Procrastination can become a problem in college. It isn’t very good. Aren’t you supposed to be completing your schoolwork right now? But don’t start just yet. Continue reading. You already know you want to. What’s the point of wasting another ten minutes? The semester has sped by, and finals week is already here to steal our holiday spirit.
Finals need studying, and studying necessitates procrastination. Almost everyone struggles with procrastination at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, it’s a vice that can get the best of us at times. To assist in combating the problem, we’ve listed the seven stages of procrastination and how to avoid them during finals week.
STAGE 1: ACKNOWLEDGING THE ASSIGNMENT
We all know how the first week of school goes. Read the syllabus, write down important due dates, memorize professors’ office hours, the usual. You know there’s a paper due the third week of classes, but you just ordered your textbook, and it won’t arrive for another few days anyway. (Who has money for Amazon Prime?)
STAGE 2: POWER NAPS
Your textbook arrived, and the smell of new pages reminds you that you have less than two weeks to write this paper. But no good essay was ever written with tired eyes. Yeah, it’s time for a 30-minute power nap. Shit, has it been three hours?
STAGE 3: REFUEL
Now you’re awake and ready. But, hold up, what’s that sound? It’s your stomach calling. Better eat something before you start because writing on an empty stomach is very distracting. Oh, did your roommate get home? This is the best time to try that new, intricate soufflé recipe the two of you want to try.
STAGE 4: RE-WATCH
Why eat in silence when you can watch a show simultaneously? There’s no room on your kitchen table to eat, read your textbook, take notes and try to type up a paper. But there is room for you to open your laptop and re-watch an episode of Bob’s Burgers.
STAGE 5: MISPLACED PRODUCTIVITY
You’ve napped, eaten and even had some Netflix time. But, instead, all this energy should be channelled into finally cleaning your bedroom, scrubbing your bathtub and putting away that clean laundry from last week. Who knew you could be so productive?
STAGE 6: TO START OR NOT TO START?
A cleanroom means no distractions. No distractions mean you’re going to knock this paper out faster than ever. But while you open your email to check that professor’s reminder about the assignment, what’s the harm in opening a new tab with Facebook? And since you’re already distracted, you might as well scroll through Insta. Aw, look, puppies!
STAGE 7: WAIT, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?
Oh right, that world-lit paper that’s due next week. Crap, I forgot about those chem problems owing tomorrow. I have to finish that first; The writing can wait—time to bond some molecules.
STAGE 8: DO IT WHEN IT’S DUE
After the usual weekend turns up, you check your planner (because you’ve lost track of the date) and there it is. In big, bold letters is your handwriting yelling at you because you have a paper due in two days. F—k. Well, no better time to start than the present.
