The Plague of Procrastination

Well seeing as I have just completed the mid-term for this class, I should probably consider my learning progress. I have been meaning to do this for a few weeks now but seemed to have procrastinated pretty successfully. Or unsuccessfully depending on how you think of it. Speaking of procrastination, though, I’m beginning to realize that’s something that I struggle with. I don’t think my work or my grades have ever suffered because of this phenomenon, however. It’s just my sanity that takes the hit.

In high school I never stayed up past midnight doing homework. I could usually complete all my assignments by eleven o’clock and then just relax and do whatever I wanted to do. I could watch TV or hang out with friends. Now, I often stay up until one or two o’clock in the morning trying to get everything done. There have been too many occasions where I have put off writing a paper or working on some project, leaving the bulk of the work for the night before. Pressure amounts throughout that day and causes me to stress out unnecessarily. But that’s the life of any college student right? I honestly can’t think of one friend who is actually on top of everything and completes papers or assignments early.

A great example of my poor time management skills would obviously be this blog. I wish I could just sit down and knock out these blogs and finish them all but I have an awfully hard time actually writing them. I get distracted and end up on Facebook or watching Netflix. Especially since there’s no due date for each blog, I have nothing pressuring me to complete them. But I know that will come back to bite me at the end of the semester when I only have like three blogs written. I even try to make my own due dates in a sense – I have a goal to write one blog each week – but that has not worked out very well for me. I just put them off and remind myself that they don’t even need to be completed for a couple of months. And when things get hectic in all my other classes, the one thing that I sacrifice is this blog.

I know that most students struggle with time management and procrastination as well but there has to be some way to get more motivated right? I think it just has to be a part of your mentality. I have to motivate myself somehow and stop making excuses. I have learned that I can absolutely not get anything done in my dorm room. With the temptation of lying down in my bed and taking a nap right in front of me, my productivity shoots to zero. I get the most done in the library. Knowing that everyone around me is working and not goofing off gets me in the zone, forcing me to avoid Facebook, Netflix, and all the other possible distractions.

If anyone has any more tips, please feel free to leave them below. I wouldn’t go as far to say that I’m in desperate need of some help but I think it would make me much more successful and relaxed. Maybe I could possibly even have some free time again like I did in high school. I could actually read books for pleasure or well I don’t even know what people do in their free time anymore!