This week, I thought I'd finally take the time to share an article that I've been putting off writing for a while: ways that you might be a procrastinator. A lot of you out there may be procrastinators, in which case you'll be able to relate to these (*cough* my) experiences. Those of you non-procrastinators who get everything done ahead of time and have great time management skills probably won't understand any of this. You probably won't even read/finish reading this article because you're too busy being productive.
As for the rest you who decided to take the time to read this, I could keep going on and bore you with the introduction, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I've decided to get straight to the good stuff and not enable those of you who are procrastinating by reading this article. So without any further procrastination on my part, here are some ways you might be a procrastinator if...
You're always in a hurry.
Usually because you're running late.
And you've exhausted every excuse in the book to explain why you're always late
Or why you keep putting things off.
You claim you need to wait until you're in the right "mindset" to do something.
You spend way more time on social media than doing your work
Because it's just so fun and addicting.
You'll feel the sudden urge to clean and organize everything you own.
You just clearly don't have your priorities straightened out.
You're always working against the clock to get things done because of this bad habit.
Gotta submit this essay by 11:59!
And then when you finally turn that work in a few minutes early...
Yes, 11:57!
This is all a weekly occurrence for you, too.
You know how it goes: your professor assigns a big paper and tells you to get started on it right away.
Then down the road that professor asks if anyone has any questions about the assignment, which you don't because you haven't even started yet.
And this is not a one time thing. You'll have so much to do that this will happen to you on more than one occasion.
Because you're just so overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do.
You never know where to start and you're always distracted.
So you make a to-do list to manage the mountain of things you need to do,
Where you usually accomplish...
You're so busy you have to turn down any invitation to go out because your work is due early the next morning.
You plan an all-nighter to get everything done that ends up like this.
So you make plans to wake up early and finish that usually end up like this.
You assure yourself that you still have time...
And that there's always tomorrow...
Or that binge-watching that show on Netflix all day yesterday wasn't a waste of time.
You try to come up with at least one thing you did that you can be proud of.
But you'll eventually just have to be honest with yourself.
You promise yourself you'll do better next time...
But then you fall right back into the same old habits.
When you do finally accomplish one of the things on your to-do list, you decide you’ve earned a break.
After all, you gotta eat sometime.
After your belly's full, you decide you're ready to start again.
But you just end up doing more of nothing.
And when someone tells that you need to get your act together and stop procrastinating, you respond...
(Just like the person who made this gif didn't feel like spell checking)
I could go on forever about all the ways you may be a procrastinator, but I just don't have that kind of time. Because if you can't already tell from this post, I too suffer from chronic procrastination. So if you find at all that you can relate to any of these experiences, know that you are not alone.
Procrastinators unite!
...tomorrow.