One of the most overpowering and most unavoidable traits in my arsenal is my ability to put every obligation that I have off to the very last second. It is a trait that either triggers an existential crisis or results in me not doing the things that I say I am going to do at all. I know I’m not the only person out there, and we all have things that we say we’re going to do and then hold off on it for as long as possible for our lack of motivation to put in an effort. These are some things that people will procrastinate on, all of which I am guilty.
1. Homework
The most common of all procrastination would have to be homework assignments. The farther the deadline is, the more procrastination that ensues. There will be projects that you will have weeks, maybe even months, to complete and you will not think of the fact that it is due, but rather the fact that you have so much time to do literally anything else before you have to put in any work for the assignment. This results in you finding a nice hole to sit and cry in while doing the immense amount of work that should have been done long ago while your friends go on wondering if you’ve been kidnapped because of the lack of your presence. You tell yourself that you’ll learn from this experience, which you plan to follow, until your next assignment is given. It’s like my friend Nathan once said, “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it do its assignments early to avoid crushing anxiety.”
2. Exercise
One thing that I always will tell myself that I will do in my spare time is exercise. The tuition comes with a “free” gym membership, so why don’t I take advantage of it? I could go running on the treadmill for 20 minutes, use the cycling machine, lift weights, or even go swimming for a cooldown afterward. I could do all of these things, but I don’t. I think this one stems mainly from the fact that I actually have to go to the gym. I always find it ironic that I will have the motivation and drive to want to work out but I don’t have the motivation to actually go there because it seems like too much of an effort, but it’s a fact of life. Another reason I don’t end up doing this is because the few times I actually go I go to a machine, put it to an appropriate setting, and as I’m using it I look over to the person next to me and there using double the setting for three times as long, and all of the confidence I had gets smashed into a pudding that I believe my body must be made of. So I go home, eat my tub of ice cream and tell my friends that maybe I’ll go next week.
3. Studying
With dead week and finals week over with, I learned how bad I am at studying. You see, I have this method where I will study for an hour and then I will watch tv or play video games for an hour…. or two…. or three…. or all day and nothing gets done. Then I read the book about 15 minutes before class and retain nothing for the test. Or I will study a certain subject that I know nothing about and then find out that there was a study guide that told me that I didn’t need to know that subject. (I’m also really bad at checking blackboard for new information. All professors should send emails.) For some reason, I am so much worse at studying when I’m alone than when I am around my friends. Logic would normally dictate that when I’m around my friends I’m more likely to screw around, but when I’m at home it’s like I’m a child who got locked in a videogame store for a day with no supervision.
4. Packing
I am the master of last-minute packing. What’s that? We have about four minutes before we have to leave for the airport? OK, let me just grab a section of the things that I own, shove it in these bags, and hope that it’s full of the essentials I need to survive. This is pretty much the philosophy I go by every time I go home to Las Vegas for break. My mom absolutely hates this trait and will tell me two nights before to get all of my things packed up, to which I tell her I can’t pack these things because what if I need to use my Legend of Zelda/Hobbit-style Ocarina before I have to leave? It’s totally not like I can take it out of the bag to use it. That’s just a silly notion.
5. Cleaning
In my apartment, my roommate is also a pretty good procrastinator at this, but not better than me. I would start out cleaning each dish I used on the night that I use them, but eventually I think, “Eh, it’s only one dish. I can clean an extra dish tomorrow. There’s no harm in that, right?” Wrong! Next thing you know, you can’t even get a glass of water because of how many dishes are stashed in your sink and on the counters to the point where you know that if you clean them it will be an all-day project. So you look at those dishes and you say, “I can do them later.” And don’t even let me begin on the concept of laundry.
6. Buying Christmas Presents
Given the holiday, I felt that this is an appropriate topic for procrastination. With the lack of money as a college student, it’s extremely easy to put off buying gifts that, if you planned out correctly, would only put a small dent in a span of a few paychecks. However, I am not that kind of thinker and instead have to dedicate one paycheck to Christmas alone. It is usually the last paycheck before Christmas and I do most of my shopping online, which means I either have to pay for expedited shipping or I have to tell them that they will actually be getting their present on New Years. Usually the latter.
It’s very easy to procrastinate on anything you do, but just hang in there and we can beat this together if we just put it some effort… but who can put in effort when things like Fallout 4 and friends are a thing?
