I am truly an expert in the art of procrastination. This is a gamble I’m willing to take. Sometimes I don’t win, letting my grades and mental health slip, but it works out most of the time, so I keep procrastinating. Something is exciting about doing work at the last minute—the race against time. You feel your brain firing up with new ideas; the focus transports you to a different world. And the best part is the relief you feel when you turn it in. Honestly, some of my best essays have been written last minute.
I’ve come up with this lie that says I work best when I’m anxious; anxiety is my version of alcohol. “Write drunk, edit sober,” Hemingway is known for saying, but in reality, he actually wrote hungover, but I digress. I know it’s an issue. There are many days I wonder why my brain works like this. Why do I decide to scroll on my phone instead of doing that one assignment? I’ll manage to do everything but that one assignment—cook, clean, read—everything but that one assignment.
Before I know it, another assignment piles up, but I’m distracted by that new rom-com on Netflix, or my friends have invited me to hang out. I’ve done everything, but those two assignments, and then three and four.
Then I remember I’m actually a student and all the work is due in the morning. My stomach aches and my brain is fried, I’m stressed, but I manage to do all the work. It’s this never-ending cycle.
I knew once I got to college things would start piling up and time management would have to be a skill. So I’ve taken steps to make sure I stop procrastinating. I recently bought a new planner, but like all other bad habits, it takes time to break. It’s my goal to learn how to be calm when I do my assignment, how to be wise with time and how to succeed as a student and a worker.
