Well, here we are! Either the headline worked or, at the very least, it interested you enough to scan this article. Are you procrastinating at this moment?!
Would you like to know what I’m doing, right now? There’s some weird, British movie playing on television-- "About a Boy." It’s just about midnight, and my article is due...now. However, I have aimlessly written the introduction paragraph to seven different writing topics and have yet to complete a single one.
As I am typing, I receive a text in a group message from a good friend:
A Good Friend: “Anyone wanna' 'Fun Run'?”
Me: “I have to write my article.”
A Good Friend: “Boo! Write about how you could be playing 'Fun Run' to get your deer sweet accessories...LOL!”
OK, deal! I can write about this; I'm a pro. Not at the game "Fun Run," but at procrastinating. It sucks, but I should get the gold star. I’m sure everyone has procrastinated at some point in their life--literally everyone. I’m pretty bad about procrastinating, but I eventually become super motivated and do everything I have been putting off all at once. So...I guess I’m kind of doing that right now. I am watching TV, texting my friends, and writing all at once.
-----Pause----
I need to text the group back! A lot has happened tonight. The place I work at was super busy tonight and I had off. My friends caught me up on the hell work entailed.
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, that’s right-- procrastination! We all know it’s bad, but why do we still do it? I know I have let it get the best of me many, many times. Countless nights, I’ve lost sleep just because I procrastinated. I literally threw little tantrums for myself. Of course, this was me procrastinating, but how childish is that!
I vow from now on to coach myself into procrastinating less. Someone hold me up to this, please! I won’t be able to completely quit right away, or probably ever; but if I really try, I can at least help my sleep schedule while at school. I have come to rely on that wave of motivation, in order to write entire term papers merely 12 hours before they are due. Of course, this has failed me-- leaving me to turn in a half-assed paper that I was not proud of.
I’ve done a little research and have discovered there are different levels of procrastination. The average person procrastinates a bit, but he or she can power through and finish the task at hand. Others procrastinate more seriously and constantly. Chronic procrastination can lead to stress, anxiety, guilt, and loosing the feeling of personal productivity. This sounds all too familiar to me. Once the school year starts, I must keep myself on my toes or else I will continue to procrastinate until the last minute. I'm great at giving pep-talks, just not to myself. I can't take myself seriously, when I am sitting in an empty lounge at 2 a.m., telling myself i can do this, it's just a paper. No, not really, Crystal; it's your entire semester in 18 pages and you have to hand it in in eight hours.
By the way, the movie is over. Strange, but oddly enough, I thought it was a good movie. Moving on to "Tosh.0." I've also gotten a snack and something to drink so I could procrastinate. I hope this did the trick, fellow procrastinators! I'm off to put off something else! Please, make smarter decisions and try to beat procrastination at its own game. Goodnight!
