Procrastination and Me: A Love Story

It is ironic. The advice I give my son about completing his homework every week is the same advice I give to myself. “Don’t wait until the night before it is due!” Even as I sit here writing this he sits behind me, doing homework that is due tomorrow—homework that was assigned a week ago.

It really makes me giggle to think about how many times I tell him, “spread out your homework.” If you do a little each day, then it really isn’t so bad. Yet here I am, writing this blog a day before it is due, knowing that I’ve had the entire month to work on it. My excuses range from “I’ll do it tomorrow” to “I really don’t know what to write about” or “Gosh, I am a really crappy writer.” All of these can be applied to homework, whether you are 7 or 27.

Procrastination affects all of us. With your donation of $5 a month, we can end procrastination everywhere! (Just kidding – would be nice though, huh?)

I wish it was that easy! We all keep telling ourselves, “this week will be different; this week I’m going to work at a steady pace,” and yet somehow we all find ourselves scrambling to get assignments done.

I have come to a conclusion: I am a procrastinator. “Hello, my name is Jennifer, and I have been a procrastinator for 10 years,” and, honestly, it works for me. I work my best magic when the time is down to the wire. When I know I have two hours to finish them, my essays are amazingly written and my presentations are spectacular. If I try to spread out an essay or presentation, giving myself a pace of two pages or slides a day, it turns out awful and I end up redoing the assignment in the last two hours anyway.

But, in all honesty, procrastination is not for everyone- just like some take sugar in their coffee and others cringe at the idea. There are those of us who are more organized and timely in completing assignments, and I like to think I am one of them. My poor husband has to listen to my frustrating rants about how I waited, how I’ll never get my assignment done, or how awful my work is, and eventually all he hears is “Blah blah blah,” week after week. For those caught in between a life of overwhelmingness and anxiety; fear not. We have each other to count on. We can be timely together or we can procrastinate together. However we choose to complete our assignments, I think we can all agree that in the end, we aim to be balanced and successful.

Fellow students, stand with me! You are not alone! We succeed regardless of what our parents, friends, or colleagues tell us—regardless of how and when we choose to get our work done. We do what works for us—even if it is unconventional.

Let’s just take a moment to apologize in advance to all of our spouses, children, parents, friends, colleagues and anyone else in our lives who we drive crazy with our procrastination. We are sorry, and we love you! 🙂