish and submit the Measurement homework assignment that is due on 2/8 by Tuesday 2/7.
You do what works for your schedule and your brain. My goal for the semester is to submit assignments 2 days before they are due. Wish me luck!
When I do a 2nd procrastination post, I will bring up some of the common fixes.
Let’s work on this together.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 